I love reading about you guys
I love reading your FAQ & about pages
I love when you guys make posts about school or about your friends or what you did today
I really just like you guys and I’m genuinely interested in your lives
not in a creepy way
just in a you’re-very-interesting-please-let-me-learn-about-you way
The only problem with Gangnam Style going viral…
And, there are probably other problems some could point out. But these are my particular problems with it.
Let me ask you this: What is the difference between any other K-pop video and “Gangnam Style”?
While other K-pop male idols are handsome (or pretty), sexy, and generally viewed as objects of desire by their fans, Psy, while different for the K-pop industry, perfectly fits into one of the only acceptable images of Asian men in the media. Asian men in American/Western media are either small and nerdy, good martial artists, or goofy caricatures. While Psy is being funny on purpose, and his goofiness is for Korean people to laugh at the ways of their own people, understanding that it is just a spoof (and because the male image in Korean media is typically completely opposite of this, and Psy, in that case, is a breath of fresh air), the fact that it’s become popular overseas makes me question the reasoning.
I kept seeing the titles of articles saying things like “Wacky Asian music video” and “weird Korean video.” The reason the video is popular, to me, seems like people are laughing AT Psy more than laughing with him. It’s funny because he’s “Wacky” and “foreign”. Music videos that are much like Western music videos, filled with beautiful, talented people doing normal things like clubbing (“High High” by GD&TOP, “Hands Up” by 2PM) could never become popular in the West. No one gives fucks when Asians actually do (and no disrespect to Psy) “good” music, similar to the music most Westerners already consume. (And don’t write me about how you only listen to indie rock bands and interpretive jazz or some shit. Popular music is popular for a reason.)
Psy’s “Gangnam Style” works because it effectively plays into the stereotypes already in place in America. Korea isn’t a 1st world country filled with normal people just like you. It’s “wacky Asia!!lolz!” and of course, because “Gangnam Style” gives them their “lol look at foreign people being foreign” dose, it can spread and go viral.
A serious undertaking by a Korean musician? Yes, K-pop has an ever-growing international presence, and yes, some Westerners do like it. But tell me the first criticism every K-pop artist since the beginning of time gets. They’re “trying to be like [insert whatever popular celebrity]! whack, lame, whatever.” (Technically, even Psy get’s LMFAO comparisons, when he’s been out, and doing the same thing, since 2001, way before LMFAO even formed. But whatever.)
I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. K-pop’s main problem is the race of the people performing it. If you gave 99% of K-pop songs to Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga, translated to English, those very same songs would be number 1 on Billboard for weeks. (And don’t argue about the level of excellence of the song. Most of the songs on my Hot 100 station suck. But they’re still Hot 100 hits. Popular and good are two different things.) THE REASON K-POP CAN’T SUCCEED IN AMERICA IS BECAUSE THEY’RE ASIAN. And, let’s face it, Americans only want to see Asians either being a badass fighter like Bruce Lee, or being a silly caricature like Ken Jeong. Asians being sexy, cool, and just like fucking white people omgz? Americans will never accept that. Let’s. Be. Honest. (I in no way mean to insinuate that Asians want to be like white people. Just that white people don’t want to believe that Asians do similar shit. Asians can only be “wacky” cuz omgz we’re so foreign and wacky and draw silly squiggles to communicate and eat with sticks and wear kimonos omgz.)
That’s my only problem with Gangnam Style going viral. It’s not getting popular because people think Psy is so talented and brilliant and want to support a great artist. It’s getting popular because “lolz silly Chinese people!” I can’t tell you the amount of stupid white boy comments on those articles.
“LOLz so all Korean men are fat and ugly and all the wimmenz r hawt so I can go 2 Corea and dates all the wimmenz and save them frum thur fat n ugly menz lulz!” No. Just no. You fucking shit. There is just so much wrong with that thought process, I can’t even begin to argue against it.
I’ll end rant before I go on forever.
ATTENTION EVERYONE
ALL PRONOUNS ARE MADE UP.
BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT LANGUAGE IS.
MADE UP WORDS.
If you have no problems using the words iPod, google, eftpos, or any of the thousands of others created in the last decade, don’t bitch about ze/hir pronouns.
Even if your particular depression does include sadness, it’ll only be one of many other symptoms. The others might be much more painful and salient for you than the sadness is. Some people can’t sleep, others gain weight, some think constantly about death, others can’t concentrate or remember anything. Many lose interest in sex, or food, or both. Almost everyone, it seems, experiences a crushing fatigue in which your limbs feel like stone and no amount of sleep ever helps. Then there are headaches, stomachaches, and so on.
So, depression doesn’t necessarily mean sadness to us. (And a gentle reminder to non-depressed folks: being sad doesn’t mean you’re “depressed,” either.)
Depression is not sadness; it’s an illness that often, though not always, involves sadness. No amount of happy things will make a depressed person spontaneously recover, and, usually, no amount of sad things will make a well-adjusted person with good mental health suddenly develop depression. (Grief, of course, is another matter.) And sadness, on its own, does not cause suicide.
[…]People don’t kill themselves because they’re sad. They kill themselves because they have an illness that, among other things, makes them feel sad. It also makes them feel like their life is worthless, like they’re a burden to others, like death would be easier, and all the other beliefs that lead people down the path to suicide.
There is a tendency, I think, to assume that people are depressed because they are sad. A better way to look at it is that people are sad because they are depressed. That’s why, even if we could “turn that frown upside down!” and “just look on the sunny side!” for your benefit, it would do absolutely no good. The depression would still be there, but in a different form.
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I…
I don’t understand.
Ever since getting into the 2PM fandom, I’ve learned not to question it. Them.
saying something horrible that hurts someone and saying “it’s my opinion” is like hitting someone with your car and saying “it’s my vehicle”
you can’t do whatever you want with it
Why “I prefer small boobs” isn’t helping (via sexgenderbody)
” “I actually prefer small breasts” only reinforces the grand tradition of women’s bodies as objects to be presented for judgment and rated on a scale from Hot to Fugly. It removes the breasts or ass or pubic hair from the context of the woman as a whole, as if our value can be appraised one piece at a time. And it ignores the reality that while it does matter to many of us, in the grand scheme, finding someone willing to screw us is the least of our problems.” (via slaterwashere)
Continuing on the body image discussion from last night…
Gents, you don’t get a medal for saying you like small boobs or curvy women or whatever. By saying so, you’re still implying that a woman’s worth hinges on how sexually desirable she is to men like you. (via bezdan)
k i’m used to people assuming i’m a girl but i’m downright insulted when people assume i am a heterosexual
