Korean Sociological Image #52: Are Celebrities Removing the Stigma of Lingerie Modelling?
After writing about double-standards in the objectification of men’s and women’s bodies in the Korean media last month, this month I was looking forward to wrapping that up. Finally, I thought, I’d be able to remove the prominent “Abs vs. Breasts” folder on my Firefox toolbar.
Alas, I’ve decided some more context is needed first. Which by coincidence, also allows me to get rid of the even more embarrassing “Lingerie” folder in the process.
But while the topic sounds facetious perhaps, having overwhelmingly Caucasian models in lingerie advertisements has definite effects on how Koreans perceive both Caucasians’ and their own bodies and sexuality. If you consider what Michael Hurt wrote in his blog Scribblings of the Metropolitician back in 2005 for instance:
…One thing that I also notice is that in underwear and other commercials that require people to be scantily-clad, only white people seem to be plastered up on walls in the near-buff. Now, it may be the sense that Korean folks – especially women – would be considered too reserved and above that sort of thing (what I call the “cult of Confucian domesticity”). Maybe that’s linked to the stereotyped expectation that white people always be running around all nasty and hanging out already, as is their “way.” Another possibility has to do with the reaction I hear from Korean people when I mention this, which is that white people just “look better” with less clothes, since Koreans have “short leg” syndrome and gams that look like “radishes.” The men are more “manly” and just look more “natural” with their shirts off…
Then I’m sure you’ll appreciate that while that artificial dichotomy between “naturally” nude, more sexual Caucasians (and by extension, all Westerners) and more modest, virginal, pure Koreans is neither new, solely confined to Korea, nor wholly a construct of the Korean media, at the very least this odd feature of Korean lingerie advertisements certainly helps sustain it. And that dichotomy has largely negative effects on all Westerners here, especially women.
( Caucasian models used for the
Already having discussed the evidence for and consequences of the sexualization of Caucasian women in great depth last September however, then let me just quickly summarize relevant points from it here:
• Empirical studies have shown that Korean women’s magazines have a disproportionate numbers of Caucasian female models in them, with some even have more Caucasian models than Korean ones overall. Unfortunately though, none of those studies made any distinction between lingerie and non-lingerie advertisements.
• Before laws banning foreign models were lifted in 1994, many Korean female porn stars were also lingerie models, which discouraged female models from lingerie modeling. This fact only really became public in June 2008 however, which explains why those earlier studies didn’t take it into account (or Michael Hurt back in 2005).
• Of course, there have always been exceptions, with the Yes’ company especially having no qualms about using Korean models. But for other companies, they are usually anonymous, with either their heads not being visible or them literally covering themselves up by whatever means available. See the examples below from Korean lingerie company StoryIS’s website for instance, or #3 here, where the Korean female models look simply absurd hiding under large hats and sunglasses.
Update: I forgot to mention lingerie infomercials, on which it’s common to see Caucasian models wearing the lingerie alongside fully-clothed Korean models carrying the lingerie on coathangers.
• Moreover, when female celebrities are used, they are invariably fully-clothed. And so much so in fact, that it’s no exaggeration to say that they may not have been actually wearing the advertised lingerie at all considering that you couldn’t actually see it.
( Sources: left, right )
But that was over a year ago. At the end of that post though, I did note a (then) recent advertisement by Shin Min-a that you could see it in, and simply had no idea that it was just the beginning of a veritable flood of celebrity lingerie photoshoots thereafter. Finally noticing by the following summer though, by its end I had: Ivy (in the opening image); Shin Min-a (again); Park Han-byul; Seo-woo; Girls’ Day; Gong Hyo-jin; Song Ji-hyo; LPG; Min Hyo-rin; Lee Si-yeong; Shin Se-Kyeong; and Yoon Eun-hye in that infamous “Lingerie” folder.
Then I discovered a Korean blog on lingerie while researching this post, and from just one post there I learned that I had to add at least Baek Ji-young, Lee Hyori, Seo In-young, Hyuna, Hyo-min, and Yu-jin to that list also…by which point I frankly gave up keeping track. And belatedly realized that, of course, Korean celebrities have actually been modeling lingerie for far longer than just the past year (I’d completely forgotten about this example for instance).
But still, I think it’s no coincidence that I would notice so many photoshoots in such a short space of time. And for that reason, would argue that the most recent ones at least should definitely be seen in the wider context of Korean entertainment companies’ ever-increasing need for the greater exposure (no pun intended) and differentiation of their celebrities in order to maximize profits. Recall what I wrote of the ensuing objectification of male singers for instance:
…whereas it’s mostly young girl-groups that have sprung up in the past year or so (see here for a handy chart), likewise Korean male singers have to adapt to the Korean music industry’s overwhelming reliance on musicians’ product endorsements, appearances on variety shows, and casting in dramas to make profits (as opposed to actually selling music). This encourages their agencies to make them stand out and differentiate themselves from each other by coming up ever more sexual lyrics and/or performances and music videos: namely, more abs from the guys, let alone feigned fellatio, feigned sex on beds, or even virtual rapes of audience members on stage during performances.
Regardless of the motives however, on the positive side surely these photoshoots can not but help to remove the stigma associated with the industry in Korea? And, once that’s been achieved, then that will in turn begin to (at least slightly) challenge that hypersexual Caucasians vs. chaste Koreans dichotomy as mentioned earlier.
