Abstract

This research investigated the sexualization of male and female idols in K-pop music videos, focusing on how fashion and accessories are utilized to project sexual appeal. A content analysis was conducted on 200 characters in K-pop music videos, with a systematic coding approach used to identify and categorize portrayals of sexualization and the use of fetishized styling. This research was guided by one main hypothesis: Females are sexualized more than males in K-pop music videos. The findings showed that female idols were more frequently sexualized through provocative fashion choices and sexually alluring actions rather than fetishized clothing and fantasized contexts compared to their male counterparts, revealing a gender imbalance in the portrayal of sexualized imagery in K-pop. Given the global scale and influence of the K-pop industry, this research provides a more in-depth perspective on gendered sexualization, highlighting how gendered expectations and societal desires are embedded in the representation of K-pop idols and subsequently broadcast to millions of viewers worldwide.

Keywords: K-pop, sexualization, gender, fashion, fetishized clothing, music videos, content analysis.

Sexualization of Females and Males in K-pop Music Videos

Sexualization in media, particularly in music videos, has long been a subject of scrutiny. From the portrayal of women as sexual objects to the use of clothing and accessories to enhance visual appeal, the media often shapes public perceptions of gender and sexuality (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). In the realm of K-pop, a global cultural phenomenon, the trend of sexualization is especially pronounced, with idols often being portrayed in a sexualized manner that is both overt and subtle (Jung, 2013). K-pop’s widespread popularity has brought to light how the industry’s fashion choices and image-building strategies intersect with gendered expectations and desires (Grabe & Hyde, 2009). While female idols frequently dominate the conversation surrounding sexualization, male idols are increasingly subjected to similar scrutiny, although in different ways (Jung, 2013).

This research explored the increasing trend of sexualization in K-pop music videos, with a focus on how male and female idols are portrayed differently through their fashion choices. While female idols are often sexualized through provocative clothing such as school uniforms, maid costumes, and skin-revealing outfits (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011), male idols also adopt stylized looks that include military-inspired jackets, chokers, and other accessories that evoke power and dominance (Huang, 2024). The growing sexualization of male idols in K-pop complicates traditional gender roles and introduces a new level of ambiguity, blurring the lines between masculinity and femininity.

This content analysis of 200 characters in the K-pop music videos aims to investigate the sexualization of male and female idols, examining whether the portrayal of females as sexual objects exceeds that of males. The significance of the research is that it offers an in-depth review of how gendered sexualization occurs in the globally influential K-pop industry raising awareness about how the industry shapes gender and desirability norms for millions of fans not only in South Korea but worldwide.

Literature Review

Western/Global Values of Sexualization in Music Videos

The sexualization of women in music videos is a persistent and global phenomenon, heavily shaped by Western media practices. Sexualization refers to the representation of individuals in ways that emphasize their sexual appeal or behavior, often reducing them to objects of desire (American Psychological Association, 2007). In the Western context, music videos frequently use visual cues such as revealing clothing, seductive dance routines, and close-up shots of body parts to depict women as sexualized subjects (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011). While some scholars argue that sexual expression can be a form of agency, others caution that the commercial context frequently undermines this by framing women through a commodified, male-centered gaze (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).

While both men and women can be objectified in music videos, women are far more likely to be presented as passive, decorative figures, whereas men are portrayed as active and dominant (Lee, 2012). A content analysis observed that, even outside of Western settings, men are frequently depicted in authoritative roles, while women's bodies are primarily showcased for visual enjoyment (Kozman et al., 2021). This asymmetry supports the concept of "male gaze," where women are portrayed primarily to satisfy heterosexual male viewers. Gender disparities in the depiction of sexualization are evident. Female performers are often portrayed in subordinate and sexualized roles, while male performers are depicted as dominant and aggressive, reinforcing the notion of female subservience and male dominance (Grabe & Hyde, 2009).

South Korean Culture and Sexualization in K-pop Music Videos

K-pop, short for Korean popular music, broadly refers to the music, fashion, and cultural products originating from South Korea (Liu, 2023). Since the late 1990s, South Korean pop culture has expanded internationally, initially gaining traction in China and Southeast Asia, before evolving into a global phenomenon. In recent years, K-pop groups like BTS and BLACKPINK have topped global charts and cultivated massive fan bases (Liu, 2023).

