Sunday, April 27, 2014

Pseudo-feminism - how to make k-pop's "white coater" work for you

Before we get to the k-pop-related content, let's start off this particular post by talking about something that's very close and dear to the hearts of many of my readers... the pornographic film industry.  Don't worry - as always, the relevance to k-pop will become clear.  I know some of you might think that I shouldn't be blogging about this and will protest that you don't care about the porn industry but that's all bullshit because my website stats don't lie.  I know what you click on, you dirty cao ni mas.  Great, now that's settled, let's get started.

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Most of you have probably heard of (if not actually seen) the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat.  If you haven't seen it, don't bother because I have, and take it from me - you haven't been missing much.  Precious few fappable cast members, laughably bad scriptwriting and acting (especially from the atrocious Linda Lovelace) even by porn industry standards, shithouse cinematography and a general veneer of grainy 70s ugliness all conspire to wreck what is a horribly dated film which definitely does not stand the test of time.  Although it was high budget for its day, faptech has since progressed far beyond the point of Deep Throat, and you could probably make a more engaging adult movie these days with your girl/boyfriend, a couple mobile phone cameras, some bright indoor lights and half a kilo of lube.

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As much as I don't like the film itself, I respect Deep Throat's place as a watershed moment for the adult film industry.  Aside from being relatively expensive for the time and featuring an actual plot, Deep Throat did something else that had rarely been done in pornographic film up until this time - it was a film that was honest about its intentions.  Deep Throat talked about female sexual pleasure candidly and openly and orgasm as a desirable goal in an age when this was a taboo topic and strictly off the discussion table.  Many people actually learned what a clitoris was for the first time by watching this film (even though the film deliberately got the location wrong) and the ripple effect of the film sparked a lot of positive discourse about female sexual pleasure.  Importantly, the film made no attempt to hide that this was a film about sex and orgasm, and that this was why you should see it.

Before the advent of Deep Throat, most pornographic films whether softcore (nudity) or hardcore (penetrative sex) lied heavily about what they really were in order to escape the wrath of society's more prudish elements of the time.  For example, many films that were intended to be consumed purely as fap material were prefixed by lengthy monologues and boring crap about things only very tenuously related to the film's content.  Monologues were designed to be so boring and mundane that if someone else absolutely insisted on coming along with you to the cinema who you knew would be offended by the content (such an overly sensitive or nosy/clingy partner), after a few minutes this other person who you tried to convince not to come along in the first place (so you don't get outed as a perv) would eventually get bored and agree with your prior suggestion that the film just isn't their thing.  You had those few minutes to convince them that they'd be better off leaving, and usher them out of the cinema before the real action that you were there to see started.  Russ Meyer was notorious for this, padding out his early softcore exploitation films with the most inane of preambles that only the most tolerant of clingy partners could sit through.


An important stepping stone occurred prior to Deep Throat with the advent of court rulings in the US that stated that a film displaying explicit sex could be screened if the contents were deemed to have educational or scientific merit.  The effect of this ruling was an avalanche of aspiring pornographic filmmakers tacking onto the beginning of their sex films a "educational introduction", where a person often posing as a scientist and dressed appropriately in a white laboratory coat would talk about the "scientific research" to follow, thereby allowing the filmmakers to get away with whatever sexual content they wanted to show.  The man in the white coat introducing a sex film with detached scientific calm became such a cliche that the term "white coater" became a code for any fap material of any kind masquerading as a documentary or scientific film or anything else apart from what it really was.

Finding the original white coater films of the late 60s and early 70s these days would be difficult, but film buffs may remember Robert DeNiro's character in Martin Scorsese's classic film "Taxi Driver" taking his girlfriend to the white coater Language Of Love (aka "Swedish Marriage Manual") - relevant part from 1:20.


Now let's bring it back to k-pop.

