I found Korean culture sexist and stifling. Then my kid fell in love with K-pop.

“Doesn’t it bother you that they had plastic surgery so they could all look the same?” I asked my teenage daughter. She was watching yet another K-pop video. The gender politics of these videos always made me seethe. In this one, the members of the girl band dressed up as various stereotypes: innocent schoolgirl, Asian beauty, cheerleader, cowgirl (in hot pants).

“No, I can tell them apart,” Allison replied, barely looking up from her iPad.

“Why do they dance like that?” I pressed, barely able to conceal my disgust at the hip thrusts and catwalks.

“Don’t worry, Mom, the boys are objectified just as much.”

By Stacy Kim, The Washington Post

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