EXP is apparently the brainchild of one Bora Kim, some sort of affiliate of Columbia University. The whole thing is a thesis project which you can read about here. Now, I kinda get what she’s trying to do, but honey…
First off, as a sociologist, doesn’t she know that experiments like this are more than a little unethical? Also, if the woman wanted to look at gender roles as defined by K-pop and Korean entertainment, couldn’t she study actual existing K-pop artists, MVs, TV programs, etc. (which display very distinct views on gender constantly)instead of creating them artificially? Since none of these people have had the same training experience as real K-pop idols, wouldn’t that affect her research/thesis? And how will she be able to find a connection between “dominant culture and peripheral culture” and “national identity” if K-pop is not a part of most Americans’ identities? Wouldn’t it have been easier (and more accurate) to just make a regular ol’ American boy band?
tl;dr - There are a lot of great ideas in gender studies that Bora Kim is in the midst of exploring, but because her subjects were falsely baptized into the K-pop world, everything she “discovers” will be inherently tainted. She’s viewing the Korean Wave exclusively on its surface, which makes her work flawed. A bunch of Korean words slapped into an American mouth does not an idol make.
The worst offense in all of this: they ain’t no fucking EXO.
