Archive for the ‘asian pop culture’ Category

If you are currently a male residing in the SM fam

You will at one point in your career jump ferociously in front of negative space.

And I mean ferocious. Like wind-meets-water-meets-fire-melding-five-elements-of-earth-defy-gravity-become-an-Olympic-gymnast ferocious.

Just another reason to stan

I watched MBLAQ cover “Mirotic” today, and let’s just not even talk about it because it was not obviously meant to be better than the original, but it just reminded me of the video above, which is a compilation of the high note that Changmin hits in that song, for a good number of live performances they’ve done of the song.

I know, it’s ridiculous. If you watch the video, you will most likely be subjecting yourself to a massive headache afterward, but you will also understand why I. Love. DBSK. They are the only group I will ever stan this hard for.

God! Why couldn’t they all sue together. I will probably never see another live performance of “Mirotic” again :(

Hmm.

Lee Min-ho gave an interview on MBC Section TV, he said,

I have an older sister and I don’t really like it when she wears short skirts. Even with any girls that have some sort of relation with me, even though they are my friends, I nag at them if they wear short skirts.

This quote bothers me and it adds itself onto a list of reasons why even though I like Lee Min-ho as an actor, I’ve always been kinda iffy with him. (During his BOF days, he was asked about his ideal type, and he said he replied with women with “really white/light skin.”)

Anyway, I think what he said about short skirts isn’t really an opinion that only he holds, so maybe it’s not fair that I hold it against him personally, but since he’s a famous actor and someone a ton of people like/admire, it’s relevant.

Just this more general statement of a man (sometimes a woman) projecting dislike over what he deems is appropriate attire is an issue. Other than the obvious fact that it really isn’t his body or his personal clothing choice, it gives off the idea that a woman wearing clothing a certain way is an invitation for something to happen. Like if she wears a short skirt, if she gets raped, well it’s her fault for wearing something sexually suggestive. Or if she wears a shirt showing a lot of cleavage and she gets thrown perverted remarks, she was asking for it.

This sort of stuff places all the responsibility of maintaining abstinence on the victim, and none of it on the attacker. It’s so completely ingrained into our culture that women are doing themselves some kind of disservice if they wear something suggesting promiscuity, but it’s entirely unfair because why do women have to go through several lengths to tamper down an image just so that nothing happens? How about the men just keep to themselves?

At the end of the day, you can argue that this is just Lee Min-ho’s preference and that he isn’t being offensive or discriminatory, but this type of opinion, voiced by a famous and well-liked actor, just perpetuates this stigma against women dressing a certain way because it’s an invitation for attack. I’m not saying I’m a fan of breasts hanging out of shirts or shorts that don’t cover anything, but it’s ridiculous how many things girls have to do in order to “feel safe” in an environment.

Some posts of relevance regarding news on a condom introduced pre-World Cup that was meant to “prevent” rape (but by doing so, placed the responsibility of preventing rape on the women, not the rapists. Ergo, if a woman was raped, she wasn’t doing enough to prevent it.):
- Rape-aXe Condom Distributed During World Cup
- Penis-Shredding Condom Can’t Actually Prevent Rape

I don’t even know who I should blame

Man, I’m so over the Kpop music scene. Everyone tries so hard to out-do each other, but everyone for some reason, ends up looking like the everyone else anyway. How about we just concentrate on making good music, good videos, and good dances and call it a day? Instead of forcing these ridiculous concepts and images and blah blah blah and then getting accused of plagiarism left and right?

SHINee is not usually a group I pick on for this sort of stuff because I really enjoy their music and their efforts as artists, but SM is slowly turning them into gimmicky little marketing ploys and it drives me up the wall.

…Enjoy these?

Song of the day

Taeyang – Break Down

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Easily, with no competition, my favorite track off the album. This song is my jam for the summer. I wish he promoted this song instead of “I Need a Girl” :(

“Solar” as a whole was really underwhelming and too simplistic. I didn’t dislike anything, but it was a lot of “meh’s” and shrugging. Nowhere near how good his “HOT” album was, unfortunately.

The second half of the album was much better than the first, though listening to Move may be the only time I listened to a fellow Asian rap in English and gotten goosebumps out of undying embarrassment. It was greasy, cheesy, and so disgustingly unoriginal. I felt dirty listening to it.

Favorite song: Break Down
Songs I really like: Superstar, 니가 잠든 후에
Songs I didn’t used to like, but because of how boring the album is, I ended up liking: Wedding Dress, Where U At
The rest: Meh.

I’m not complaining though, I’ve been waiting for this album and some new material from Taeyang, and I got it. Like I said before, I don’t hate anything, a lot of these songs just aren’t as compelling as I expected them to be.