The Korea Times reports that the Fair Trade Commission has taken action that “bans sexualizing teen stars:”
Government officials are attempting to prevent the revealing styles of teenage pop idols as they warn against the media’s portrayal of young women as sex objects.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) Friday announced a new guideline for standard contract terms between production companies and artists, which include preventing underage singers from dressing in excessively sexual clothing. Management shouldn’t deprive the boys and girls in showbiz from their educational opportunities either, the FTC said, and needs to protect them from long working hours.
Well, announcing a guideline ought to put a stop to all of this. Now entertainment companies won’t have their teen stars wear skirts so short they show off their underwear, and the media will stop portraying “young women as sex objects.”
Such as this Joongang Ilbo article which was at the top of Naver awhile ago titled “Chinese netizens go wild over Son Yeon-jae,” which gave a matter-of-fact account of what Chinese netizens were writing about the girl known in Korea as the ‘gymnastics pixie’ (much as Kim Yuna was once the ‘figure pixie’). It was mostly stuff like “A Korean girl like a dream,” “absolutely perfect,” “a Korean body you can’t help but dream about.”
Much the same thing happened when Son appeared at the ‘LG Whisen Rhythmic All Star 2011′ gala show last Sunday, with Asia Gyeongje publishing a slew of photos from the show with titles like “Son Yeon-jae’s captivating look – her ‘pixie’ image disappears,” “Son Yeon-jae’s seductive beckoning,” “Son Yeon-jae shows off her S line,” and “Son Yeon-jae’s stand out s line“:
I suppose someone could point out she just turned 17 and that headlines like that might be inappropriate, but then, she is four years older than the age of consent, so perhaps it’s all okay after all. Besides, according to this, she may have wanted to get a reaction:
“I’ve always been seen with a cute and youthful image but now I want to show a transformed me.”
Mission accomplished. One wonders if that’s something she wants – or if its more her management’s idea. At any rate, being cute and known for your ‘S-line’ will probably ultimately mean more advertising contracts. As for the performance, the training video shows some ho-hum ’sexy’ dancing, but I’m more impressed by the ‘human windmill’ thing she does at 0:55.
You can read the original post at Gusts of Popular Feeling.
