Because it wasn’t enough to trot out fifteen-year-olds who can’t sing as sexually suggestive coquettes, now a nine-member “kiddie group” called Sweety is making its debut, with members ranging in age from 13 down to its 6-year-old “mascot.” (Btw, that’s eight girls, one boy. He be da pimp.)

They’re being touted as a group with singing skills “on par with adult groups.” If those adult groups mean the Wonder Girls, that’s not saying much. (Before you get offended: listen to this. Or this. Or this. Or this. My opinion is, if they put out such “professional” performances, they’re fair game to be called on it.)

I have nothing against the idea of a pop group aimed at a younger generation — heck, I grew up watching Kids Incorporated and Sesame Street, and my first music record (and nearly last, toy record players being pretty inferior products) was a Care Bears compilation. But it’s not the concept itself that has me feeling uneasy; it’s the tone and content of its marketing.

Singing aside, I’m disturbed at this trend for younger and younger teenage pre-teen poptarts, using the innocent “cute” defense to gloss over any suggestive implications that lie therein. Look, I’m not going call it pedophilic or accuse this group of being blatantly sexual, because I don’t think that’s true. But the point is that the slippery slope is getting slipperier with these mixed messages and crossed signals — tell me Sweety has nothing to do with the sex-peddling marketing strategies behind equally squicky Lolita-laden Wonder Girls or Girls Generation.

You can’t quite defend the choice of costuming as being innuendo-free when those short-short miniskirts are put on by adult stylists onto prepubescent girls — look at those two girls in the middle with their hands on their hips and their hips stuck out in their “Who, me?” faux-innocence poses. Is the coquetry a conscious gesture or has the image become so pervasive that these young girls have adopted it as the norm? Or are they being coached to act that way by their handlers? (ALL of those options seem creepy and unfortunate to me.) And do I see bare MIDRIFF with that cropped top? Even Wonder Girl Sohee admitted just this week that she used to shorten her skirts on her school uniforms. What, did she not have enough leg-baring and hip-swiveling in her day job?

Sweety’s first mini-album reportedly boasts “hip-hop rhythms” with “cute choreography,” and they’ve just filmed their first music video. That video had better be full of stuffed animals, dancing rabbits and animated birds, is all I’m sayin’. Leave the sexy stuff to the adults and let kids be kids, already.

Cable channel Mnet will start airing the group on July 22; a mini-album is set to go on sale soon.

Via No Cut News

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Post tags: Girls Generation, kpop, ranty/ravey, teen sexualization, Wonder Girls

 
The following article brings up an interesting point but is ultimately pretty weak in its assessments. But it IS mainstream press, so I suppose that’s to be expected.

In any case, the topic is worth noting, even if the article makes the Lolita complex sound like a natural part of life or whatnot, rather than something that merits any sort of criticism. Being in touch with sexuality isn’t a bad thing, and I don’t think it’s productive to repress it either, but on the other hand, it’s an entirely different thing to praise a culture of nymphet-worship. Which I concede may be overstating the issue a bit. (Is it really?)

All I say is, the guy may have been charming and intelligent, but a society full of Humbert Humberts is not a place you want to raise your kids. Just sayin’.

Hung up on the Lolita complex: “I like teens!”

In a recently aired episode of MBC sitcom Kimchi Cheese Smile, there was a scene in which the thirtysomething single female character played by Lee Hye Young looked to a TV monitor playing MBC’s drama Legend, smiling as she observed the child actor Yoo Seung Ho, and said:

“Wow, we should protect kids like that on a national level.”

One after another, adults are uttering these kinds of candid admissions in their adoration of pre-teen and teenage stars. It’s nothing new that the debut ages of entertainers have been growing younger and younger, but the unrestrained admiration of these stars by those in their twenties, thirties, and forties is something that’s only arisen in the past few months.

 
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Read the rest of Cultivating the Lolita complex (938 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Girls Generation, teen sexualization, Wonder Girls, Yoo Seung-ho