K-뷰티의 미백 문화에 대한 인종과 젠더의 상호교차적 연구를 위한 시론: 화이트워싱/옐로우워싱 논쟁을 중심으로

초록

With the expansion of Hallyu, Korean beauty culture called ‘K-beauty’ is gaining its popularity. While K-beauty has proved its power via market figure, it also requires more qualitative cultural interpretation, because the beauty norm of a society is not only closely related to the gender and racial identity performance but also raises the issue of subject and power. In recognition of its significance, this study examines the skin-whitening culture of Korean society, which is the core of K-beauty conventions and explores what kind of changes and challenges it produces in terms of racial and gender imagery of Asians. Recently, some international fans of K-pop have accused the photos of K-pop idols as ‘whitewashing’, but others refute this perspective as ‘yellowwashing’, thereby triggering the critical debate on the racial identity and performativity of Asians. Moreover, as whitewashing/yellowwashing debate is focused on male idols, it also raises the questions in terms of gender performativity. The soft masculinity of Korean male idols is recognized as a new alternative against toxic masculinity of western society. Thus, the intersectional identity performativity produced by K-beauty needs to be recognized as a new field of research.

키워드