The Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union (KHMU) is protesting against BLACKPINK's recently released music video for "Lovesick Girls," calling it blatant sexual objectification and a derogatory portrayal of nurses.
According to media reports, the KHMU heavily criticized a scene where member Jennie is seen in a nurse costume, pointing out the sexualization in "the far from realistic nurse attire consisting of a hair cap, tight and short skirt, and high heels."
The union added that although nurses are health care workers and medical professionals, they often undergo such disparaging portrayals and sexual objectification just because of the amount of women in that occupational category.
"Even though nurses have been fighting for a long time to improve this, YG Entertainment sexually objectified nurses in BLACKPINK's music video," they continued, reminding the public that nurses are still constantly exposed to abuse of power and sexual violence.
"This situation gets worse the more pop culture repeats its distorted image of nurses. Now that BLACKPINK's new song is ranked at the top of various global charts, we urge YG Entertainment to take responsible action to match its popularity and influence," they insisted.
In response, some netizens, many of whom identifying themselves as current nurses, are participating in hashtag campaigns, including '#Stop_Sexualizing_Nurses' and '#간호사는코스튬이아니다,' meaning "A nurse is not a costume" in Korean.
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Posted by Monday, October 5, 2020
BLACKPINK's 'Lovesick Girls' MV criticized by Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union for sexualized portrayal of nurses
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You can sexualize anything if you look hard enough. I think they're overreacting a bit on this one.
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