LETS TALK ABOUT QUEERBAITING IN KPOP

I believe there are several key factors that differentiate the K-pop aesthetic from music in other countries and that also draw in an LGBT+ audience. I’ve been seeing a lot of people accuse celebrities of doing this lately and it made me wonder about IF QUEERBAITING has being done in kpop. From Super Junior in the early 2000s to Red Velvet in 2020, K-pop has used queerbaiting to help market its idols, all while shunning queer folk themselves. K-pop is a booming industry. Since its early roots in the '90s, the South Korean pop industry has gone from an outlier to being its most prominent and defining genre.

While there is no real consensus on where the term 'queerbaiting' originated from, most would argue it stemmed from subcultures that formed on Tumblr in the mid to late 2000s. Queerbaiting is defined as “the practice of using hints of sexual ambiguity to tease an audience.” It’s a concept that was born out of Tumblr fandom culture in the early 2010’s, when the shows Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock were all mega-popular. This was in part because people enjoyed the shows and part because each one had a questionable intimate same-sex friendship. Companies often paired up members and did try to feed into their fan's fantasies that they are more than friends, An example of such pair is YunJae from TVXQ, Super Junior had way too many but EunHae I believe was the most popular

In the wake of EJ Music Entertainment‘s announcement that its new girl group QODES will be releasing a “queer-coded” music video, the agency has come under severe criticism for openly queerbaiting LGBTQ+ K-Pop fans. In the idol industry, the ‘queer code’ has become a source of contents of its own. Even in the times when genders [and sexualities] did not come as clearly defined as they do now.

Shortly after the press release was published, fans began heavily criticizing QODES’s agency for blatant queerbaiting. The skin ship, making music videos following a lgbt+ couples, idols making suggestive statements. Of course you should never assume and force a sexuality on to someone, or make them address it/ assign to one if they don’t want to, because it truly is none of your business, but if they put themselves in the position, wouldn’t it only be natural that people start to ask questions?

Four-member hip-hop girl group QODES debuted on February 1 this year. In a recent statement, EJ Music Entertainment announced that the group’s next music video, “LALALA”, would target the LGBTQ+ K-Pop fandom. According to the agency, the music video is “centered around a queer-coded relationship” and “features acting that is directed to be homosexual.”

“Skinship” became encouraged, which could take form in hugging, holding hands, or even kissing between members. Thus, the creation of variety show games like the “Paper Kiss Game.” This game involves passing a piece of paper between mouths. If it falls, the result is an accidental smooch on the lips.

So, what do you think?