POLS 3085 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Korean Wave, Grammatical Gender, Neoliberalism
27 Jun 2015
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Document Summary
The article by ahn discusses the story of harisu, a male to female transgender model who became a representative for gender rights. Ahn picks up her analysis from dyer, who examines manufacture and the person, and the relationship between the two. Ahn wants to look at the neoliberal aspects and economic arenas involved in harisu, specifically the media and beauty industry. Ahn focuses on two questions, the first is how does the neoliberal market effect harisu and sexuality, and the second question is how is it related to cultural and identity dynamics within korea. Following the 1997 imf crisis, and with pressure from the korean government, korean based brands were changing their tactics to become more national. Korean based companies now focused on branding for nationally specific racialized groups, koreans, in order to keep up with the market. Thus, they used harisu as a transsexual brand, in a provocative transsexual commercial to do this.
