Mathieu Berbiguier
Abstract
September 14, 2018, marked a milestone in the history of K-pop when RM, the leader of BTS, delivered a powerful speech in front of the UN General Assembly. As a representative of “Love Myself,” a campaign launched in partnership with the UNICEF, but also as a continuation of the message BTS conveyed through their “Love Yourself” trilogy, RM encouraged his auditors to “speak [them]selves (…) no matter who [they] are, where [they’re] from, [their] skin color, gender identity.” The fact that RM mentioned gender identity, even briefly, was quite inspirational for a lot of ARMYs. They kept relaying this sentence through social media, making BTS appear as advocates of LGBTQ+ human rights. Interestingly, this kind of reaction was mainly from fans outside of Korea. This shows a fundamental paradox present in K-pop and K-pop fandoms: an entity of Korean popular culture elaborated in a heteronormative and conservative society that challenges gender dynamics at a worldwide scale. This paper aims at looking in depth through this paradox by using research methods and concepts from three different fields of study – Korean Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and Digital Humanities. By crossing data from on-site interviews of fans and a data science-based analysis of tweets from ARMYs, this paper will focus on two interrelated questions: (1) What are the innovative industrial techniques and characteristics of BTS differing from other K-pop idols that enables them to interject in gender social activism? (2) How have differences between BTS’s domestic versus international fandom cultures enabled this gender activism?
About the Author
Mathieu Berbiguier is a third-year Ph. D. student in Asian Languages & Cultures (Korean Cultural Studies major). He recently started two concentrations in Gender Studies and Digital Humanities. Mathieu received an MA from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Seoul, South Korea), and a BA from University Paris Diderot (France) – both in Korean Studies. Before moving to LA, he lived for five years in Seoul. His research interests revolve around Korean Popular Culture and its expansion around the world with a particular focus on the relationship between K-pop fandoms.