( Source )
But in reality, perhaps things will not be quite as quick or as simple as that. For while I merely bookmarked those photoshoots as they came up in K-pop blogs, in hindsight I should also have been making the following distinctions between them:
- Advertisements for lingerie companies in which just the lingerie is worn
- Advertisements for lingerie companies in which the lingerie is hidden partially or completely under clothing
- Photoshoots for men’s or women’s magazines like Maxim and Cosmopoltian
- Korean Gravia photoshoots
And from what I can tell now, most of the them seem to be #3, with Ivy’s opening newspaper cover probably being the most prominent exception (and what prompted this post). Hoping to find an authoritative Korean perspective on all that as I begin working on this post then, probably by no coincidence – I guess wasn’t the only person to notice this trend – Yahoo! Korea linked to what appeared to be precisely that the next day, and so I happily translated it that same night.
In the light of the next day though, I was simply stunned at its terrible quality, and after trying to edit it to some level of coherence but abjectly failing, gave up on the post in disgust; regularly complaining about Korean portal sites, then I should have known better really. But 3 weeks later, I realize that it would be a pity to waste all that time spent translating, and that at the very least fans of Hwang Jung-eum (황정음) and High Kick Through the Roof (지붕킥) may still like it. And who knows? You may be able to gain some insights from it that I missed.
But if not, then let me end this post here by apologizing in advance if I have possibly conflated Caucasians with Westerners too often and too readily in this post, but which is frankly difficult to avoid in a post focused on the former, but raising issues that still have large effects on the latter. And to better understand that, at the suggestion of a reader I now have Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to LA by Nadia Kim (2008) sitting on my desk, which will be my reading for my flight to Boston next week!^^
황정음 속옷화보, 득보다 실이 많은 노출
Hwang Jung-eum Loses More than She Gains by Showing Her Body
황정음이 속옷 화보를 찍었네요. 그동안 깜찍하고 귀여운 얼굴만 보다가 섹시하고 볼륨감 있는 그녀의 노출 사진을 보고 조금 놀랐어요. 노출 정도가 생각보다 파격적이고 아찔하기 때문이에요. 황정음은 이번 노출이 처음이라고 하는데요. 처음치고는 너무 도발적이고 과감한 노출이에요. 그만큼 몸매에 자신 있었기 때문이겠죠. 요즘 속옷 화보는 신세경, 한예슬도 찍었고 TV광고에도 나오고 있는데, 노출이 심한 편이 아니죠. 몸매 노출보다 속옷에 더 비중을 뒀기 때문이에요.
Wow, Hwang Jung-eum has done a lingerie photoshoot. So far, we’ve only ever really seen her small, cute face, so I was a little surprised by her sexy, curvaceous body in these photos. Because she showed so much more than I thought, I’m really a little light-headed too. This is the first time she’s showed so much of her body like this, and it’s much more provocative than I would have expected for her first time; I guess she was confident about her body. These days, Shin Se-kyeong and Han Ye-seul have appeared in lingerie photoshoots and television advertisements, and [yet] in those the amount of exposure tends not to be so serious. In those, the focus is more on the lingerie than their bodies.
속옷 광고 화보는 잘 나가는 여자 톱스타들만 찍는다고 하죠? 고소영, 송혜교, 김남주, 김태희 등 당대 톱스타들도 유명 속옷 광고를 찍었어요. 그런데 이들의 속옷 광고는 S라인만 자랑할 뿐 노출이 거의 없습니다. 말 그대로 속옷을 광고한 화보였고 몸매 자랑을 한 것이 아니었어요. 보통 무명 연예인들이 속옷 광고를 찍을 때는 노출 수위가 높아집니다. 그런데 나중에 유명 배우가 된 뒤 이런 노출 화보로 굴욕을 당하기도 합니다. 모델 시절 속옷만 입고 해맑게 웃고 있는 홍수아의 속옷 화보도 한 때 인터넷에서 화제가 되기도 했어요. 그리고 수애, 오윤아도 데뷔 전 속옷 화보에 출연한 경험이 있고요.
Only women who are already well on the route to becoming top-stars do lingerie advertisement photoshoots, yes? Go So-young, Song Hye-gyo, Kim Nam-joo, Kim Tae-hee, and others [at] that age have all appeared in lingerie advertisements for famous brands. However, in those showing off and exposing their S-lines is almost completely absent. Indeed, there are virtually none that show off the model’s body. Take more common ones featuring unknown models however, and the level of exposure goes up markedly. And if that woman becomes famous later, then this might come back to haunt her. For instance, Hong Soo-ah appeared in one wearing just lingerie and a bright smile, and this become a hot internet topic later. And Soo-ae and Oh Yoon-ah also have the experience of modeling lingerie before becoming famous.
그런데 일부 스타의 경우 지나친 노출 속옷을 찍어 구설수에 오르기도 했죠. 가수 아이비도 얼마 전 속옷 화보를 찍었는데, 노출이 너무 파격적이라 네티즌들의 입방아에 오르내리기도 했어요. 속옷 모델이라 어느 정도의 노출은 당연하지만 플레이보이 잡지를 연상케 하는 놰쇄적인 느낌이 너무 강했기 때문이죠. 속옷보다 아이비의 몸매가 더 시선을 끌었으니 주객이 전도된 경우라 할 수 있어요.
( Source )
In some stars’ cases, showing far too much in lingerie photoshoots gave rise to them being the subjects of malicious gossip and rumors. For instance, a little while ago Ivy [above] was in one. Because she showed so much of her body, a lot of netizens were gossiping about her. And while of course lingerie models have to show at least little of their bodies, in her case it was so much that it reminded you of Playboy magazine. Even though the photoshoot was supposedly for showing off the underwear, it seemed to be showing off Ivy’s body far far more.
