A few weeks ago, Lisa, a member of the famous Korean Kpop group BLACKPINK, posted on ins that she was going to attend the Crazy Horse show in France. The Crazy Horse show is known for its sensuality and features an artistic performance that combines nudity, lights, sets and choreography. The entire show is generally composed of beautiful dancers with beautiful body proportions and consistent body types, and the dancers are nude or nearly nude during the show, and under the colourful lighting and repertoire, a three-dimensional show with sound and light as well as sensory effects is displayed. As soon as the news broke, the media scrambled to cover the show, some saying it was for a relationship with the son of Louis Vuitton, others saying it was for career advancement. Either way, it was an event that stunned the entire media circle.
Lisa’s performance at the Crazy Horse Show first hit the K-POP fanbase at home and abroad, especially in China and South Korea. Most K-POP fans believe that Lisa’s performance at Crazy Horse, as one of the icons of K-POP, will make the outside world equate Korean girl groups with strippers, and therefore most have been critical of it since the official announcement. It’s not hard to see that the Crazy Horse show is actually another form of male gaze. The contrast between the men who are sitting on the stage and enjoying themselves, and the women on the stage who are naked and trying their best to perform. So what is the male gaze?
The male gaze effectively presents the female body as a visual feast for heterosexual men, presenting women in the context of male desire. The male gaze encourages women to objectify themselves by elevating the needs and desires of the male observer.
Unlike ordinary ‘look’, it has more complex cultural meanings and visual metaphors. The term was first coined by Laura Mulvey. To summarise the argument in one sentence, MEN look and WOMEN were looked at. In the film industry, the male gaze happens all the time, usually in directors and screenwriters. Think back, did you see films like this all the time? The brave male lead, as if he were Prince Charming comes to the rescue of the female lead who looks like a weakling. Most women also experience male coagulation in their daily lives. And most of them are unsuspecting. For example, when you’re dressed up and walking down the street, and the guy coming up to you looks you up and down in an unsavoury way, that’s a very typical type of male gaze.
Going back to the Lisa incident, fans were angry not only because she agreed to participate in such a show for men, but also because she put women in this bad situation again. In fact, Lisa became a sharp blade used by the Crazy Horse Show to create a feminist topic for marketing. Most importantly the Crazy Horse Show then represents objectified women. It’s inexcusable.
Reference
media-studies (2021) Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ Theory | Definition and Examples, Media Studies. Available at: https://media-studies.com/male-gaze/ (Accessed: 7 December 2023).
Lisa’s appearance on the Mad Horse Show was controversial. There are a lot of sexual-suggestive shows out there, with strippers like Crazy Horse Show for men and something like Magic Mike for women. We’ve talked about the male gaze versus the female gaze before in the seminar. The male gaze is more serious and aggressive than the female one. But, still, many people use things like “Magic Mike ” to defend Lisa. I think what we really need to talk about is why this is such a bad thing, its influences.
K-POP has long been criticised for pleasing men, and the female members are mostly young, many of them underage. But they were forced by the company to wear inappropriate clothes, shorter skirts and no right to change their sexually suggestive lyrics. I think the reason why Lisa did wrong is that when she became a world-famous icon, she actually represented the image of the Korean girl group. You should know that a large part of the fans of South Korean girl groups are underage women, and when some immature students want to support their idols, they will spread the Crazy Horse show.
It will also worsen the already poor relationship between men and women in South Korea (Room N), where women have been fighting back against the ubiquitous candid photography. When Korean women are making efforts, a representative of their country’s top idol culture, Lisa, went to participate in such a dishonourable performance; for Korean women, it is like being stabbed by a friend. Now, other girl band members no longer have an excuse to resist being objectified because people will say, even if you’re as successful as Lisa, you have to go to the “Mad Horse Show”.
To be honest, when I first heard that she would attend the Crazy Horse Show, I was also shocked about her decision. Going back to the history of the show, most women wore a handful of clothes or were naked to satisfy the male’ visual feast. Undeniably, the show is an erotic product that serves the male under the male gaze. Lisa, as an influencer, owns millions of fans who are affected by her actions or imitate her behaviour and thus, a deterioration of objectified females. She should deeply consider whether it is appropriate.
Actually, girls’ groups in K-POP always is criticised by the public because of their designed sexy dance movements and miniskirts. They like entertainment products that are packaged by companies to attack males and Korean chaebol. I have to say that females have become a plaything, in such a patriarchal society, where their status is lower than males.
Therefore, females should liberate themselves and become independent.
I have to say that the example you used in your article was very good which totally related to the topic. After Lisa’s appearance at the ‘Mad Horse Show’, there was a mass backlash against her, as a public figure, performing at a strip show, which undoubtedly contributed to the spread of the idea that men objectify women. As women, it is more important for us to be strong and to fight against male contempt for women.