Say you were a k-pop blogger, or a member of a k-pop forum or website, and you wanted to increase your traffic/upvotes/whatever by showing what everybody who likes k-pop obviously wants to see - Hyuna's fucking tits.   You could, if you were very honest and didn't give a shit about what anybody thought about you, make a post something like this:


LET'S LOOK AT HYUNA'S FUCKING TITS

HOLY FUCKING SHIT CHECK THIS OUT BITCHES

I WANT TO CUM ON THEM AND SO DO YOU
SHE WILL LOOK FROTHY LIKE IN THIS PIC ONCE I'M DONE

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GET READY TO PRAISE THE UNDERBOOB GODS
ALSO SHE'S PULLING HER PANTS DOWN, WHAT A COINCIDENCE SO AM I

 ggw
FUCK, SHE IS HOT, LOOK AT THOSE CANS, FUCK
I DON'T CARE HOW SHOPPED THESE PHOTOS ARE

hyunee

I WANT TO GIVE HER A PEARL NECKLACE
BUT NOT THE KIND SHOWN HERE, WHICH ARE JUST GETTING IN THE WAY

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LET'S ALL LOOK AT THESE PICS AND SQUIRT TOGETHER FUCK YEAH
PLEASE KEEP CLICKING ON MY SHIT THANKS




Okay, so that's the brutally honest no-shame pervert approach, but maybe that doesn't work for you.  Perhaps one or more of the following apply to you:
  • You live in a multi-person household and you have to share the computer, so when someone looks over the shoulder at your writing you have to justify it somehow.
  • Your easily-offended and desperately clingy/needy partner or nosy parents are computer-savvy and frequently check your browsing history, once again necessitating a non-perv justification for any links visited.
  • You're studying gender studies at University and you find it hard to motivate yourself to write anything that isn't k-pop related, plus you secretly like looking at tits and you'd rather the rest of the study group didn't know lest they accuse you of "objectification".
  • You're a lying asshole who lies to yourself about how addicted to perving you are, so you need to find a way to shut up the voices of reason in your head so you can continue to lie to yourself and others.
Any of these factors could create the need for a "white coater" approach to k-pop fapping - disguising our need to spread fap material as a need for something else.  This is where the language of pseudo-feminism can help.

Believe it or not, I consider myself (don't laugh) a feminist.  I know this because I took the test and I passed it.  Not only this, but I'm actually a great deal more knowledgeable about feminism than many self-proclaimed feminists are.  I've read plenty of seminal feminist literature like Susan Faludi's "Backlash" and Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth" cover to cover, not because I wanted to get a good grade at some fucking university course, but because I genuinely wanted to read that stuff and find out more about women's perspectives.  I also work with a lot of women in the music business (some who embrace feminism as a concept, some who definitely don't) who all have to deal with various "gender issues" on a daily basis.  So as a feminist, I'm completely qualified to tell you how to write like one.  Keep in mind that we're not interested in actually embracing any feminist ideology here, so don't get too scared - we just want to write kind of like a feminist, just enough to throw any critics off the scent that we're really just here for the fapgods.  This is why I call it "pseudo-feminism".  We're going to do what a lot of other writers do, which is co-opt the style of feminist writing, while leaving out any of the actual substance of feminism (you know - properly backed-up arguments and stuff), and most importantly, leaving IN all the Hyuna images and thus all of the precious fap value.  Let's do it.


HOW FAR CAN HYUNA GO IN OBJECTIFYING HERSELF?

Hyuna of girl group 4Minute as the "visual", is always thrust into the spotlight, and in her case that spotlight always includes sexual objectification for the predominantly male audience that circulates around her every move in the Korean entertainment world.  It's no surprise to see such consistent pandering to the whims of oppas from girl groups, especially those coming from a country ranking so low worldwide on the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), yet Hyuna's company has seemingly found new ways to escalate her own sexual exploitation with each new release.  She was already pushing this line quite severely in "Volume Up" but her image has only become more explicit since then.


Hyuna upped the ante in her 2012 solo feature track "Ice Cream", which features a chorus refrain of "cream, cream, cream" and her own glistening cleavage gratuitously covered in soap suds.  It doesn't take much imagination to join the dots for Hyuna's male fans, all hanging off each salacious word and gyration.

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Hyuna's agency pushed the boundaries of sexual exploitation even further on Troublemaker's comeback "Now".  The video featured domestic violence as entertainment, concerning in a country with a surging domestic violence problem, where such matters are routinely normalised.  The promotional photos accompanying the album release showed Hyuna sporting a trashy sexually degraded appearance, posing in skimpy underwear and acting as willing as possible for the camera.

 ggw

There seems to be no lengths that her agency won't go to show skin, sell sex and keep her male fans buying.

hyunee

4Minute's latest song "Whatcha Doin' Today" keeps the pandering to sexual perverts at fever pitch, with several top down cleavage shots seemingly inspired by point-of-view pornographic film and Hyuna's boobs looking more padded and pushed up for the camera than ever before as she stares submissively.