그렇다면 황정음의 경우는 어떨까요? 황정음의 속옷화보도 아이비에 버금갈 정도에요. 한번도 노출을 하지 않다가 왜 이렇게 파격적인 노출을 했는지 모르겠네요. 가슴이 훤히 드러난 사진을 보면 깜찍함은 온데 간데 없고 섹시함이 풍기는데 그리 귀티나는 이미지는 아니에요. 섹시미가 보이긴 보이는데, 인위적인 느낌이 든다고 할까요? 그리고 가슴이 드러난 사진은 뽀샵 흔적이 너무 강하네요.
If so, what to make of the case of Hwang Jung-eum? It’s very similar to Ivy’s. She’s never done anything like this before, so I don’t know why she suddenly appeared in such a revealing photoshoot. Her breasts are very exposed, she’s lost her cuteness, and while she gives off some sexiness she’s not very elegant-looking. Moreover, don’t you feel her sexiness is a little artificial? And there are signs that her breasts have been heavily photoshopped too.
요즘 ‘자이언트’ 촬영하면서 체중이 6kg 늘었다고 하는데, 다리를 보니 ‘말라깽이’ 그 자체네요. 보정작업 흔적이 역력한데 소속사는 촬영 후 보정을 하지 않았다고 합니다. 눈에 빤히 보이는 거짓말이죠. 황정음만 하는 것이 아니라 모든 모델이 뽀샵을 하는데, 왜 굳이 하지 않았다고 하는지 모르겠네요.
These days, while shooting for the drama Giant she gained 6kg, but her legs remain extremely thin. There are obvious signs that this was compensated for in the photos then, but her agency says this didn’t happen. But you can tell this is a lie. And it’s not like Hwang Jung-eum is the only model that gets photoshopped, so I have no idea why her agency would so adamantly deny it.
황정음 속옷 화보는 신세경과 비교해 보면 알 수 있어요. 신세경의 속옷 화보는 드레스에 속옷이 보일듯 말듯한 신비주의 컨셉으로 찍었어요. 이는 신세경의 청순미와 신비주의 컨셉이 딱 맞아 떨어진 절묘한 사진에요. 사실 이런 화보가 여배우에게 좋은 이미지를 남길 수 있어요. 물론 노출이 무조건 나쁘다는 것은 아니지만 황정음의 노출 화보는 그동안 쌓아놓은 깜찍 이미지를 한꺼번에 날릴 수 있는 위험한 화보에요. 지금 황정음은 나름 톱스타기 때문에 굳이 노출 화보를 찍을 이유가 없어요.
If we compare Hwang Jung-eum’s photoshoot with Shin Se-kyeong’s then I think we can learn the reason. The concept of Shin Se-kyeung’s photoshoot is a mysterious and subtle one that has the lingerie under the dress, leaving us always guessing as to whether we can see it or not. This mysterious and innocent-beauty concept is well suited to her image, and in fact it does no harm to any female actor. In contrast, while of course showing off one’s body is not bad per se, Hwang Jung-eum has long cultivated a very cute image and there is a danger that she’s ruined it all at once with this photoshoot. And seeing as she’s sort of a top star already now, then I don’t know the reason why she did it.
황정음은 ‘지붕킥’ 이후 돈과 인기를 한번에 거머쥔 스타인데, 화보촬영으로 돈을 더 벌려한 것은 아니라고 봅니다. 그렇다면 배우로서 깜찍, 엉뚱 이미지를 벗기위한 노출이라고 볼 수 있는데요. 한 번에 너무 파격적인 노출을 하다보니 그녀의 속옷 화보를 보고 당황스러운 사람이 많을 겁니다. 같은 속옷 화보를 찍어도 배우에 따라 그 느낌이 다른데, 황정음은 신세경, 한예슬과는 달리 ‘싼티’가 좀 풍기네요. 소속사는 다양한 모습의 황정음이 있다고 봐달라며 절대 이미지 변신을 위한 파격적인 시도는 아니라고 강조했는데요. 사진은 아찔한데 어떻게 그냥 일반적인 화보로 봐달라는 건지 모르겠네요.
( Source )
Hwang Jung-eum suddenly gained a lot of money and popularity through appearing in High Kick Through the Roof, so she didn’t do this photoshoot for the sake of money. Perhaps then, it was in order to lose her cute image gained through acting, even though many people will be confused by it because it is so revealing? But different actresses can do the same kind of lingerie photoshoots [James: this contradicts all the above, as they are quite different] and give off quite different impressions, and unlike Shin Se-kyeung or Han Yae-sul, Hwang Jung-eum comes across as very cheap. However, her agency stress that this photoshoot was absolutely not done to change her image, just to show a different side of her. Yet how can anyone claim it is just your average, run-of-the-mill lingerie photoshoot?
‘ 자이언트’에서 황정음은 가수 이미주로 출연하고 있는데, 주상욱과의 키스신으로 얼마전 남친 김용준이 키스장면을 보며 담배를 물고 있는 사진이 화제가 되기도 했지요. 이번 속옷 화보 촬영에 김용준은 쿨하게 응원을 해주었다고 하는데, 황정음의 노출사진이 수많은 남자들에게 공개되는데 쿨한 반응을 보였다니 의외네요. 주상욱과의 키스신보다 속옷 화보가 낫다고 본 건가요?
In Giant, Hwang Jung-eum plays the singer Lee Mee-ju, and in reaction to one scene in which she kisses her partner (actor Ju Sang-wook) her real-life boyfriend (singer Kim Young-jun) posted a spoof picture of himself biting a cigarette in anger at seeing it on the internet. And in reaction to her photoshoot, he was very cool about it, which was surprising: who would be so cool about having his girlfriend exposed to so many other men? Did he really think that that was better than the kiss scene?
