Kpop And Sexualization Of Minors??

Diesa

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Mar 14, 2017
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Hey everyone,
I have been watching a lot of Korean reality shows recently and came to find one called 'Produce 101' where 100 girls are competing for forming a girl band/group thing. As some of you might know there is a different culture in Korea where they pick boys and girls as young as 9-10 years old via auditions and train them to become idol pop singers. So in this particular show there were 11 winners which they formed a band with and their first video was this;
This one looks like a cute video with cute girls but this second one looked pretty inapropriate to me considering one of them was 15 or 16 at the time they shot the music video

What do you think?
 
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I always have mixed feelings about the sexualization of adolescents.

On one hand, there is something unsettling about it. There's a power dynamic between young people and older ones that usually puts former in an inherently submissive position. This is especially true in the entertainment industry, where you have young girls who are being groomed by older men...

On the other, teenagers aren't children and have been having sex since they could find ways to sneak away from their parents and historically girls like that would often be married off to older men since they are, at least on a biological level, grown women. This sort of thing is also primarily marketed towards teenagers, too.

At the end of the day, however, I lean towards the first view. What always unsettles me about pop music in general is you have young people with talent exploited by older, rich people are are often worse off when all is said and done, on both a psychological and artistic level. This is especially true in the Asian music industry when image is something that's strictly controlled. Both kpop and jpop tend to have strict "no dating rules" for their artists and getting caught breaking it can ruin your career.
 

Mr.Grieves

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As some of you might know there is a different culture in Korea where they pick boys and girls as young as 9-10 years old via auditions and train them to become idol pop singers.
That's no different from the entertainment industry here in the west. Pop-stars are often groomed form childhood for their future roles; Disney and affiliates have worked out an exceedingly effective way to go about this using children's programming such as can be found on 'The Family Channel'. They cast a series of kids whom they deem to have potential in their lower-tier programming, allow their viewership to decide who's the most attractive/appealing, and then build these kids up into future sexpot pop-stars. Ariana Grand and Selena Gomez are recent examples, but they've been doing this for years, with both Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake featured in disney programs as minors. You can also bet that Ariana Grand and Selena Gomez were being sexualized in these lower-tier programs long before they were adults.

It's creepy, and not at all healthy for our young people who happily soak this stuff up. Beyond making a forceful effort to train kids to view themselves as sexual creatures long before that should be a consideration, encouraging girls to 'look good for boys' and boys to 'act cool for girls' at an age where they should just be playing in mud-puddles together, it's also actively promoting bad behavior in general with increasingly forceful messaging; encouraging narcissism, dismissal of authority (ESPECIALLY parental authority), bullying/abuse and destructive behavior, particularly self-destructive.

The 'bad guys are actually good guys' trend of modern kid-oriented media espouses this a lot, from seemingly innocent and lighthearted projects like 'Despicable Me' and its beloved 'minions' to the somewhat more in-your-face 'Maleficent', to the creepily blatant crap like this 'Yay Evil!' music video from one of Disney's latest creeptastic productions:
 

Diesa

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That's no different from the entertainment industry here in the west. Pop-stars are often groomed form childhood for their future roles; Disney and affiliates have worked out an exceedingly effective way to go about this using children's programming such as can be found on 'The Family Channel'. They cast a series of kids whom they deem to have potential in their lower-tier programming, allow their viewership to decide who's the most attractive/appealing, and then build these kids up into future sexpot pop-stars. Ariana Grand and Selena Gomez are recent examples, but they've been doing this for years, with both Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake featured in disney programs as minors. You can also bet that Ariana Grand and Selena Gomez were being sexualized in these lower-tier programs long before they were adults.
Since i don't live in the U.S thankfully my generation didn't see any of the shows in disney channel i only know Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus and others were in disney shows via internet so thanks for reminding friend i will look into that as well

You are right plus i didn't know now a movie like this exists. The ideas they promote is really clear for those who think. I ll look it up as well thanks a lot for sharing!
 

Aero

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Wouldn't be an issue to me at all if they weren't treating the artists like crap. You know, it's one thing to say this is just "business". We are just following the money, making kids seem like sex party animals. But that is definitely not what they are doing. It's all a system of control and one we should be running as far away from as possible. As a whole culture I mean.
 

williejonesjr

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Mar 15, 2017
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I always have mixed feelings about the sexualization of adolescents.

On one hand, there is something unsettling about it. There's a power dynamic between young people and older ones that usually puts former in an inherently submissive position. This is especially true in the entertainment industry, where you have young girls who are being groomed by older men...

On the other, teenagers aren't children and have been having sex since they could find ways to sneak away from their parents and historically girls like that would often be married off to older men since they are, at least on a biological level, grown women. This sort of thing is also primarily marketed towards teenagers, too.

At the end of the day, however, I lean towards the first view. What always unsettles me about pop music in general is you have young people with talent exploited by older, rich people are are often worse off when all is said and done, on both a psychological and level. This is especially true in the Asian music industry when image is something that's strictly controlled. Both kpop and jpop tend to have strict "no dating rules" for their artists and getting caught breaking it can ruin your career.
... Which is the opposite here. They link all the stars together, even as teens. Dating or having a mate gives off a sense of being wanted and doubles the value of the commodity. Take Britney & Justin, for example. A pairing like that opens up the possibility of tours, duets, tons of paparazzi opportunities and tabloid stories. $$$$.
 

JayGirl10

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The Korean entertainment industry is just as corrupt as the Western industry, at least they're more open about it. Every "idol" that you're supposed to bow down to was created to make money, just like idols made for religious purposes, hence why there are scriptures like Isaiah 44:9-20, 1 John 5:21. K-pop fans just bug me, because I want to say that the people they're obsessing over as amazing are more or less manufactured and created by executives as attractive semi-talented slaves to make companies money with forgettable, superficial, music, MVs, groups, etc. And of course, the younger, the better. There are no idols over 40. Their fame is extremely fleeting. The thing is, these people even had to sue some of these companies for overworking them and abusing them. Why would you support an industry as fake and corrupt as this?
 

williejonesjr

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The Korean entertainment industry is just as corrupt as the Western industry, at least they're more open about it. Every "idol" that you're supposed to bow down to was created to make money, just like idols made for religious purposes, hence why there are scriptures like Isaiah 44:9-20, 1 John 5:21. K-pop fans just bug me, because I want to say that the people they're obsessing over as amazing are more or less manufactured and created by executives as attractive semi-talented slaves to make companies money with forgettable, superficial, music, MVs, groups, etc. And of course, the younger, the better. There are no idols over 40. Their fame is extremely fleeting. The thing is, these people even had to sue some of these companies for overworking them and abusing them. Why would you support an industry as fake and corrupt as this?
This happened here with Lou Perelman & Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, & all the numerous of iterations that followed. All overworked, under paid, fleeting & sexually exploited.
 

JayGirl10

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This happened here with Lou Perelman & Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, & all the numerous of iterations that followed. All overworked, under paid, fleeting & sexually exploited.
That's true. Now though, here in the west, girl bands and boy bands aren't as popular as they once were, and the abuse is kept under wraps.
 

lamb

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Aug 11, 2017
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i saw some occult symbolism in ioi.

0:13 x
0:20 666 sign
0:31 eye symbolism
0:38 666 over eye. c'mon.
1:22 666 again

yea that produce 101 comment is gross and got a ton of backlash. there's a new show called idol school and it's essentially the same thing only creepier. there's a 12 year old girl on that show and it's made by the same produce 101 guy who said that comment. ent industry is messed up, kpop esp. korean industry is the worst offender for treating their trainees inhumanely imo
 
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