Stereotypes Of The Korean Pop Culture

These representations of gender expectations and stereotypes are strongly by the Korean pop culture and fans keep on requesting more of such representations. Moreover, idols do services for the media called “fan service in which they wear what their fans request them to, dance a certain dance (which could be embarrassing such as a male dancing a girl group dance and vice versa), act a certain scene or even eat certain food. This shows the power of fans, and in specific Korean fans. In a nutshell, Korean fans and culture have expectations, idols fulfill these expectations and then international fans consume kpop products which indirectly encourages them to have the same expectations as Korean and Southeast Asian fans. It is a circle or influence

It managed to create a global fan service in a very short period of time. The Kpop wave or Hallyu did not only reach Southeast Asian countries but also Western and Middle Eastern countries. Each region makes a target for Kpop music industry to sell different products based on convenience and culture. There are many artists who were behind the success of Kpop, such as PSY who became global in a very short period, SNSD, EXO and many other internationally successful Kpop artists and groups. Nevertheless, the way entertainment companies represent idols to the media moves by the stereotypes and expectations of each culture and gender which shapes the actions of both idols and fans. Idols go through training systems to shape them the way they are presented in the media for the public audience physical wise and personality wise. However, some idols eventually develop mental illness such as anorexia because of not eating to lose weight and stay slim and maintain the image of a perfect idol in the media. The same issue happens to Kpop fans, who not only refuse non-slim idols but seek to be as skinny as those idols. It is a back and forth influential relationship. However, some idols try to break gender norms but they fail and lose popularity eventually such as the girl group called “The Ark”. Other groups fight their agencies for the unfairness of working conditions and payment, and many law suits were exposed in the media because of the unfair life of a Kpop trainee and an