여자 연예인들에게 화보촬영은 자신의 가치를 드러낼 수 있는 아주 좋은 기회죠. 해마다 여름만 되면 너도 나도 비키니 몸매를 자랑하는 것도 자신의 상품성을 과시(?)하는 것이라고 볼 수 있어요. 황정음도 자신의 상품적 가치를 더 높이기 위해 이번 속옷 화보를 찍었을 겁니다. 그러나 이번 속옷화보 촬영은 황정음에겐 득보다 실이 많을 것 같네요. ‘지붕킥’으로 대박스타가 된 그녀는 정극 ‘자이언트’에서 연기력 논란을 빚기도 했는데, 배우로서 연기로 승부하는 것보다 노출로 승부한다는 느낌을 줄 수 있기 때문이에요. 그런데 그 노출이 인위적인 뽀샵으로 귀티보다 ‘싼티’가 나는게 더 문제가 아닐까요?
Photoshoots are a good opportunity for female entertainers to demonstrate their worth. Just like every summer we can see women showing off their bodies in bikinis, which also is like demonstrating their product value [James: that's literally what it says]. But Hwang Jung-eum did the photoshoot to increase her worth. However, through doing so she actually lost more than she gained, because while she became a big star through High Kick Through the Roof, now she is appearing in the much more conventional drama Giant, in which her acting abilities have been questioned. In light of this, then at the very least the photoshoot seems very badly-timed, and surely not appearing elegant but instead literally overexposed and heavily photoshopped is in fact much more of a problem for her than a benefit?
‘지붕킥’에서 깜찍한 춤과 애교 연기로 하루 아침에 벼락스타가 된 것에 대해 황정음을 곱지 않은 시선으로 보는 사람들도 많습니다. ‘잘 나갈 때 조신하게 행동해라’는 말과 달리 황정음은 노출화보를 찍는 등 오히려 더 오버하고 있는 듯 합니다. 벤츠를 타면서도 노출 화보를 찍은 황정음을 곱게 보는 사람은 많지 않아요. ‘자이언트’를 통해 정극 연기 도전을 하는 황정음은 오직 연기력으로 배우 수명을 오래가게 할 수 있는 길을 찾아야 합니다. 노출 화보는 황정음에게 독이 될 수 있으니까요.
Through her cute dancing and aegyo in High Kick Through the Roof, Hwang Jung-eum became famous almost literally overnight, which many people seem to resent. Rather than following the old adage to behave well while one is in the spotlight however, rather this photoshoot of hers is just too much, and there are not many people who would have done while already rich enough to drive a Mercedes Benz. With Giant, Hwang Jung-eum was presented with a challenge that she could have used to increase her acting ability and sustain a long acting career. Unfortunately, she seems to have squandered it with this photoshoot. (end)
( Source )
p. s. Not related to Korea, but you may also enjoy the post Lingerie as liberating? from Sociological Images on a woman (in an advertisement) feeling “hot” as a result of wearing lingerie, only then to cover it up with a burqa
(For all posts in the Korean Sociological Images series, see here)
Korean Sociological Image #1: Motherhood for Son Tae-Young
With apologies to the authors of the blog Sociological Images for copying both the name and the idea, but then my own images will be few and far between, and naturally confined to only Korean examples! Besides, if the quality of the images on this blog didn’t already give it away then I’ve aleady been a fan of modern Korean art and photography for quite a while now, and have long lamented that the academic in me rebels against posting images just for the sake of it, no matter how well they might embody, say, a certain Korean zeitgeist or - my personal favorite – provide interesting juxtapositions.
Which may seem a bit rich to describe my first choice of this image (source) of Son Tae-young (손태영) from her appearance at the SBS Broadcasting center in Seoul yesterday, promoting her new drama Two Wives (두아내) that is due to air on May the 4th, but there are indeed *cough* two points to this image which make it – in the words of the about page of SI – “compelling and timely,” albeit both of which I’ve already discussed in depth and so will be simply linking to here.
The first, of course, is the fact that her bra is clearly visible, without which her appearance at the promotion undoubtedly wouldn’t have generated quite the attention in the Korean media and blogosphere that it has (see here, here, and here for the latter). Why that is significant in anything other than a voyeuristic sense is that – as far as I know – she is the first Korean celebrity to dress in that fashion, and, as I explain here, here, and especially here, Western celebrities doing so several years ago heralded big changes in fashions and notions of “appropriate” standards of dress for women here. Perhaps Son Tae-young will prove to be an icon that accelerates those?
She is already probably much more significant an icon as a (recent) mother though, mostly by virtue of numerous photoshoots of her unusually thin body while pregnant and then determination to return it to it’s former glory afterward (see number #11 here for the former and here and#15 here for the latter). Neither of which I bemoan her for as a celebrity in an already appearance-obsessed culture, and nor do I mean to imply that I think that Korean mothers are all mere passive followers of ideals of appearance set by celebrity mothers (let alone just one). Or then again, perhaps I should: as I explain here, many are already so concerned with their appearances that they: diet while pregnant; as a whole have proportionally more caesarean sections than any other group of women; and will quickly bottle-feed after birth in order to diet again, even though as fellow blogger Melissa points out here, breastfeeding is actually the surest means of losing baby-fat. And as she goes on:
What Korea needs is some famous (slim & beautiful) celebrity mom to talk about the glories of nursing/expressing milk and we’d start to see an increase in numbers. ^^
And when Son Tae-young said she was breastfeeding her son, there appeared to be the distinct possibility of that! But by wearing that particular outfit, then clearly she isn’t any more, even though it’s only been four months since the birth, and at least a year is best for the baby. Sigh.
