TWICE: Rejoicing Femininity

The fact that I hated these girls just for their concepts really hurts me to this day.

Like I promised in my last blog, I am here with a new article on another trendy and popular South Korean idol group known as TWICE. Currently they are the leading girl group idols in the Pop world of South Korea. In this blog, I will share my experience about how TWICE made me embrace my feminine, youthful and cutesy side while not making me feel fragile or unimportant. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who got converted.

Who are these girls?

TWICE is a group of nine beautiful and talented girls who debuted on October 20, 2015 from the popular company JYP Entertainment with their hit single “Ooh Ahh”. The members, in no particular order, includes Nayeon, Sana, Mina, Momo, Chaeyoung, Dahyun, Tzuyu, Jihyo and Jeongyeon. Among them, Sana, Mina and Momo are from Japan and Tzuyu is from Taiwan. The rest of them are South Koreans.

Their debut music video “Ooh Ahh” was the first debut music video which hit 50 million views on YouTube within five months of their debut and became the most viewed debut music video for any Kpop group. Well, I watched it myself and I know why it was so popular. Not only the music has a catchy beat but the concept of their music video was curing zombies with their amazing vocal and dance skills. And who doesn’t like a good zombie flick. It was mainly their unique concept along with a fantastic song that made them so appealing, and not to mention, each of them is an embodiment of innocent beauty.

Okay, enough chit-chat. Let’s get to the main point of this article, now.

TWICE cured my internalized sexism.

I was always a strong believer of egalitarianism. I believe that all people should get equal rights and opportunities based solely on their skills and talents and nothing else. But what I didn’t realize was that, at the same time, I had internalized sexism embedded in me. I applauded when women published scientific discoveries or won a wrestling match but at the same time, I bashed on women who introduced a new sort of nail art or became a successful model (I’m sorry, guys. But trust me, I’m a changed person now.)

What I forgot was that women can be both sexy and sweet; women can be both smart and creative and no matter what you do (unless it harms you or others), every hard work should be applauded. I accepted half of womanhood while rejecting the rest (I’m talking only about women because my sexism was towards women, not men). But, my views changed when I saw TWICE.

Earlier, I basically hated Kpop songs with cutesy concepts, especially girl groups. I felt second-hand embarrassment and cringe while watching them. Compared to popular hip-hop male groups, I felt like cutesy concepts were for talentless people, who just wanted to get easy fame through physical appearance. I’m sorry if the words sound harsh, but I have to tell it the exact way I felt and to let you guys know how extreme my backward thoughts were before I got changed.

Anyways, so as you know from my last blog, I am an Army and this one time, BTS was fighting against TWICE in a music show (I forgot what exactly the show was, probably Mnet). This got me curious. I decided to check which girl group is so popular that they are competing against these awesome boy group and the first song I heard by TWICE, out of pure curiosity, was “Cheer up”. And believe me guys, this song was so catchy. I really liked the song but I still wasn’t into cutesy concepts. I checked the comment section and found that I was not the only one who hated cute songs. In fact, it still hurts me to see their number of haters to this day.

I became less judgmental.

I decided to hear to give TWICE a chance and check a few other songs. I heard “TT”. My first reaction was another cringe-worthy song. They did so well last time. But, for some reason, I kept coming back to the song. Moreover, the more I heard it, the more I liked it and the more I got interested. And I could not figure out why. But then, when I thought about it, I realized that the problem was neither the song nor its concept. I was basically and purely my mentality. It was because my internalized sexist attitude won’t let me enjoy something I want to enjoy. TWICE made me realize that being cute and girly can be just as empowering as being witty and smart. In fact, cuteness has nothing to do with one’s intellect in the first place.

I thank TWICE for making such a huge impact on me.

Thanks to this amazing group for making me understand empowerment is not what you show to the other people or changing yourself to conform to others’ ideas. Empowerment is when you are confident in your own skin and in your own ideologies. Being cute is not a weakness. Rather if you are confident, it can just be as powerful.

That’s all, guys. I hope you liked this article.