At 6 and 4, Alice and Elizabeth aren’t quite strong, confident “independent ladies” yet. But I’m going to try damn hard to make sure they will be, and I’m certain taking to heart some of the messages in Miss A‘s (미쓰에이) I Don’t Need a Man (남자 없이 잘 살아) will help.
Probably, I was much too harsh on the song in my last post. And their obvious enjoyment of the song has reminded me that nobody really has the right to tell any girl or woman what she should and shouldn’t find empowering. Not least, a fat, bald, middle-aged man like myself.
That aside, I think they’re both really good dancers too, even if that is just my parental pride speaking. Let me leave you with the original to compare, which may help explain some of their stranger-looking moves (like the finger on the lip at 3:24, and the bending on the floor at 3:40) to those of you that aren’t Miss A fans yourself (yet):
Enjoy!
The Grand Narrative 
Oh man, THE CUTENESS !!
Also, I am a fan of Miss A and this song in particular. I think I first discovered them when you were working on a translation of “Bad Girl, Good Girl”. So thank you (belatedly)
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You’re welcome. Musically though, this one falls somewhat flat for me (I agree with most of the criticisms in this and this thread at Seoulbeats), and honestly I’d much rather listen to Breathe instead, even if there isn’t really much of a message in it.
Neither though, can hold a torch to Bad Girl, Good Girl in my opinion. Not only do I still listen to it on my iPod regularly, but there’s a real…let’s say enigmatic depth to the lyrics, which still really getting me thinking two years after first translating them.
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It’s definitely fluffier, and Bad Girl, Good Girl is still my favourite (it’s on my youtube playlist that’s all about “powah”). The one thing I kind of enjoyed about it was that it wasn’t the typical “girl power” song with driving beats. My friends and I agree that it also doesn’t have as strong a message as those driving beats, but I still enjoyed the different approach. Of course, some of those driving beat songs are really not as strong a girl power message as they present themselves… and I just butchered the English language a bit there >.<
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Too cute. I think it’s great that you encourage them to dance without reserve. By the time I was in middle school I was too self-conscious to like dancing–love to see kids enjoying being kids.
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Thanks. But I wouldn’t say I really encourage them per se…they just naturally paid attention to and got interested in all the K-pop videos I watched on my computer, and things developed from there. Especially after Alice (the elder one) had to do a KARA dance for kindergarten (which I talk about here).
Frankly though, their demands to dance to 5 or 6 songs a night these days can be a bit…well, very damned annoying when I’m trying to write. But, that aside, I think you’d have to be a real ogre of a parent not to let them dance to their hearts’ content if they want to and your computer’s free(ish). Especially considering that it won’t be too long (from a parent’s perspective) before they’re much too embarrassed and self-conscious to do so anymore, which is what makes this video of middle-schoolers from 2006 so precious (Via: Scribblings of the Metropolitician):
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Ohh they are so cute!
Reminds me of my 5 year old sister, she loves everything with G Dragon and sings a long to fantastic baby even though she is swedish and dosen’t know a word of korean.
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Hopefully, it’ll encourage her to study Korean later though. Many of my 20-something students seriously look stunned when I point out that learning English doesn’t always have to be such a grind, and that it would help a lot if they tried using things like music and computer games that they’re already interested in (but which, alas, I have very very little scope to use in class).
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That’s a morning brightener, if I ever saw one. And they’re very lucky to have a dad who encourages them to be woman-like, rather than lady-like. Fathers set the tone for a lot of what they’ll deal with later.
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Thanks. You’ve got me over-thinking things now though…why do they say independent ladies in the song, and not women instead? I was momentarily alarmed that possibly lyricist JYP subscribed to the belief that being independent, confident, and strong etc. is supposedly unladylike and/or unfeminine, which I’m sure you’re aware is unfortunately a very common view. But then I remembered that the album it comes from is called Independent Women Part III, so probably I am indeed making a mountain out of a molehill!
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Your girls are so cute!
Makes me nostalgic for my childhood, everything from the whiteboard and sticky-notes, to the bookcases and even the stationary bike! to the desk and playing with my sisters on my dad’s work computer every chance we got (we never danced to kpop though, but still, playing Tony Hawks is really fun!)
Do Alice and Elizabeth speak both English and Korean?
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