Like I said, that’s showbiz, and I don’t bemoan her for it. Nonetheless, it’s a pity that Korea is still waiting.
(For all posts in the “Korean Sociological Image” series, see here)
(NSFW) Deconstructing Korean Women’s Attitudes to Lingerie, Bikinis and their Bodies in the 2000s
( Sources: Left, Right )
Introduction: Juxtapositions
Photographs of revealing lingerie advertisements seem tailor-made for bloggers and journalists covering social change in East Asia: what better to both immediately grab readers’ attentions and capture the region’s increasingly liberal attitudes to sexuality than through, say, an image of a resentful but resigned-looking retiree pointedly ignoring one?
Which begs the question of why I’ve provided ones which have neither, especially considering the amount of time I spent looking. The reason is that images with that particular combination are surprisingly hard to find, and, although the gesture would be appreciated, I’d strongly advise against readers conducting a Google image search of “retiree + lingerie + advertisement” (or search terms to that effect) by way of assistance. Instead, and by way of compensation, let me precede the post proper by passing on some high-quality images based on the theme of Korean women and juxtapositions for readers to enjoy and possibly find useful for blogging themselves, and I highly recommend clicking the links to go on to view the photographers’ extensive portfolios also (the first of whom, David Smeaton, has his own photography blog). Be warned, the fifth is NSFW:
( Source: david.smeaton )
( Source: Camera Freak )
( Source: unknown )
( Source: Pat Cahalan )
( “Qi BaiShi vs. Marylin Monroe”, by Zhang Wei, Oil on canvas 2006. Source )
( Source: !Jinju )
Lingerie as Vindication
Now, why am I talking about lingerie today? That is, why other than for the purposes of providing a post with both an eye-catching title and visually pleasing enough for readers’ short attention spans on the weekend? Well, the truth is that I literally stumbled upon the subject, via a highly circuitous but ultimately quite informative and, for me, intellectually satisfying route. No, really…let me explain.
For those of you following the state of my research (which I’m very happy to report is probably going to be developed into a thesis next year – more on that once that’s finalized), then you may recall from here and then here that around about now I was planning to begin discussing the system developed by Erving Goffman for analyzing gender roles and stereotypes in advertisements, via my analysis of this paper on advertisements in Korean adolescent girls’ magazines. I have indeed been working on that, but I’ve come across some problems:
First, as the easiest categories of his that I have found to study and discuss – “Relative Size”, “Function Ranking”, and “The Ritualization of Subordination” for those of you already familiar with them – are so blatantly sexist, then they are much rarer than they were in the 1970s when Goffman started writing. That’s a positive development of course, although it doesn’t mean that sexism in advertising hasn’t morphed into other forms as explained, but it does mean that I’d have to use primarily old material to introduce them. Which links to my second problem, that naturally I’d like to focus on modern Korean advertisements. But where to begin looking? As I explain here, Google searches for Western examples of sexist advertisements will produce tens of thousands of images, but no matter what variations of search terms and Korean search engines I use I can often only find less than a few dozen Korean equivalents, and usually inappropriately labeled ones too.
If you can forgive the slight tangent, then this absence surely reflects the fact that the Korean language didn’t even have terms for sexuality and sexism and so forth until comparatively recently, in turn partially because the development of women’s organizations (and civil society in general) that were most likely to draw attention to such issues was stymied during the era of Korea’s military dictatorship (remember qualitative democratization didn’t begin until as late as 1993, when the first civilian president Kim Young-sam (김영삼) was inaugurated), and that those that did exist and women in unions also were strongly encouraged or forced to put off such trifling concerns for the greater good of the democratization movement, with the understanding that they would be addressed once democratization was achieved. They weren’t, but that’s the subject of a later post in this series; in the meantime, I can’t help but conclude from that absence that the academic study of feminism and sexism and so forth in Korea still lags well behind Western countries 15 years later. Given statistics like these, which I discuss here, then I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, although on the plus side it does mean that there’s a definite niche out there for me to fill.
( Source )
Having to find the advertisements myself then has left me three weeks behind with reading my Economist magazines, instead looking out of the window on the bus on the way to and from work and browsing all those women’s magazines I bought earlier. The former at least is a healthy new habit for me (having one’s head constantly stuck in a book is an occupational hazard of mine), and has the added side benefit of me paying more attention to women’s fashions also, about time considering that I first started writing about them properly as long ago as March.
Which leads me to my third problem, that although I’m not yet gutsy enough to casually take pictures of strangers (unlike Michael Hurt), and especially not of young attractive women, I’m still finding I need to get into the habit of taking a camera with me just for the advertisements, let alone those illusive shots with retirees in front of them (maybe I could pay some to pose?). These last few weeks, I’ve been eagerly coming home and getting online searching for the great examples I’ve found on the street, but almost every single time I’ve been disappointed, hours-long searches often continuing less out of a dogged expectation that I’ll actually find them anymore and more out of a sense of bewilderment that in Korea, where virtually everything is online, that I can’t find advertisements I see everywhere on the streets. Was it naive of me to think that I would?
It was in that somewhat desperate frame of mind that I discovered the following brief Korean article/blog entry on lingerie advertisements from two years ago:
벗겨라, 팔리리라! Undress the Models and the Products Will Sell!”
에로틱 광고, 잡지에서 거리로 나왔다…예술과 외설 사이 아슬아슬한 줄타기” 광고 속 에로스 – Borderline indecent advertisements formerly only found in magazines are now on the streets (2006-12-16).
