SEXtember: What K-pop can tell you about sex, feminism and relationships
DESPITE what you might think, you’ll be surprised by how much K-Pop can tackle the male gaze, abusive relationships and sex in general. Lunnie Gan has your K-Pop playlist for SEXtember!
K-Pop is MASSIVE in most Asian international student groups and though its infectious hooks can make for a good time, you may also be surprised at how deep some of these songs and their accompanying music videos can be.
In the spirit of SEXtember, we’ve prepared a list of K-Pop songs that deal with sex and/or relationships. So look past the cutesy idol exterior of some of the girl groups or bad-boy personas of K-Pop’s boy bands and you’ll find songs about consent, female empowerment to simply just wanting to have sex.
We’ve compiled it all here!
Brown Eyed Girls – Sixth Sense
Although Brown Eyed Girls’ song “Sixth Sense” might come off as being a sexually-charged track, when coupled with its music video, the results are actually a lot more interesting.
According to one interpretation of the MV, “Sixth Sense” positions the girls as revolutionists combating against male oppression. Of course, this is pure speculation but the symbolism in the MV is overt enough to substantiate this reading.
In the video, female empowerment is represented in each member defiantly breaking out of their imposed prisons and creating their own image. Why be limited by what men tell you? You do you, girl!
I can’t be tamed, I can never, don’t touch touch, rush it, rush it”
Miss A – Bad Girl Good Girl
Similar to “Sixth Sense”, Miss A’s “Bad Girl Good Girl” also visits themes of female identity and perception as framed in the eyes of men.
Their lyrics takes aim at the assumptions that men make towards sexually forward women and simultaneously take apart representations of the “good girl” and “bad girl” image that’s ingrained in popular culture.
On the outside, I’m a Bad Girl, on the inside, I’m a Good Girl. You don’t even know me well, you only look at me from the outside.”
Big Bang – Bae Bae
If there was one word to sum up “Bae Bae”, it would be ‘sex’. If you have heard the song and watched the MV, you’ll understand what I mean when I say it’s all about sex.
In the song, K-Pop mainstays Big Bang sing about “making rice cakes” which is actually a common Korean slang for sex. If that wasn’t enough, the MV itself has a scene where rice cakes smash into one another. Not exactly subtle, huh?
If that’s not enough, a line about how “blood is rushing to that one place again” is also there for good measure. Just what are you trying to tell us, GD?
Like rice cakes, like rice cakes. Our chemistry, our chemistry”
Ga-in – Fxxk U
Ga-in is one of the Brown Eyed Girls and her solo song, “Fxxk U” shows how love can sometimes take a dark turn into something nasty. Various interpretations of the song and its accompanying music video as being about domestic abuse and rape have been made in fan communities and there’s definitely a lot here to help back up those claims.
We see several instances of Ga-in resisting sexual advances by her man in the video and from a lyrical perspective, she also sings about how despite her feelings of being forced upon that “we will be a destiny” which only signals the cycle of violence this type of abusive and unhealthy relationship can concoct.
As for what the singer has said about her song and video, according to an interview she did with Xports News she says, “This is a song that deals with the love and hatred between women who think ‘In my eyes, there is something lacking in earnestness’ and men who think ‘Do I have to love you more than this?'”.
Fxxk U, don’t want it now. I don’t wanna lay down next to you as if it’s natural”