Monday, October 22, 2012

vote gangnam style--whatever that means




just how many phone calls did it take for this to happen? And did john lewis know what gangnam style is or did someone have to explain the phenomenon (and if so, who)? how is it relevant to voting? it's not like gangnam style was a thing that predated the song. And I don't know of an equivalent. At least the Macarena was a real dance. still, you gotta love john lewis, doing whatever it takes to draw attention to the importance of voting. 

I know yall have been dying to ask me about gangnam style but held back bc you were afraid of appearing...racially insensitive. Yeah, you were right to stop yourself. also, i learned all about kpop from the new yorker, so the joke would have been on you. in any case, when even the pres of the world bank (korean-american!) is asked about the phenomenon and he responds seriously about how psy is the manifestation of a deliberate, longterm economic and cultural strategy, you know this shit is bigger than all of us.

As I watch this gangnam style thing from the sidelines I wanna know:  how is psy affecting Asian men outside of asia? based on zero evidence except my own intuition, I thought one of the most important things Jeremy lin did was to elevate Asian masculinity. Now when kids get bullied for being Asian, maybe they won't be called long duk dong. Progress! Not unlike the time the lady at the Weiner circle called me Lucy Liu instead of Margaret cho. I look like neither, but the margaret cho thing really cuts deep, man.

Are Asian dudes now afraid of being mistaken for this pudgy--relatively inoffensive yet not entirely flattering--guy? I tried to look for other Asian dudes in present day pop culture, but in terms of sheer visibility, psy and jlin really have no parallels. Sure, there's john cho, that guy from lost/Hawaii 5-o, and, as I discovered recently, a fairly prominent character on walking dead. (Btw, I've never seen that show. Apparently his character dates a white girl, which I get is some ringing endorsement of Asian male sex appeal?).  or are asian guys still just assumed to be martial arts experts with broken english because of bruce lee and jackie chan?

anyway, in whatever style, vote!

1 comment:

bloomie said...

Dude that video is BEYOND absurd. I don't yet know what I think about your larger question, but that video is kray kray,