▶근육질의 남성과 섹시한 여성이 반라 차림으로 서로를 그윽하게 바라보는 속옷 광고 (서울 지하철 2호선 삼성역). A muscular, semi-nude man and sexy woman furtively looking at each other in this underwear advertisement (Samseong Station, Seoul Subway Line 2).
브래지어와 팬티 차림의 여성이 거리를 점령했다. 잘록한 허리에 배꼽을 드러내다 못해 엉덩이까지 절반쯤 나온 섹시한 여성의 눈빛이 버스 정류장에서 혹은 지하철 역사에서 남성들의 시선을 붙잡는다. 예술과 외설 사이를 아슬아슬하게 넘나드는 속옷 광고들이다.
Advertisements with women in just their bras and panties are to be found on streets everywhere these days, but presenting narrow, slender waists and navels are no longer enough for advertisers, and so many at bus stops and subways stations now reveal women’s buttocks too, which naturally gain the attention of more men than women. Many are not so much artistic, as bordering on the indecent.
과거 잡지 속에서나 볼 수 있었을 만한 아찔한 속옷 광고들이 당당히 거리로 나왔다. 속옷 광고뿐만이 아니다. 녹차 광고나 심지어 커피숍 광고도 일단 벗고 본다. 에로틱한 분위기의 광고는 제품과 관계없이 일단 사람들의 호기심을 불러 일으키는 법. 이것을 광고 제작자들이 놓칠 리 없다. 그러나 너무 많이 벗은 탓일까? 반라의 남녀가 넘쳐나는 거리를 행인들은 무심히 지나간다.
Such revealing advertisements used to be only found in magazines, but now you can find them on the street. It’s not just lingerie advertisements which have such revealing images either: even tea drink companies and coffee shops use them also, trying to attract the curiosity of passers-by with sexual images that have no actual relation to the products being sold. Other advertisers can’t help but notice this trend and be sucked in by it, but don’t you think it’s too much? Indeed, there are so many images of semi-nude men and women on our streets these days that in fact people may be taking less and not more notice of them.
▶위 : (주)좋은사람들이 지난해 8월 20대 후반 여성을 타깃으로 런칭한 속옷 브랜드 ‘섹시쿠키(Sexy Cookie)’의 지면 광고. 아래 : 국내 속옷시장에 패션 바람을 몰고 온 이랜드 계열의 속옷 브랜드 ‘에블린’의 광고판 (서울 지하철 2호선 삼성역). Left: An advertisement for a new kind of lingerie from “Eblin”, set to be quite a trend in the national lingerie fashion market. Right: An advertisement from August 2005 launching Korean company “Good People”‘s new lingerie brand “Sexy Cookie”, targeted at women in their late twenties (both advertisements from Samseong Station, Seoul Subway Line 2).
▶좌 : 반라차림의 여인을 전면에 내세운 속옷 광고판 앞을 한 남성이 무심히 지나가고 있다 (서울 지하철 4호선 명동역).
우 : 여성만 벗는 것이 아니다. 남성도 벗는다. 근육질의 남성 모델을 내세운 ‘코데스콤바인’의 지면 광고. Left: A man absentmindedly walks by a lingerie advertisement. Right: A muscular man in a Korean “Codes Combine” underwear advertisement (both advertisements from Myeong-dong Station, Seoul Subway Line 4).
▶좌 : 반라의 여성모델을 내세우는 것은 속옷 광고만이 아니다. 전지현의 S라인을 전면에 내세운 ‘17차’의 광고판.(서울 지하철 2호선 강남역). 우 : 화장품 광고라고 해서 얼굴만 대문짝만 하게 찍는 것은 아니다. 살짝쿵 벗어 주는 센스를 보여준 ‘라네즈’의 거리 광고 (서울 홍대앞). Left: The semi-nude women in this advertisement is not advertising lingerie, but is actually the actress Jun Ji-hyun advertising a tea drink (Gangnam Station, Seoul Subway Line 2). Right: An advertisement for Laneige cosmetics in which the model’s face has been greatly enlarged, but with which we somehow get the impression of her being semi-nude (Hongdae University area, Seoul).
▶좌 : 홍대앞 속옷가게 앞에 걸린 광고판을 뚫어져라 바라보고 있는 두 남자. 우 : 벗는 것만이 에로스는 아니다. 살며시 눈을 감은 여인의 얼굴에서 살포시 읽히는 에로틱함으로 행인을 유혹하는 커피숍 광고 (서울 홍대앞). Left: Two men’s gazes penetrate a lingerie advertisement in the Hongdae University area. Right: This women’s softly closed eyes while reading a book give a slightly erotic and seductive impression to this coffee shop advertisement, persuading passers-by to come inside (Hongdae University area, Seoul).
▶풍만한 여인의 가슴을 그대로 노출한 속옷 브랜드 ‘ Yes’의 거리 광고 (서울 홍대앞). A “Yes” lingerie advertisement exposing a woman’s voluptuous breasts (Hongdae University area, Seoul).
____
I have a confession to make: everything I’ve ever translated on the blog I’ve done just as much for the sake of my Korean study as for making an interesting blog post. Unfortunately, many translations don’t fulfill both goals, which, combined with my wife being too busy to check my translations now trying to hold the blog to increasingly higher standards (no, really), then that has meant a relative dearth of them on the blog since my second daughter was born in recent months. Hence I’d be forced to admit that this one is hardly edifying in itself, and with justification may well have ultimately never have gotten further than the dark recesses of my C drive. But after many hours of searching as explained, then for me personally those elusive visuals were justification enough for posting it.
