Everything you can do, I can do . . . the same? funnier?
I've been thinking about this since SBS Gayo Daejun. It was the first time the approach in gendering stages and performances really hit me because there were comments at the time about which of the "change" stages people enjoyed more: the girls covering guys' songs or the guys covering girls' songs.
But the thing was . . . the gender divide offered completely different types of entertainment value. That is, the girls did straight up serious covers (singing, costuming, dancing) of SHINee's "Ring Ding Dong," G-Dragon's "Heartbreaker," Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry," and 2PM's "Heartbeat." The guys did campy, fun parodies of Brown Eyed Girls' "Sign," 4minute's "Muzik," Kara's "Mister," SNSD's "Gee," and T-ara's "Bo Peep Bo Peep."
This isn't the first time that gender-switched dance stages have gone this way. MBC Star Dance Battle: SNSD vs. Super Junior. SNSD did "Sorry Sorry" and then a mini-Michael Jackson tribute in all dancing seriousness. Super Junior did a medley of parody dances to popular songs like "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)": fun and campy. Guess who won according to the audience voting?
What I mean to point out is: do the girls have to prove themselves to be "as good as the guys" while the guys have leeway to have fun with their gender-switched cover stages? Or is the "camping up" of the stages a form of making it acceptable for guys to do girls' stages, which may be choreographed to be femininely "sexy" and thus filled with waves and self-touching that may make a man feel a bit emasculated, the way that "performing it seriously and the same way the guys do" is the acceptable form of girls covering guys' stages?
Or, now that I've phrased it that way, is it also only acceptable that girls "take the guys' choreography" seriously? That is, have there been stages where girls do parodies of guys' stages? I think Children of Empire/ZE:A has done more or less straight up dance covers of the girl groups' songs and I remember my own reaction being mixed. Is it unmanly for guys to do girls stages straight up in this manner? I know SHINee covered BoA seriously at MBC Star Dance Battle with "Boys on Top" but it didn't have much "feminine" choreography and it was an "answer" to "Girls on Top." Interestingly, I think the crowd was in favor of the other team in the end anyway. (Is that a reflection on gender or simply the stage SHINee put on?)
I guess I mean to ask, is there a gender slant at all that we can see in this pretty commonly seen convention of gender-switching stages? Is it unfair that girls seem to have to take the guys' stages seriously and have to be all "RAWR! GIRL POWER! WE ARE AS GOOD AS THE GUYS!" and that the guys seem to have to be all "RAWR! WE ARE MEN AND CANNOT DO THESE FRILLY MOVES SO LET'S COMEDICALLY CROSS-DRESS AND MAKE IT HILARIOUS!" Are both genders being cheated out of something because of gender norms? And would it make us, the audience, view the groups differently if they did these covers in the reverse way (girls parodying guys' stages, guys doing straight covers of girls' stages)?
Would it be seen as disrespectful, actually, if girls didn't do straight covers of guys' songs? And why isn't it disrespectful when guys have fun with girls' songs?
(The exceptions to these particular gender rules are comedians: Kim ShinYoung does parodies all the time. But . . . she's a comedian. They've always been given a bit of room to do things that are outside of acceptable behavior. Wang BiHo is always saying things about groups and celebrities that would get anyone else lynched by fans.)
But the thing was . . . the gender divide offered completely different types of entertainment value. That is, the girls did straight up serious covers (singing, costuming, dancing) of SHINee's "Ring Ding Dong," G-Dragon's "Heartbreaker," Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry," and 2PM's "Heartbeat." The guys did campy, fun parodies of Brown Eyed Girls' "Sign," 4minute's "Muzik," Kara's "Mister," SNSD's "Gee," and T-ara's "Bo Peep Bo Peep."
This isn't the first time that gender-switched dance stages have gone this way. MBC Star Dance Battle: SNSD vs. Super Junior. SNSD did "Sorry Sorry" and then a mini-Michael Jackson tribute in all dancing seriousness. Super Junior did a medley of parody dances to popular songs like "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)": fun and campy. Guess who won according to the audience voting?
What I mean to point out is: do the girls have to prove themselves to be "as good as the guys" while the guys have leeway to have fun with their gender-switched cover stages? Or is the "camping up" of the stages a form of making it acceptable for guys to do girls' stages, which may be choreographed to be femininely "sexy" and thus filled with waves and self-touching that may make a man feel a bit emasculated, the way that "performing it seriously and the same way the guys do" is the acceptable form of girls covering guys' stages?
Or, now that I've phrased it that way, is it also only acceptable that girls "take the guys' choreography" seriously? That is, have there been stages where girls do parodies of guys' stages? I think Children of Empire/ZE:A has done more or less straight up dance covers of the girl groups' songs and I remember my own reaction being mixed. Is it unmanly for guys to do girls stages straight up in this manner? I know SHINee covered BoA seriously at MBC Star Dance Battle with "Boys on Top" but it didn't have much "feminine" choreography and it was an "answer" to "Girls on Top." Interestingly, I think the crowd was in favor of the other team in the end anyway. (Is that a reflection on gender or simply the stage SHINee put on?)
I guess I mean to ask, is there a gender slant at all that we can see in this pretty commonly seen convention of gender-switching stages? Is it unfair that girls seem to have to take the guys' stages seriously and have to be all "RAWR! GIRL POWER! WE ARE AS GOOD AS THE GUYS!" and that the guys seem to have to be all "RAWR! WE ARE MEN AND CANNOT DO THESE FRILLY MOVES SO LET'S COMEDICALLY CROSS-DRESS AND MAKE IT HILARIOUS!" Are both genders being cheated out of something because of gender norms? And would it make us, the audience, view the groups differently if they did these covers in the reverse way (girls parodying guys' stages, guys doing straight covers of girls' stages)?
Would it be seen as disrespectful, actually, if girls didn't do straight covers of guys' songs? And why isn't it disrespectful when guys have fun with girls' songs?
(The exceptions to these particular gender rules are comedians: Kim ShinYoung does parodies all the time. But . . . she's a comedian. They've always been given a bit of room to do things that are outside of acceptable behavior. Wang BiHo is always saying things about groups and celebrities that would get anyone else lynched by fans.)