The Rhetoric of Gay Inclusiveness in South Korean Gay Music Videos

Against the background of the homophobia prevalent in South Korea, this article offers an analysis of gay inclusiveness politics in South Korean gay music videos. As a way of critically intervening social injustice and discrimination toward the sexually nonconforming subjects and advocating gay inclusiveness in everyday life, gay musicians have relied on homonormative representation. In other words, seen from the perspective of gay singers, it is a political strategy consciously chosen to advance life of LGBTQ. This article, therefore, proposes to re-evaluate the political meaning and possibility of homonormative portrays of gay people and their relationships. Questioning the adequacy of Western-centric criticism against the homonormativity, this article calls for a more nuanced understanding of same-sex intimacies expressed in contemporary South Korean gay music videos.