Still, possibly I was at least subconsciously seeking further justification for posting though: despite appearances, I do at least sometimes consider what my readers make of my post, and the effect of those (still rather small) visuals might not be quite so dramatic if one hadn’t spent hours looking them. But, in all seriousness, and my apologies if this sounds crass also, somehow ever since finishing that translation…well, the subject of breasts seemed to refuse to leave my screen, and ultimately made the article much more significant than it first appeared. Again, please let me explain:
Firstly, and as promised, I was searching for some Korean finalists of the competition at the Busan International Advertising Festival that has just finished. There are only four of them amongst a hundred or so, and actually I didn’t warm to any of them in particular, but naturally I did notice this one entitled “Rain” by the “0.1″ advertising agency:
( Source )
Next, over at DramaBeans I read about the “Love your W” breast cancer fund-raising event in Seoul on October 23rd, and got involved in the comments about the possible origins of the “W” term for a women’s breasts, which I’d never heard of before (but which suddenly explain the name of this well-known chain of cosmetic surgery clinics in Busan), to which the blog owner made this very eloquent contribution:
The “W” originates from the stupid Korean fixation with naming body parts after letters in the English alphabet. It’s a great pet peeve of mine, and I have half a mind to go off on an extended rant about how the stupid Korean media fetish with physical beauty, coupled with their belief in Anglicization-as-legitimization, is responsible for an inane, ridiculous practice.
…And how while this practice is seemingly frivolous on the surface, it actually belies much more pernicious trends in society at large, when you have celebrities vocally espousing their alphabet-lines and therefore actually objectifying themselves as a conglomeration of “perfect” body parts rather than as whole, genuine people. You wanna know why plastic surgery is such a big deal in Korea, why actresses don’t eat, why there’s an obsession with thin? It’s because we’re all just Latin letters waiting to be objectified as a beauty ideal rather than living, breathing people with flesh on our bones and brains in our heads.
For my own similar take on that issue, see here. But then that ridiculous new “W-line” concept reminded me of a certainly unnecessary, if not necessarily ridiculous new “V-line”(!) concept promoted since at least last year by the Korean linergie company Venus (비너스), most recently in these bra commercials with Han Ye-seul (한예슬) that was drawn to my attention by reader Alex commenting on an earlier post:
To which I replied:
…I wouldn’t personally go so far as to say, for instance, that the advertisement presents Han Ye-seul as a attractive woman with an healthy and unashamed sexual appetite, but certainly that and previous advertisements in the series (see here, here and here) do present her much more as an object of a male gaze than Korean lingerie advertisements have in the past. Take this one (*below here*) with Go So-young (고소영) from I think 2003 for instance, which sells the bra on the basis of bra-straps and lines and so on not being visible and therefore unlikely to attract any unwanted attention from men.
And then I got thinking: why the huge change in such a short space of time? Surely it’s at least partially the lingering effects of the more liberal standards of women’s dress spurred by events of 2002, but as I wisely get into the habit of looking at that argument in the eyes of those that will be marking my coming thesis then I’m increasingly wary of attributing every change in Korean women’s fashion to that. So too would increasingly revealing images of women in alcohol advertisements have played a strong but not sufficient role, and now I’m embarrassed to have previously spoken almost as if there was a direct link between those and the phenomenon of Korean women ditching their t-shirts and being confident enough with their bodies to wear mere bikinis at the beach in recent years. But surely the arrival and now ubiquitousness of these increasingly revealing lingerie advertisements is no coincidence?
Truth be told, it was only by going through the above, rather indirect process of discovery that it ever occurred to me that I should be talking of similar, related and most importantly commensurate trends in women’s fashions, none of which can really be directly tied to a specific behavior or style of dress but the cumulative effects of which would be large. Which is what came to make the article so important, albeit only to me personally: while it doesn’t address those two issues I mention above directly, it does confirm that some sea changes in women’s fashions and public notions of their sexuality underlying those have genuinely been occuring.
And I noticed that. However obvious in hindsight, it still feels good to learn that I have genuinely been onto something with all my observations about Korean women, and, not least, can finally erase lingering (and not entirely unjustifiable) doubts that, when all is said and done, all of them weren’t merely motivated by voyeurism on my part! Seriously, the latter is an occupational hazard for any male working on this subject, not helped by the numerous comments of trolls I have to delete everyday.
With that in mind, you can imagine how I felt when I discovered this next article from the JoongAng Daily:
Underwear emerges from the shadows
(September 04, 2007)
Underwear has been an integral part of the fashion industry for so long that saying “underwear is outerwear” now feels trite.
Ever since the 1990s, when Courtney Love sported a rag-doll look, wearing nothing but big red lips and a stark white slip, the boundary separating underwear from outerwear has become very thin. It now seems like the line will vanish altogether.
Looking through a rack of neon-colored swimsuits at the Galleria department store, Kim Ji-eun, 27, revealed her own summer fashion tip. “I’ve been wearing halter-style bikini tops in pretty colors under summer dresses. The little bow on the back [of the swimsuit, made when she ties the loose ends around the neck] makes a great accent and it does double duty as a bra.”
Kim, a fashion-hungry Seoul girl, went on to disclose more underwear secrets as she walked out of the department store. “Do you remember when Winona Ryder wore a bright red bra under a white tank top during an award show and the straps showed?” she said, with a smile. “To tell the truth, I’ve been copying that look all summer.”
Looking around the Apgujeong area recently, it seemed that Kim wasn’t the only one. Han Hye-seong, 25, was wearing a flowy peasant skirt with a loose top, under which her colorful bra straps were strategically placed to be noticed. “Five years ago, these [straps] would have been clear. But now, I hardly ever see clear straps being sold,” she said.
