How Megan Thee Stallion's Collab With BTS Might Empower K-Pop Fans To Challenge Beauty Standards
Korean fangirls embrace hot girl Meg.
Kathy Hutchins & DFree / Shutterstock Megan Thee Stallion Hotties and BTS ARMY are very excited to hear that the one and only hot girl is teaming up with the Korean boy band.
BTS and Megan Thee Stallion have such an impressive fan base that by doing a collaboration together they are expanding their audience and maybe even empowering young girls in Korea.
Both Megan's fans, as well as BTS fans, are excited for each other that these two powerhouses are doing a collab.
What's even more exciting is the influence Megan has to attract ARMY fans with her body positivity and female empowerment.
Megan Thee Stallion and BTS are challenging K-Pop beauty standards.
According to an article from Koreaboo, a digital media company that covers Korean pop culture for English readers from around the world, K-Pop has altered its fan's perception of body image in an unhealthy way.
Traditional beauty standards for Korean women are extremely strict.
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Many Korean women aspire to be thin, tall, fair-skinned, have a small face, v-shaped jaw, straight eyebrows, flawless skin, larger eyes — likely influence by harmful Western beauty standards.
Some K-Pop fans see this standard as unrealistic, and dangerously unhealthy. Megan Thee Stallion challenges both Western and Korean norms.
MAMAMOO's Hwasa has been challenging K-Pop's beauty standard.
One K-Pop female star who has started to change this beauty standard is Hwasa from the girl group MAMAMOO, and Megan Thee Stallion's influence might aide her message.
Hwasa has spoken out about colorism in Korea, as she isn't considered fair-skinned.
She has seen the worst side of the unrealistic beauty standards, even claiming an industry agent once told her, "You’re fat and not pretty."
Megan Thee Stallion and BTS's 'Butter' collab may emphasize feminism in K-Pop.
The feminist movement is still in its early years in Korea and, for some, it still considered a dirty word.
This is because there is a demonization of feminist discourse and ideology going on in South Korea as the term has been misconstrued as inherently radical and misandrist. Therefore speaking about feminist discourse is promoting hostility and fear in young Korean men and furthering misogynist attitudes and conservative politics.
This has seeped its way into K-Pop also. According to the Korean Herald, even RM from BTS was singled out from an anti-feminist website calling him a ‘verified feminist’.
Megan Thee Stallion, on the other hand, has been inspiring and empowering to young women just like Hwasa has been in Korea.
Megan is known for empowering women, supporting body positivity, feminism as well as activism, and being unapologetically yourself.
Fans can hope that Megan can have a positive influence on young Korean girls and women, inspiring them to wear what they want, be who they are, and be a hot girl who likes her body the way it is.
We can see this sort of reaction in Korean YouTube reaction videos. One Korean YouTube account called "OSSC" had posted reaction videos of young 20-something Koreans — both men and women — reacting to Megan Thee Stallion music videos.
In the reaction video to "Hot Girl Summer", the young 20-something Korean girls loved it saying "it's so hot" and added that "her body shape is just so beautiful."
Another girl seemed like she was inspired watching the "Big Ole Freak" music video as Megan's lyrics are very sexually explicit, "She's so cool that she speaks out those things but not being ashamed."
In another Korean YouTube React video, from the Korean YouTube channel "Awesome World," Heejae, a Korean woman featured on the account, reacted to Megan Thee Stallions "Body" music video.
"I feel like I've become 'that b*tch," after watching, she said.
Megan inspires people all over the world who listen to her music as she embodies the feminism we need in the 21st century.
Therefore, maybe this collab with BTS and Megan Thee Stallion can challenge the standard K-Pop body image and Korean women can be empowered by a Black woman who is sex-positive, curvy, and strong.
She can inspire Korean girls to be who they are and feel okay expressing their sexuality.
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Megan Hatch is a writer at YourTango who covers pop culture, love and relationships, and self-care.