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Even in rare moments of empowerment such as in the following scene from "Ice Cream" there's still somebody being exploited and having their bodies shown for the male audience.  The k-pop video equation is always a lose/lose for women, where 4Minute and Hyuna are concerned.


It only remains to be seen where Hyuna can go next, but the agency seems to be only interested in taking retrograde steps.  Will we have strippers in k-pop in a few years?  Any hope for a revolution of sexual representation in Korea is going to have to contend with Hyuna's image as a first port of call.



I hope you enjoyed that little bit of roleplay.  I'm quite proud of it.  Points to remember:
  • Make sure you reference an article or two that backs up something you want to say, but don't go into too much detail about the link between your point and the article, or people might discover that your argument only consists of weak catchphrases with no actual researched correlation.
  • Don't leave out any images!  You can find a way to make anything relevant with a bit of creative writing skill.  Also be sure to link to any videos, you might need to fap to them later.
  • Always use words like "objectification" and "exploitation", they sound great and will enhance your feminist pedigree, plus they essentially can't be argued with as everyone is technically an object and all commercial activity from any k-pop performer is technically exploitation.
  • References to something horrible (like domestic violence, sexual inequality etc) even if it's unrelated to what you're talking about will help you take the high moral ground, because it insinuates that anyone against your writing must also approve of these horrible things.  Feel free to remind them of what a bad person they are.
It's that simple folks!  You too can now create your own "white coater" pseudo-feminist articles and posts, include in them all the pictures and GIFs you want, whore them out for website traffic, fap all you want, and nobody will ever suspect a thing!  Now all you have to worry about is getting caught with your pants down in front of the computer, or running out of tissues and screen-cleaner!

Maripy

31 comments:

  1. I can honestly say I have been mind-blowned lol (in a good way). You're sort of an inspiration.
    But seriously though, this is one of your best articles really opened my eyes to how people get attention.

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    1. Of course, I like attention too, but at least I'm open and honest about when I'm whoring for it.

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    2. Oh I know! But honesty is what makes your articles worth reading. That and you learn stuff that is pretty important imo.

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    3. When the next Hyuna, Gain, Stellar or whoever comeback with a new song and everyone starts writing about it, remember this post. ;)

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  2. You know other than the fact that you actually read damn those books cover to cover ,what's even more impressive is that fact that you found pictures of Maria Ozawa that doesn't have her boobs out.By the way as you are apparently a fellow JAV lover ,do you know who Tina Yuzuki (/RIO) is? You should check her out.She could provide some extra fodder to breakup the long paragraphs...like this one for a change. :)

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    1. Tina Yuzuki isn't really my type. But glad you enjoyed the post!

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    2. Well it was definitely a good article. That line about referencing something horrible helps you take the high moral ground was kinda eye opening. I wonder how I missed it it when the girls I talk to do that. It really sounded like something I would have heard on a radio show,the Black Philip Show. Since your interested in trying to see things from the female perspective you might want to give it a listen on youtube.
      (Really sorry for the long-ass comments.Longtime reader, first-time commenter.LOL)

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    3. I'd be a massive hypocrite if I were to complain about long-ass comments!

      I'll check out that show at some point.

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    4. Netizenbuzz comments are another really epidemic place for high-moral-ground claiming, btw. Basically the mentality of a lot of serial posters there is "if my opinions appear virtuous I must always be correct".

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  4. You know who surprisingly has nice sets? Crayon Pop
    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x13t4gh_130827-kbs2-%EC%83%9D%EC%83%9D%EC%A0%95%EB%B3%B4%ED%86%B5-%ED%81%AC%EB%9E%98%EC%9A%A9%ED%8C%9D-hdtv-1080i-mpeg2-ac3-720p_shortfilms&start=111

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  5. If you talk about Deep Throat, you should also mention the shit that was going on behind the scenes, though. I think your articles makes it seem like too much of a nice movie.

