Dear All Relevant Members of the Kpop Community,
Down–down, I say!–to Playboy bunny ears imagery in Kpop. It’s pervasive all over the world but I’m sick of this easy image being used to accompany a concept.
The first time I really understood that it was not some innocuous symbol was in 8th grade math class. There was a girl that wanted to be called Bunny because she thought that it was cute to reference Hefner and co. My teacher wasn’t going to call her that because–assured that it had nothing to do with family or ancestral nicknames–he knew it was demeaning. “It’s not cute to associate yourself with Playboy as an 8th grader.” He was right. And even when, or if, it’s “just” supposed to be cute, is it even worth it? When I see bunny ears on a human being I immediately find them uninteresting. It’s boring, easy and basic.
I can say that, personally, I find the entire Playboy franchise ridiculous and best left for the barely acceptable level of society in which it currently resides; so can we please, pretty please, stop incorporating it into our Korean pop culture? Let this trend die.
G-Dragon and TOP already responded to a polite request to remove their use of the Playboy bunny ears (left). The result is a much more interesting and original logo (right) for their current and possible future partner work. It’s clear why they decided to go with the bunny ears, despite claims that it had more to do with the year of the rabbit than brand recognition, the playboy bunny evokes the idea of the luxury lifestyle full of any thing you want at your finger tips: money, cars, and, most importantly, women.
F(x)‘s Victoria added to the inappropriate use of the iconic symbol for IPKN Cosmetics ads. The ears are supposed to be cute but all it ends up being is an homage to the institution that helped sustain and strengthen the notion that it’s a-okay to negatively objectify women.
Bunny ears are cute, but it’s hard to separate them from what made them so popular in the first place (perhaps only made more notorious by Easter), Playboy Enterprises. Let’s say you can put them in a cute vacuum. Still silly. Here’s Hyo Sung from Secret wearing a pair to a fan meet. Why?
Suzy‘s Miss A also finds herself clutching on to them for dear life in a photo shoot. …Why?
A Pink (what an awful name) wear the bunny ears in this recent photo op. WHY? (And not just the ears)
[Edit: A Pink were wearing bow headbands with wires in them which one could point up as bunny ears, as they appear to do in the pic.]
It’s enough–enough, I say!–they don’t make you more interesting, they’re not that cute and when they’re paired with something vaguely sexy or lolita-ish it acquires a whole other unsavory meaning. So let’s cut the bunny ears from the next photo shoot, okay?
xxxx,
Nia