As K-pop expanded, its visuals and performance styles increasingly reflected South Korean societal values, particularly around beauty and gender. Beauty standards emphasizing fair skin, slim physiques, and youthful appearances significantly shape media portrayals (Grabe & Hyde, 2009). These ideals intersect with the sexualization of female idols, where objectification and gendered portrayals are prevalent (Lee, 2012).

Sexualization in K-pop music videos can be understood through four key dimensions—body exposure, fetishized clothing, fantasized contexts, and global sexualization—which together capture how sexual imagery is constructed and consumed (Huang, 2024). These variables reflect distinct yet interconnected aspects of gender portrayal (Kim, 2019), enabling a multidimensional analysis of disparities. Body exposure and fetishized clothing align with theories linking physical display to self-objectification (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), while fantasized contexts and globalized aesthetics often exoticize femininity for cross-cultural markets (Jung, 2013).

One primary avenue of sexualization is clothing and styling. Female idols are often dressed in revealing outfits like short skirts and crop tops, highlighting their bodies to align with ideals of femininity and sexual allure (Jung, 2013). Accessories like fishnet stockings, chokers, and schoolgirl uniforms further amplify sexualized imagery (Lee, 2012). In contrast, male idols are typically styled in tight clothing that highlights physique but avoids the same degree of sexualized objectification. Their fashion choices often emphasize masculinity and strength rather than body exposure (Jonas, 2022). Body language also plays a critical role: female idols frequently use suggestive expressions like lip biting and winking, aligning with passive femininity norms (Kim, 2020), while male idols adopt dominant or aggressive postures (Lee, 2012). These patterns reinforce gendered disparities, with women depicted as vulnerable or passive and men as assertive or dominant (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011).

Camera techniques further accentuate sexualization, especially for female idols. Slow-motion effects and lingering close-ups often focus on sexualized body parts like legs, cleavage, and midriffs (Jonas, 2022). In contrast, male idols are less frequently subjected to such objectifying camera work, with framing tending to emphasize performance over body sexualization (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011).

Sexualization has become increasingly prominent in K-pop videos for both genders, with more skin exposure across artists (Huang, 2024). Groups like Girls' Generation frequently wear fishnet stockings and small shorts while dancing provocatively, exemplifying key elements of sexualization (Jung, 2013). Beyond clothing, the use of slow-motion shots and visual techniques also reinforces objectification (Fredrickson, 1997).

Fetishized clothing and accessories operate as symbolic mechanisms for gendered desire, utilizing items like school uniforms, maid costumes, chokers, and thigh-highs (Huang, 2024). These elements project stylized eroticism, blending innocence with sexual suggestiveness, often serving the male gaze (Kim, 2019). Fetishized styling thus contributes alongside body exposure and fantasized contexts to constructing sexualized imagery.

In girl groups, items like school uniforms and maid costumes create a "safe" sexualization, maintaining an image of youthfulness while inviting more suggestive readings (Kim, 2019). Accessories like chokers and thigh-highs are strategically integrated into choreography, subtly accentuating sexual cues (Huang, 2024). This approach enables commercial appeal while maintaining public perceptions of innocence (Sanchez, 2023). Male idols also embody carefully constructed aesthetics. Military jackets, leather harnesses, earrings, and sheer garments project hyper-controlled masculinity (Kim, 2020). Items like crop tops and chokers worn by male performers complicate gender norms, presenting curated ambiguity that appeals to diverse audiences (Kim, 2019). Clothing choices thus serve branding strategies that navigate tradition, sensuality, and innovation (Jonas, 2022; Huang, 2024).

The K-pop industry uses sexualization strategically to maximize profitability and global appeal. Companies create a feedback loop by sexualizing idols through costumes and choreography to stimulate fan engagement, which in turn reinforces further sexualization (Huang, 2024). This strategy co-opts neoliberal feminism to market sexual liberation as a consumable product, especially in Asian markets (Kim, 2019). Female idols are disproportionately hypersexualized compared to male idols, often exoticized to cater to cross-cultural demand for Asian femininity (Sanchez, 2023). These market strategies blend Korean aesthetics with Western hypersexuality to build transnational fanbases (Kim, 2020).

However, over-reliance on sexualization risks oversaturation and negative effects on idols' well-being, highlighting the tension between profitability and sustainability (Huang, 2024). Prior research consistently finds that females are more sexualized than males in Korean music videos (Sanchez, 2023). Female characters are often portrayed in sexist roles, such as backup dancers or accessories to enhance male idols' images (Sanchez, 2023). Provocative clothing is significantly more common among female artists compared to males (Huang, 2024). Overall, Korean music videos reinforce patriarchal gender norms and expectations rather than promoting empowerment, despite appearances (Kim, 2019). This leads to the main hypothesis of the research:

H1: Females are sexualized more than males in K-pop music videos.

Methodology

A content analysis will be conducted on male and female characters sampled from K-pop music videos.

Sampling

This research employed a two-tier stratified sampling method to select a sample of 200 male and female characters from K-pop music videos. The original list of K-pop bands was obtained from the online database "Kpopping" and cross-verified with live YouTube subscriber counts. Forty bands were selected based on popularity, divided into two strata by gender: 20 male groups and 20 female groups. Within each stratum, bands were ranked according to subscriber count, and every second band was selected. This approach ensured a representative range of bands with varying levels of viewership.

From each selected band, the five most-viewed music videos were identified using YouTube's filter tools. Given that highly viewed videos are more likely to contain sexualized content (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011), focusing on popular videos was considered appropriate for maximizing the identification of sexualization indicators. YouTube was selected as the platform because it remains the most widely used site for accessing K-pop music videos globally.

Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis was the first-appearing male and female character in each music video. Characters included lead singers, band members, dancers, supporting singers, or actors. Characters were selected following a protocol that prioritized lead singers when multiple characters appeared simultaneously. If no lead singer was present, coders selected the character appearing on the left side of the frame. In total, 200 characters were sampled across 100 music videos.

A minimum screen time of three seconds was required for a character to be eligible for coding. Characters appearing for less than three seconds were excluded, in line with past research recognizing the rapid editing pace typical of music videos (Dickinson, 2012). This minimum exposure time was considered sufficient for coders to reliably identify facial expressions, body language, and clothing.

Measures

Sexualization was conceptualized as instances where facial expressions and body parts are shown as objects of sexual nature. However, such sexualization was also defined in terms of the type of fetishized or non-fetishized style and sexually alluring movements and expressions (Aubrey & Frisby 2011; Kozman et al., 2021; Sanchez, 2013). Following these frameworks, we measured sexualization in terms of clothing and styling and body language for both males and females in K-pop music videos.

V1 is the character’s gender that was coded as either male or female.

Coders evaluated V2, clothing and styling, for body exposure and the presence of fetishized styles or accessories. Body exposure was measured by coding whether cleavage/pecs, thighs/buttocks, and stomach/pelvis were visibly exposed, on a scale from 0 (no exposure) to 3 (three areas exposed), following Kozman et al.'s (2021) scale. Fetishized clothing or accessories, such as chokers, school uniforms, or fishnet material, were coded as present or absent.

V3, body language is defined by global sexualization which are the sexually alluring actions of the character. This behavior was coded using a modified version of Kozman et al.'s (2021) subordinate display scale. Coders identified the presence and intensity of sexually suggestive actions, rated from 0 (none) to 4 (sexual movement such as touching genitalia or lip licking). Intermediate levels included subtle gestures like hair touching, seductive expressions like lip biting, and sexually suggestive posing.

V4 was fantasized contexts in which coders assessed whether the character appeared within a fantasized setting, such as schoolgirl or "dominant alpha male" themes, coded as 0 (no) or 1 (yes).

Results

In our sample, more female characters (N = 105, 52%) were featured in music videos than male characters (N = 95, 48%). There was equal number of videos from ‘all male bands’ (N = 100, 50%) and ‘all female bands’ (N = 100, 50%).

H1, which stated that the females were sexualized more than males in K-pop music videos, was partially supported. There were four measures (body exposure, global sexualization, fetishized style and fantasized context) for sexualization which were tested with gender, out of which body exposure and gender and global sexualization and gender were found to be significant.

The first t-test revealed a significant relationship between body exposure and gender, showing that females (M = 1.11, SD = 0.776) wore more revealing clothes than males (M = 0.15, SD = 0.385), t(155.558) = -11.320, p < 0.001.