    The question about actually showing what you are talking about or not and if you do, how much is ok, is an important one. There are many topics like this where you have to ask yourself if you want to show graphic stuff. However graphic, sexual or whatever it may be. Of course what I'm thinking about is much more extreme than just some sleazy music videos. But the question is the same. Do you need to show what you are talking about ?
    Most bloggers unfortunately don't know where to draw the line. And I'm also pretty sure that there are sites (like AKP) that knowingly pretend to be innocent and think what they pull off is actual journalism. "Hey, were are just posting these nude pics ! It's our journalistic duty ! Seriously !!" - AKP writer #23.

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    1. I didn't talk about the allegations surrounding Deep Throat because they weren't relevant to the point I was making, and in any event those allegations didn't surface while the film was a hot property in cinemas, but many years later once Linda had fallen in with the anti-pornography movement, and were never proven or backed up by anybody besides Linda. You'd think at least one other cast or crew member, male or female, would have backed up her allegations of being forced to do scenes at gunpoint etc but instead they happily tore her down. Feminists LOVED Deep Throat when it came out, feminism in the 70s was decidedly pro-porn and only turned anti-porn with the rise of writers such as Andrea Dworkin, a writer who pretty much fits the feminazi stereotype 100% and is largely responsible for how a lot of men perceive feminism these days. It's worth watching the documentary "Inside Deep Throat" which goes into more detail about Linda and is actually a damn sight more entertaining than the actual film itself. Later on Linda disowned the anti-porn feminist movement as well as the adult industry, claiming that both abused her, but whether this was true or whether something else was going on, we'll never know. Personally looking at Deep Throat she doesn't seem coerced to me, more like high as a fucking kite... but then the editing process hides a lot so who can say for sure.

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    2. My point with the other stuff is that people who write "look at this, isn't this awful, isn't it horrible" are really just writing "look at this, look at this, look at this" and are actually part of what they claim to be against. Of course you don't need to show something to talk about it... but showing it will certainly bring along the people who want to see it!

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    3. Thanks for clearing up that stuff about DT and putting it into perspective how you meant it.
      I have not seen Inside DT, but I had it in my "to watch" list for quite some time now.

      Both of the times I abbreviated the movie as DT, I actually wrote "DP" first and then thought that something was off. haha

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    4. I can see why it would be easy to get those two confused, although DT doesn't feature any DP.

      Inside Deep Throat is really good, and I thought it was fairly objective. The give the allegations their space but also put it into context, which is important. Linda only latched onto the anti-porn movement after her adult industry career didn't pan out that well after she'd had a good crack at it for nearly a decade, including multiple films, touring and two autobiographies neither of which mentioned any abuse at all. How much of the change of heart was an ideological shift/coming out and how much was hope for career advancement i.e "if one side won't employ me, maybe the other side will" who knows, but just before her death she seemed to think that both sides burned her. Maybe they're all heartless assholes, or maybe she was just upset that neither of them gave her the attention/stardom/long term career prospects that she craved after her brief early 70s stint in the limelight.

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  6. Honesty is the best policy. Kpop fans can't escape justifying their interest in the genre when we're all here for basically the same reason. Some of those points relate to the whole cute vs. sexy concept crusade, when it comes to disguising sexual content as something other than what it is.

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    1. Yes, there is that as well! Cute concepts are a smokescreen for a whole lot of fapping.

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  7. *out of topic*

    Anybody knows what the hell happened to Maria Ozawa? Is she retired?

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    1. After I saw the scat and puke stuff, I just can't fap to her anymore. So, in my book she retired and all of her JAV has been deleted from the web.

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    2. There's Maria Ozawa scat and puke stuff? Links or you're making it up.

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    3. I think I've misremembered about the scat stuff, but you can easily find vomit videos with her.
      But once you're watching videos where girls puke in eachother's mouths, the scat videos are usually not too far. lol

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    4. I still need links. I need to verify that this is happening, so I can write a socially aware blog about it in future highlighting the dangers of forced regurgitation... and for no other reason. Because I care about society.

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    5. No scat, just vomit and pee, just search on Google "Maria Ozawa womit" and you got it, but seriously, the last video of her is from 2011 I think, she has a blog and always update but nothing of porn :( !!!!

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    6. I'm not gonna like you porn, mate ! Gotta find your own fap material, you're old enough ! haha
      As Geassu said, it can be found on most sites and even via google.

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  8. Need moar outrage, yo.
    Get that sweet, sweet condemnation out.

    I had a link to a gif of that pearl necklace picture but lost it somewhere, booh.

    Incidentally, feminist anthropology was rather interesting.

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