User:Cdundale/sandbox

LGBT Representation in K-Pop
The portrayal of LGBT (Korean: 성소수자) identities in South Korean media is limited due to the country’s long history of homophobia stemming from Confucian ideals shared with other Asian countries with Confucian heritage. LGBT media representation is discussed in short in the the context of LGBT rights in South Korea. Although acceptance of  LGBT identities has slowly been growing in South Korea over the last decade, and despite queer public icons surfacing in recent years like Harisu, Holland, and Som Hein, there is still significant under-representation of LGBT people in the public eye.

History
In a country with homophobic tendencies still legally sanctioned, queer media has a direct correlation with LGBT rights and is challenging the South Korean government and society’s prospective on being queer. The earliest examples of LGBT identities in modern South Korean media began in 1976 with the film Ascetic (Korean: 금욕) and continued through the 90’s with movies like Broken Branches (Korean: 내일로 흐르는 강). After 1998, an era of South Korean cinema coined as “The Camouflage Age” emerged, marked by the inclusion but also hiding or camouflaging of gay identities within movies and television. With anti-discrimination grounds being put in place by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea or NHRCK (Korean: 국가인권위원회) in 2001, including vaguely homosexual content in media was becoming gradually more accepted but directors and other creators veiled their LGBT content as the country was still heavily conservative and tv and movie ratings, while more lenient, still did not favor queer content and judged queer material's maturity rating more harshly in turn.

K-pop— the name for South Korean pop music—has arguably been the slowest artistic medium to accept LGBT ideals, possibly because of its mainstream appeal and association with Korean youth. In 2018, the debut music video by openly gay Korean artist Holland was given a 19+ rating (only those Korean age 19 and older are permitted to watch) by the Korea Media Rating Board or KMRB (Korean: 영상물등급위원회) because of a scene showing a homosexual kiss, a rating which has not been given purely on the basis of heterosexual kisses of the same type.

LGBT Representation in K-pop Music Videos

In addition to Holland, an artist who has featured his sexuality and homosexual romance in all of his music videos, a handful of other Korean artists have included LGBT and queer content in their music videos, despite the risk of a higher maturity rating. Artists like K. Will, Holland, Tenny, Chuu (Loona), Yves (Loona), Bestie, and Sistar have included depictions, some more blatant than others, of homosexual romance in their videos while artists like Anda and 4L have instead chosen to use lesbian sexuality to sell the sensual nature of their music videos. Artists like Brown Eyed Girls, Woosung, and Brave Girls have had queer individuals featured in their music videos.

The Korea Media Rating Board has consistently given videos with even the slightest bit of LGBT undertones a 12+ rating—only those 12 years of age and older may watch—while any sexual content has been seen to raise the rating to 19+, despite how chaste the scene may or may not be. List of K-pop music videos banned by South Korean television networks shows the intense censorship that exists for South Korean media.

“Skinship” in K-Pop

Skinship is defined as "bonding through physical contact" and is borrowed from Japanese スキンシップ (sukinshippu) and designed to rhyme with the English word kinship. It is a strange phenomena in a country like South Korea where being openly gay is not accepted but the idea of same-gender celebrities being romantic together is appealing to their fans; skinship in K-Pop itself has been scrutinized by some religious zealots as being a promotion of LGBT lifestyles and an encouragement to young people to behave loosely and immorally in their sexual conduct.

While skinship has been used as a way to be affectionate with those of the same gender without being accused of homosexual activities, there are two known cases of male idols dating within their own groups; a mostly unknown group called D.I.P. had an openly gay couple in their ranks, but the most well known story involves a group called K'Pop which existed at the very beginning of the genre in 2001. It was reported that two members of K'Pop began a romantic relationship together and that was ultimately what tore the group apart when the two members broke up. Despite this being a well-known story, to this day it is not known which two members were in a relationship and none of the five members has ever come out openly as gay or even been seen in a relationship with another male.

K-Pop Idols and LGBT Representation in Korean Drama

The 2000’s marked by a flood of homosexual-adjacent content on Korean television, with a surge of TV shows featuring fake homosexual plots—frequently involving a woman dressing up like a man and another man falling in love with her, only to be quite relieved to realize she is a woman and that he did not actually have homosexual feelings like he previously thought—in an attempt to placate viewers who wanted LGBT content without actually having to commit to promoting LGBT ideals.

A number of female K-Pop idols have portrayed crossdressing characters on TV, including Park Gyu-ri in Nail Shop Paris and Sulli in To the Beautiful You. Hoya, former meber of the boyband Infinite, groundbreakingly portrayed a gay character in the Korean drama Reply 1997. Other notable idols have appeared in dramas where another character crossdresses, many times playing a character who falls in love with the crossdressing woman. A handful of Korean dramas have been made about the K-Pop industry that also include crossdressing characters including You're Beautiful, Ma Boy, and K-Pop Extreme Survival.

Openly Gay K-Pop Idols


 * Holland
 * Marshall Bang
 * Kim Hansol
 * Som Hein
 * Maman
 * SeungHo (D.I.P.)
 * B.Nish (D.I.P.)
 * Jang Hyeongseong (D.I.P.)

Transgender K-Pop Idols


 * Harisu
 * Hanbit
 * Lady (group)