Until recently, Kim and Han did their underwear shopping at Internet sites which stock foreign underwear labels like Victoria’s Secret. “I couldn’t find underwear made by Korean labels which had any pretty patterns, bold colors or high-fashion elements,” said Kim.
It seems as though Korean companies are finally catching up. The triad of underwear brands – Try Brands, BYC and Taechang, have faltered, making room for new names. The triad’s standard white, black and beige selections with a small variety of designs couldn’t withstand the new wave of outer/inner wear. By 2005, Try Brands’ sales had fallen from 220 billion won ($24.2 million) in 2003 to 129 billion won. BYC’s sales also went down significantly, from 182.5 billion won in 2003 to 151 billion won in 2005. Taechang sold their underwear division to E-Land in 2005.
In their place, a new triad have emerged, including E-Land World (with brands like Roem, Who.A.U and Hunt), Yeshin Persons (including brands like Maru, Codes Combine and Noton) and Good People (with Bodyguard and James Dean). Yeshin Persons was in the forefront of this new group with Maru Underwear (a domestic sportswear brand) in 2004. “Maru Underwear features casual lingerie with a bit of a fashion edge and it targets women from 19 to 25,” said Lim Sae-un, a Maru media representative. Following the initial success of this brand, the company made another underwear line – Codes Combine – which also stems from one of their sportswear brands. This line, targeting people in their 20s and 30s, includes underwear with bohemian and vintage-inspired elements like fringes and neutral tones. The two underwear lines alone made the company 45 billion won in 2005.
E-Land World has been following a similar path. Besides Hunt Underwear and The Day Underwear, they launched Body Pop and Petite Lin, the former for teenagers and the latter for kids under 10. Both have been a great success. Good People launched underwear lines which target women in their late teens to 20s, including Sugar Free and Sexy Cookie.
One factor behind the success of these lines is their affordability. Along with the growing popularity of affordable cosmetics lines like Missha and The Face Shop, these underwear lines provide a sense of adventure at prices that do not involve the risk of a big investment. “Customers feel free to take risks and buy colorful items with patterns instead of your basic white or skin-colored underwear because these items are so affordable,” said an E-Land representative.
Along with domestic brands, underwear brands from other countries have also been selling well. Women’s Secret, an underwear brand from Spain, was introduced in late 2005, with its first shop in Apgujeong-dong. “Underwear is no longer hidden beneath clothes and consumers are now more daring and wear colorful, showy underwear. We decided to bring in this brand to meet these needs,” said Kim Hyun-hwa, the brand’s assistant marketing manager. “Customers are smarter as well. They don’t want cheap material or poor tailoring. Underwear nowadays has to be fashionable and practical with a reasonable price tag.”
Choi Young-jip, head of Princess TamTam Korea, an underwear brand based in France, agrees. “Customers not only look for good designs, but also for underwear that is a good fit for their body. So material and cut are very important.”
These factors have led to some adjustments in tailoring. “We have introduced a line of bras and panties just for the Asian market for this fall/winter season,” said Kim Hyeon-hwa at Women’s Secret. “The panties in this line support the hips, with more coverage, as opposed to thongs or Brazilian-style pieces which are popular in Europe.”
Adding to this boom are celebrities who have launched their own underwear lines through home shopping, the Internet or off-line stores.
Actress Park Jeong-su launched Sooanae last year, an underwear line targeting middle-aged women which offers stylish yet form-flattering foundation garments. Next was actress Hwang Shin-hae with Elypry, which was first offered through Hyundai home shopping but branched out to CJ home shopping this year. Actress Hyeon Yeong and actress/singer Um Jeong-hwa both used their sexy image to full advantage by launching underwear lines this year. “Finally, there are now lots of choices [for underwear] in Korea.” said Kim Ji-eun as she flipped her hair and continued to search for the perfect bikini/bras to match her new shoes.
Reporting by Lee Eun-joo
By Cho Jae-eun Staff Writer [jainnie@joongang.co.kr] (my emphases)
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For examples of those celebrities and their new underwear lines, see here and here for starters, although I’m not quite sure how this particular example of Uhm Jung-hwa’s (엄정화) below from the former link advertises her product exactly…
( Source )
Yes, I could indeed have read that article a year ago, but I didn’t, and it wouldn’t have had the same significance without the background of the literally hundreds of hours of research, writing, and online musings that I’ve put into the subject. And if readers may feel a little nonplussed and disappointed with my grand discovery that Korean women, formerly afraid to show the lines of their panties their bra straps, now flaunt them instead, then yes, I know…you just had to be there sorry. But still, “lingerie as my intellectual vindication”, yes? Thanks for bearing me with me, and it’s going to feel good to move on and write an MA thesis on these topics soon!
Update: Shin Min-a continues the trend for Vivian here.
The Politics of Lingerie Modelling in South Korea
( Source: Camera Freak )
KoreaBeat has translated an interesting Korean article about the numbers of foreign models in the Korean lingerie industry, and although I’m not going to discuss it here, after all I’ve written on the advertising industry and women’s body images then I’d be remiss in not directing it to your attention! Reading about the numbers of Brazilian models entering the industry was especially interesting after what I’ve written about Caucasian body ideals, and I’d give it much more attention myself were I not currently half-way through a major post as I type this. Sorry.
I actually originally found it at FeetManSeoul (it’s a crosspost), but then if I was hurriedly scrolling down the page after I saw the accompanying photo then presumably you would be too. Click on the link at KoreaBeat if you’re at work.
Meanwhile, for those of you genuinely interested in the sociology of Korean women’s body images and not just pictures (or rather the lack of them) in their underwear, Brian in Jeollanam-do has some links to interesting articles about Koreans’ opinions on ideal face shapes.
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