• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.275-285
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• 2010

As we enter an era of emotional and endlessly competitive society, there has been a lot of changes happening to the styles and images of men, traditionally associated with strength and power. Today, the media is giving information on today's trendy men's styles and images to meet the growing demand by consumers, and giving appropriate gains in the process to all - both information providers and consumers. Generally speaking, the cover of a magazine represents the concept and image of the magazine. The cover model is closely tied with the symbolic image of the magazine, the current times, and what the general public wants. Therefore, research on the cover models of a lifestyle magazine has significance in that the current style trends will be able to be understood directly. The present research investigated the sexual images of men's magazine cover models. In carrying out the research, the sexual images were classified into the following: homosexual, cross sexual, metro sexual, and uber sexual. The research findings showed that uber sexual is the dominant sexual image in men's magazines in Korea, followed by metro sexual. In conclusion, the findings suggest an expansion of the traditional image of men, happening with the changes in traditional sex roles.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.80-90
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• 2013

Despite the growing popularity of gay consumers as a fetching niche market, there has been little academic attention paid to the homosexual themes in print media, especially compared to research on gender, race, and sex imagery in ads. The present study aims to fill this void by examining advertisements with three different target audiences(homosexual, metrosexual, retrosexual consumer) through a comparative analysis of contemporary magazine advertisements. In this present study, we analyzed ads in three leading men's magazines (Out, GQ, and Maxim). Product (product category, price, and luxury brand) and human model (basic descriptions, sexuality, status, and masculinity) characteristics in ads were analyzed as the variables signifying the degrees of gay themes in ads across three magazines. The results showed that more expensive luxury brands were placed in GQ and Out than Maxim, and more male models were under-sexualized in Maxim than GQ and Out.

• Trans-
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• v.11
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• pp.119-142
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• 2021

Video was a cultural practice based on image. The audience longs to experience new things, not everyday things through by video images. There are many components of the image, but among them, color, a visual representation, plays a big role. Since the advent of color films, color has constantly evolved as an important component of visual art and has become an important role in innovative visual art design. According to film history data, filmmakers were interested in color since the film was created in 1895, but in the early stages of film development, film colors were only black and white. Because these two colors no longer satisfy viewers, more natural colors began to emerge from the film as it was colored. However, with the development of historical paintings, the lack of artistic creation and the public's level increased, making people more active in using colors because simple reproduction of natural colors alone does not satisfy people. The colors in the video are both techniques of expression and can be understood by mind and thought. It is also an indication that colors do not just exist, but they work strongly on human psychology. Now people are so motivated by repetitive and unimportant information that they find that the human intuitive system simplifies the information they receive unconsciously that they have certain customs and characteristics when they see things. Color is part of the film language, or color language can express the film's ideological themes or portray vivid characters in the film, and people are receiving more intuitive messages. This study analyzed the basic color components of bisexual lighting, namely, pink, blue, and purple, and analyzed how human psychology is affected through color, combining the scenes from the video. The purpose of this paper is to explore what color language bisexual lighting is expressed using color properties in images and how bisexual lighting interacts with human psychology through color.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.62 no.7
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• pp.185-204
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• 2012

There are lots of sexual images in the contemporary media, and this is due to many of the media formats, such as television, magazines, and the Internet, using these images to relay various messages to the people. The media uses these sexual images (i.e. woman in a bikini) in order to use sex and eroticism as a marketing tool to the audience. Unlike other men's magazines, which actually have many female readers, Maxim magazine's readers are made of mostly men, and because of this, their magazine covers are usually filled with sexy women celebrities, such as singers or actors; images that can attract the general men. This study puts its focus on evaluating Maxim magazine's marketing strategy. The strategy of targeting men in their 20's and 30's, who were not interested in reading, but were impulsive and visually oriented. The study looked at magazine covers from November 2002 (the start of the magazine) to October 2008 (the peak period of its sales), and a total of 72 images were analyzed. For each image, 5 things were recorded (model's occupation, clothing style, hairstyle, makeup, pose and gaze).

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.642-652
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to understand the concept of a sexual image and verify the method of its design expression through case studies of the sexual image evening dress shown in an Haute Couture Collection over the last 10 years (2005~2014). The results of analysis are as follows: First, "expression by the seeing through of the natural body" expressed a natural sexual image that combined fashion of the previous times with the beauty of the natural body by using a see-through material and classic or ethnic image. Second, "expression of a sexual-image look that emphasizes romantic detail" illustrated a romantic sexual image that emphasizes feminine sensitivity by mixing various ornamental elements such as see-through material and symbolism of underwear image. Third, "creation of a nude look using skin color" expressed sexual image of an evening dress by inducing erotic sexual association through a combination of opaque material of skin color and design shape that is intended for body exposure. Fourth, "combination of sexual symbol and heterogeneous elements" expressed a decadent, avant-garde and futuristic sexual images by using women's underwear and a sexual symbol as design motif and mixed with mismatching elements. Fifth, "use of a fantastic black image" expressed an exclusive and refined sexual image and a decadent and primitive sexual image by using a fantastic image of black color. The results of this study are expected to be used for the design process of the evening-dress industry that aims for quality improvement.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.86-98
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• 2008

This study is purposed to determine the correlation between contemporary fashion and game characters' clothes and to analyze the formative property of the game characters' clothes expressed in the contemporary fashion. The temporal scope of this study is from 2004 to 2007 based on general online game ranks, while the game type is limited to 3D-online role playing game. The most popular clothes of game characters are analyzed and found to have imaginary, sensualistic, and cross-sexual features. These are also expressed as Cyber resistance image, Femme fatal image and Asexual image in the contemporary fashion. Firstly, the Cyber resistance image in the recent fashion is shown as belligerent, destructive and surrealistic image in contemporary fashion. Secondly, the Femme fatal image represents bewitching, brutal and narcissistic image with sleek materials and glowing colors in contemporary fashion. Thirdly, the Asexual image means the concept of sex as the neuter gender. Especially, this image has been introduced by simple and straight silhouette, black, silver, khaki colors in fashion. Accordingly, the clothes of game characters with the popularity and formative property have close correlation with contemporary fashion even if they do not pursue for practical creativity. In this respect, they can consolidate the position as a new fashion trend if they are developed with various design ideas.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.31-47
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• 2019

This study focuses on women and fashion in Korea between the 1960s and 1970s, when the government regulated the socio-cultural aspects of individuals while achieving remarkable economic industrialization, particularly through the representative popular weekly magazine 'Sunday-Seoul'. The scope of this study included 168 issues from September 22, 1968 to December 26, 1971. Two research methods were applied, literature research and content analysis research. First, the literature on Korean society, culture, women's fashion, the sociological, feminine and popular cultural studies were reviewed. Thereafter, the contents, cover, articles, pictorials were collected and analyzed for classification and identification of the women's images and women's fashion. In the case of fashion articles, the contents of vocabulary and description texts were highlighted, and in the case of pictorials, the visual elements such as images, silhouettes of clothes, details of features, and patterns of materials were assessed. The images of women in Sunday Seoul's articles and pictorials exhibited extreme opposite, presenting the most important purpose of marriage, 'wise mother and good wife' and 'image of sexual object' for men. The two images of women differed; however, there was one more female image 'industrial laborer' which was placed in the blind spot of interest. The characteristics of fashion which appeared in 'Sunday-Seoul' were 'uniform modern elegance' based on neat mini-style, and 'sexual image of exposure fashion' which endeavored to selectively borrow from overseas pictorials and trend-oriented articles. This could be viewed as a 'transformation of traditional Hanbok', 'avant-garde trend' and 'de-sexualization & indifference of fashion'.