Portrayals of non-heteronormative characters have been more and more present in the mass media since the last decades of the 20th century. K-pop male singers’ gender performativity is significant, as it challenges rigid gender binaries in western culture – homosexuality/heterosexuality, masculine/feminine body and behavior, and masculinized gaze/feminized object - as embodiments of hybridized male femininity, which this article calls liminal masculinity.
Moreover, through active engagement online, fans transcend their statuses from spectators to performers who actively enact alternative sexualities and gender roles in a public space. Through video editing, fans “choreograph” their desire by fetishizing K-pop male dancers’ specific body parts and movements, and transform themselves from displayed objects to the subjects of the gaze. By offering close readings of fan-made compilation videos and analyzing fans’ comments on YouTube, this article analyzes how K-pop male idols’ androgynous gender fluidity provides a space for queering female desire against normative white masculinity. Even though Zayn’s fashioning of masculinity calls attention to how gendered identities are constructed and performed in pop, I conclude that his representation in Pillowtalk conforms to heteronormative gender dynamics as much as it challenges them.Įmploying performance studies and queer studies, this article explores the subversive nature of western female fandom's consumption of male dancing bodies in Korean pop (K-pop) culture. By analyzing the music video Pillowtalk (2016), I demonstrate how provocative lyrical themes, shock effects, and surreal aesthetics showcase Zayn’s masculinity as dangerous and seductive. My methodological approach is grounded in critical musicology and involves investigating issues of personal narrative, sonic production, and audiovisual aesthetics. This article examines the considerable changes to image and style that accompanied Zayn’s transition to a solo career, and argues that a primary motivation for his reconfiguration as an artist lies in opposing the common stereotypes and prejudices associated with the boy band format. Zayn Malik’s debut solo album, Mind of Mine (2016), topped numerous charts worldwide and made him the only British male solo artist to have debuted at the top of the prestigious Billboard 200 album chart with a first album, thus extending the astounding commercial success he had previously achieved with the boy band One Direction.
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