Onlyoneof gay
Discovering Love and Affirmation in OnlyOneOf
In this personal essay, J Onyeka explores how k-pop group OnlyOneOf continues to draw in recent listeners.
During a voice call a couple years ago, one of my friends asked if I wanted to watch the harmony video for a K-Pop collective, OnlyOneOf, whose comeback concept was, in her words, “homosexuality”. I didn’t care much for Korean boy groups but I immediately said yes because I didn’t believe we would actually watch anything gay.
I’ve been online drawn-out enough to know that the merest glance between two members in a group could be pointed out as something male lover. (Example: there’s a moment between Red Velvet members in the “Psycho” () MV where they hold hands and run up a set of stairs. Not much is happening there but fans latch onto anything they can.)
The MV for “libidO” (), the lead song off the mini-album Instinct Part. 1, starts with the choreography. JunJi ties a rope around YooJung’s wrists; when his hands are released YooJung plays with his possess rope before it cuts to soft camera work focusing on the members Love, Nine, and Mill in thei
OnlyOneOf&#;s "Libido" and Queer-baiting in K-pop
The K-pop industry has always stayed ahead of marketing trends. It’s this heavy emphasize in marketing that has allowed the industry’s global popularity to soar to astounding heights, bringing in devout fans from all walks of life, adv outside the borders of South Korea. Likewise, this surge in popularity has seen a increase in LGTBQ fans &#; a trend that has not gone unnoticed by K-pop companies. In lieu of actual representation, however, the K-pop industry has met their ever-growing LGTBQ fanbase with the tactic of queer-baiting. And in a long, lengthy list of releases, OnlyOneOf’s “Libido” comeback is the most recent queer-baiting perpetrator.
In media, queer-baiting is the practice of ambiguously hinting at same-sex relationships without ever confirming said relationships to be real. Born out of “shipping” identity in online fandoms, wherein fans enjoy to imagine the could-be relationships between their questionably intimate favorite characters, queer-baiting is a tactic used to string along fans in the hopes their fic
“The concert venue was packed with LGBTQIA fans who felt totally safe to be themselves”
BY RAI POWELL, IMAGE BY GETTY IMAGES
K-pop fandoms hold been plagued by homophobia for decades and it’s no surprise when the conservative country it originates from still doesn’t let same-sex marriage. But, despite backlash and protests from religious groups, Saturday 1 June saw some , people gather in central Seoul, the capital of South Korea, to celebrate the 25th annual Pride Parade. Petty steps are (very) leisurely being made towards same-sex attracted rights in the state with the help of K-pop groups who are pushing boundaries and doing their best to back their LGBTQIA fans and express that all-important representation. On Sunday 2 June, I went to my first K-pop concert at Heaven in London, and it was the most beautiful experience.
I recently watched Bump Up Business, a Korean drama with a queer storyline which centres around two K-Pop idols who are forced by their management company to portray a ‘gay concept’ to make money but end up falling in love f