The second t-test revealed a significant relationship between global sexualization and gender, showing that females (M = 0.76, SD = 0.687) displayed more sexually alluring actions than males (M = 0.51, SD = 0.77), t(198) = -2.491, p < 0.01.

A chi square test revealed an insignificant relationship between fantasized contexts and gender, x2(1, N = 200) = 2.214, p n.s. Results showed that there was no relationship between the character being in a fantasized context with their gender.

Another chi square test revealed an insignificant relationship between fetishized style and gender, x2(1, N = 200) = 0.016, p n.s. This test showed that there was no connection between characters having a fetishized style in the video with their gender.

Discussion

The present research aimed to investigate gendered patterns of sexualization in K-pop music videos by conducting a content analysis of the first-appearing male and female characters in each video. A total of 200 characters were coded across a sample of popular K-pop videos, with characters defined broadly to include lead singers and supporting dancers. Sexualization was operationalized through four measures: body exposure, global sexualization, fantasized contexts, and fetishized styling. The hypothesis, female characters would be sexualized more frequently than male characters, was partially supported. Significant relationships were found for global sexualization and body exposure with gender. However, no significant relationship was found for fantasized contexts and fetishized styling and gender.

The significant relationship between gender and body exposure is consistent with Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). The greater visibility of female characters' bodies—particularly the stomach, cleavage, and thighs—demonstrates how women are framed primarily as visual objects. This finding reinforces how bodily display remains a key mechanism of sexual objectification in music media (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011). In contrast, male characters were more clothed and conveyed sexualization through dominant performances, aligning with Jung’s (2011) observation that K-pop masculinity is constructed through power rather than bodily exposure. Body exposure was especially pronounced in male-led videos (videos in which males had priority in screen time), where women often supported or idolized male figures. In female-led videos, men appeared more peripherally and did not perform dominant roles. This highlights how women’s bodies are used to sustain male-centered narratives (Jonas, 2022) and contribute to K-pop’s global commercial appeal (Kim, 2019; Liu, 2023).

The significant relationship between gender and global sexualization further shows how sexually alluring behaviors are strategically deployed to enhance the act's marketability. Female characters engaged more in lip biting, seductive gazing, and suggestive posing, reinforcing femininity as passive and desirable (Jonas, 2022; Sanchez, 2023). These behaviors often targeted male figures in male-led videos, while in female-led videos, they were directed at the camera, suggesting an address to an implied male viewer (Jonas, 2022). Furthermore, K-pop’s global expansion likely influenced the adoption of Westernized visual sexualization strategies (Huang, 2024). Meanwhile, male idols’ avoidance of overtly sexualized behaviors and focus on stylization or dominant roles (Jung, 2011) suggests enduring differences in how male and female performances are visually constructed.

The non-significant findings for fantasized contexts and fetishized clothing suggest a more complex dynamic in K-pop’s use of visual sexualization. While earlier research emphasized fantasy settings as a site for female sexualization (Huang, 2024), our narrower operationalization—focused on physical backgrounds—may not have captured more layered performances. Additionally, in Korean idol culture, fantasy often emphasizes youthfulness and versatility rather than overt sexualization (Liu, 2023). Similarly, although fetishized clothing has historically reinforced gendered sexualization (Jonas, 2022; Huang, 2024), our findings did not show a significant gender difference in its use. This absence of a clear pattern may suggest that stylistic elements like chokers and uniform aesthetics are increasingly incorporated across male and female performances for commercial purposes (Huang, 2024). However, given the lack of significance, gendered dynamics may persist in ways not captured within our coding framework.

Overall, these findings contribute to understanding how K-pop maintains and adapts gendered sexualization within a rapidly globalizing industry. While bodily exposure and sexually alluring behaviors remain distinctly gendered, stylistic elements like fantasy and fetishization show signs of becoming more commercially neutral. These shifts suggest that commercial imperatives increasingly shape how gender is visually represented.

Several limitations should be noted. First, the measurement of fantasized contexts may have under captured layered thematic performances by focusing only on background settings. Second, gaze or audience perception was not assessed, limiting conclusions about how sexualized portrayals are experienced by viewers. Third, because characters were coded based only on their first appearance without regard to full screen time, important shifts in character portrayal across the video were overlooked. Fourth, the imbalance between the number of female and male characters coded may have affected the findings, as these findings were comparisons between males and females.

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