Discourse analysis reveals racialized and classed policing of female empowerment in global K-pop fan reactions, highlighting structural boundaries around transnational post-feminist agency.
In September 2023, Lisa, BLACKPINK's Thai member, headlined five performances at Crazy Horse Paris, prompting polarized reactions across global digital publics. This article examines how fan backlash contested the legitimacy of Lisa's post-feminist celebrity persona across K-pop and Parisian cabaret. Drawing on feminist critical discourse analysis of Lisa's Instagram comments, it identifies three interlocking dynamics: policing of K-pop “girl crush” empowerment norms, racialized-nationalist regulation of Thai/Southeast Asian femininity, and classed gatekeeping that constructs Lisa as a “fallen” female elite lacking artistic agency. The article argues that as post-feminist meanings circulate transnationally, their recognition remains contingent on the cultural and industrial frames through which performances are read. By rejecting Lisa's Crazy Horse performance as empowerment or art, critics exposed the conditions that make K-pop's “girl crush” readable as empowered femininity while reproducing gendered, racialized, and classed hierarchies that shape whose sexual performance can be recognized as agentic, respectable, and artistically legitimate.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Jing Xu (2026) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: