On gentlemen and not-so-gentle men

So as you may or may not have noticed (depending of course on whether or not you live under a rock), Psy released a new single destined to plague us on the dance floor for some time to come.



Who am I trying to kid? It's catchy as hell and I've had it on my mind non-stop since I heard it yesterday. As with Gagnam Style, it's more of a joke song with veiled social commentary, here about women who don't live out and are always poised and boring, and how Psy's idea of the perfect girl is someone playful who can join him in being silly. Sure, we can all relate to that (right?), and I for one have sat there giggling at his silly 'sexy' dance. That being said, I'm a little disappointed that his female counterpart Ga-in (ironically) wasn't allowed to not be kinda poised and boring. While Psy silly-dances, she grinds that pelvis with fervor. It's not a joke when she does it (nor any of the female background dancers for that matter), it's serious and still meant to be sexy.
On top of all that, Psy's almost a bit abusive with his playful antics, making girls get hurt (by speeding up the treadmill and pulling out the chair from under that girl), and I understand he's been getting a bit of backlash about it. While the song itself and the title is ironic, the whole thing borders on being a little too much. Then again, knowing me, and Psy being Psy, I'll still watch it, listen to it, dance to it and generally enjoy it, so what I guess I'm saying is that it could've been worse, but it doesn't stop me from wishing it was better.

Also, is it weird that I find Psy strangely attractive? For being a pudgy middle-aged dude with a completely round face I find him kinda alluring. Pony agreed with me, which just goes to show how far charisma, humour and self-confidence will get you with girls. Guys, take note. I like the way he dresses too. When I showed the video to Pony she started off by exclaiming "Wow, he really likes drop-crotch pants!", which of course we do too, and they look cool on him, so yay Asian fashion.

Speaking of gentlemen, the hip-swaying dance comes from another famous k-pop group, Brown Eyed Girls (which, coincidentally, Ga-in is a member of), and their song Abracadabra.



This video is nothing if not extremely sexist. I mean, yeah, female k-pop stars are meant to be sexy, but this is a perfect example of objectification and blatant sexualization. Starting with the almost pornographically explicit scene where this man with a whip has sex with a girl in a forceful and kinda violent way (which in and of itself isn't a problem, but the girl doesn't seem to be enjoying it much as she looks close to completely passive and the whole thing just made me think of abuse), and then moving on to the group dancing while getting undressed. The doggy-style butt lift was probably the final straw for me. I mean, seriously? There's a difference between aiming to sell music with sex appeal and selling your stars by turning them into sexual objects.

I

mean

please!

The hinted lesbian relationship at the end also just seems to be there for some male viewing pleasure, seeing as homosexuality is seriously frowned upon in South Korea. Here it's seriously sexualized, and they're fulfilling the tired cliche of man-hating (and killing) hot chicks ready for girl-on-girl action, with a side order of eroticized violence.

Yup, never seen anything like this before.

My tolerance for this kinda stuff is pretty high, generally, but this video just left me feeling a little dirty inside. I have no idea how it even got past the pretty strict Korean censure laws either (seeing as it's mostly illegal to reference to sex in songs). Same thing goes for Psy now that I think of it - "Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you wet..." I mean, Christ, that's enough for anybody to get hot and bothered.