“Female empowerment is being commercialized”: online reception of girl crush trend among feminist K-pop fans

Abstract

This paper critically analyses the newly emerging girl crush concept in the K-pop scene, exploring how this new claimed female-empowering trend interplays with K-pop fans’ perception of feminism and empowerment. Discourse analysis reveals that K-pop fans perceive the girl crush concept as a highly commodified form of feminism that essentially safeguards the patriarchal status quo and underlying gender power relations of the K-pop industry. Although few fans celebrate this girl group concept as potentially empowering, several fans indulge in counter-discourses critically reflecting on the presence of internalized Misogyny among K-pop fandoms while also calling for a need to embrace feminist values to achieve changes within the K-pop music industry.