ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the K-pop celebrity idol and parasocial interaction between idols and fans, concentrating specifically on the position of the idol as a ‘parasocial kin’ in contemporary South Korean (hereafter, Korean) society. I argue that the position that the celebrity (and the manufactured idol in particular) occupies in the contemporary Korean mediascape makes them an object of both consumption and parasocial interaction in ways that construct the celebrity as an imagined ‘parasocial kin’. In other words, rather than simply functioning as an ‘idealised other’ to simply imitate or copy, the position of the celebrity idol constructs her or him simultaneously as an object of adulation and familial affection. Existing studies on celebrity cultures in Korea are typically very critical of celebrities as commercialised and manufactured objects of consumption – not to mention of patriarchal gaze – and therefore lacking in artistic or individual substance. The constructed and heavily commercialised nature of the K-pop idol requires a rethink as to what the impact of such manufactured cultural objects might be, particularly on the younger fans who establish and display parasocial attachment to and sometimes extreme identification processes with their significant idol. Yet the significant social function the K-pop idols as ‘parasocial kin’ construct for fans in Korea has been surprisingly little studied, albeit with some significant exceptions which this chapter will highlight. Perhaps because of the lack of in-depth studies on social relationships surrounding the celebrity idol in Korea, many existing studies see affective parasocial relationships as having a negative social impact on the Korean youth, be it as worrying examples of extreme cosmetic surgery makeovers and unattainable body image, or because of reports of so-called ‘copy-cat suicides’ following celebrity suicides, which have been attributed to extreme forms of identification with the deceased idol. In this chapter I argue that contemporary K-pop celebrity in particular deserves a close sociological study particularly because of the way in which idol/fan relationships are consumed and conceptualised in the familial framework in which the idol is positioned as an ‘older sibling’ and ‘parasocial kin’. Rather than presenting an impossible object of affection to be gazed at from afar, both the K-pop entertainment management companies’ structured engagement with the fans, which pointedly taps into the economic benefits of fostering parasocial relationships, and the very manufactured nature of the celebrity both demystify the celebrity and provide examples of successful living in the world for the teenage fan. I will illustrate this by highlighting on the very open way in which the celebrities’ self-transformations are documented and shared with the 191fans (including details of cosmetic surgery and training programmes), which most fans interpret as a form of positive and rational somatic entrepreneurship for the celebrity in question. The appeal of the celebrity is found in the potential for realising the upward social mobility that the celebrity appears to embody, as well as the access to fan groups off- and online that provides group identification and a sense of belonging in the increasingly fragmented and competitive social world of teenagers in particular. Finally, this chapter concludes with a discussion of idol appearances, cosmetic surgery and presentation of self. While it can be said that celebrities on the one hand normalise various technologies of the body such as cosmetic surgery (Blum 2003; Bordo 2003), I argue that because of the way in which ‘K-pop beauty’ is constructed as specific to ‘idol appearance’, moral panic about K-pop fans’ presumed inability to resist the surgeon’s knife to emulate celebrity bodies may in fact be somewhat overstated because it overlooks wider social discourses that pertain to the body and self-presentation in Korea.
