Clever Turtles

I'm very aware, to begin with, that Korean male pop stars often seem effeminate or homoerotic to Westerners while being very masculine and virilely heterosexual to Asians -- this is a matter of cultural signifiers not translating or mistranslating across cultural boundaries. In most cases, I think, the most glammed up, smooth-skinned, long-haired young men are, in the proper cultural context, very, very straight.

But when I ran across the Big Bang/No Brain collaboration, "Oh My Friend".

[Did you notice how the cop guy just ditched out on the hot girl he pulled over? And his gruff demeanor? I don't know if its supposed to be a "bros before hoes" thing, but . . .]

Yeah, the chorus goes, "사랑해, 친구야", or literally, "I love you, friend."

When I first watched this video, I was just getting into No Brain, and was just kind of rocking out. It wasn't until the third time through the chorus that I noticed what he was singing -- "Holy shit, are they coming out?"

But wait, I thought. Korean same-sex social relations often have a straight-forward intimacy that would immediately strike a homophobic response from most Western men. It is interesting, I think, and it makes me wonder about the nature of homosocial coding within Korean society and the boundaries that would trigger a homophobic response.

But now, a new video is running around. Apparently Big Bang collaborated with 2NE1 for the new song, "Lollipop".

[This is, without a doubt, the second most annoying song ever composed. If we ever invade Panama again, this is what our Psych Ops teams will use to destroy the composure of besieged enemies.]

The song is very popular and is being tied in with a new LG phone. Hence, the following commercial.

In the first two seconds of the video, Big Bang member G-Dragon pantomines fellatio.

I can't steel myself to carefully listen to the entire song, but it is my understanding that it is a doble entendre alluding to fellatio -- specifically heterosexual fellatio.

So what the fuck is G-Dragon doing?

Without a doubt, Big Bang is playing very near the uncertain boundaries of the homosocial and the homoerotic. It remains to be seen if they will step clearly into bisexuality, how they might do it, and what the audience response would be.

Looking back to the 80's, everyone knows of the gay and bisexual glam rock stars, David Bowie for one. There are certain superficial similarities between the glam rockers and Asian pop stars, but while the glam rockers were deliberately playing with gender identifications, Korean pop stars are remaining firmly in their culturally specific spheres of masculinity. But, why not follow Bowie and Boy George, at least a little ways?

ADDENDUM: Look here to see dudes grinding on dudes. Link originally discovered here.

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