i think this agender approach to dance choreography would be good for both genders...?
I'm wary of this thinking. Usually when people mean "agender", the result often ends up upholding the status quo, and looking more masculine than feminine (because one is respected while the other isn't). I don't think forcing all groups to aim to do the same kind of choreos is the answer here. It can be nice if they do, though, but I'd be much happier if boy groups were allowed to do feminine-looking choreos, and girl group were allowed to do masculine-looking choreos, if everybody could widen their fields of expression and just embody a choreo no matter how feminine, masculine or neutral/agender it looks, because it would be what fits the concept and song more.
If a women does a choreo in which she appears to sell her body (much like Hyolyn does), it does not bother me one bit if she happens to do so willingly, it's her body, her agenda. If a men does a choreo in which he appears to sell his body (much like Taemin does), it's the same. The problem comes down to agenda & consent here. Like in the case of Stellar, they sometimes had none, and that's why it makes it difficult to enjoy those choreos when you know they've been forced to do it by the company. Also, I'd like to add that a ton of male kpop group choreos are extremely sexual anyway, and intended to be that way. The way they express it is usually different than girl groups though, their moves look more active and assertive about it. But most of them are still selling their bodies here, just in a different way than girl groups are.
I was too busy googling why female idols fainting on stage seems to happen more often than with their male peers to delve into the latest shitty diet plans that added to their fatigue in the first place. Bolded for truth btw
Not to be that person, but since you bolded it for truth, maybe it seems to happen more often, because tabloids are more likely to make headlines with those, talk about those and bring it to the table when it happens to be a women fainting, because again, intense scrutiny, but that in truth, male idols do have tons of uneasiness and exhaustion moments on stage? Sure, it doesn't always look as dramatic as Krystal fainting, but it still happen nonetheless, and in amounts that I don't believe should be brushed off so easily in order to support what your initial argument implied.
dieting and working out for a "fit" look, which is what most companies have boy groups do, is much closer to a healthy lifestyle than dieting for a "delicate" look which is what most companies/the industry in general want of female artists. this isn't a kpop specific thing, the global modeling industry and ballet for example have much the same issues.
Yeah, you're right, those diet plans definitely look super healthy to me.
The Kpop industry doesn't, for the most part, put a lot of pressure on their male idols to be muscular, as looking thin is still the main goal here. If they happen to have abs and be ripped, then good, but more often than not, they don't build up a lot of mass because that just isn't the ideal of beauty there. So overall, dieting is still the main way to go for the majority of male idols.
Anyhow, my point still stands, male idols do perform high energetic choreos while undergoing strict and even dangerous diets, so the argument that girl groups can't perform such choreos because they'd be hindered by their diets anyway is a rather fallacious one to me. Especially when you see many girl group members performing those choreos in all their gloriousness without missing a beat.
Kpop diet culture is a problem that needs fixing, and overall tends to impact women a bit more than men, but this isn't the major factor here explaining why female Kpop idols do not perform masculine choreos. Gender expectations are that major factor, the rest is mostly just inconsequential background noise.
