• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.62 no.6
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2012

This study explores the clothing behavior of homosexual men for identity creation. Since homosexuality has been viewed in terms of immoral, medical or social problems, gay males have made efforts to construct presentational styles in order to hide or reveal their sexual identities. Kate Schofield and Ruth A. Schmidt found that there were three different layers of individual gay identity construction expressed in clothing: shared gay identity, tribal identity, and situational identity. Using their framework, 630 gay men's outfits found in the U.S drama 'Queer as folk' were analyzed, which dealt with the lives of a group of gay men living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Findings point that gay males use their clothing effectively to express their sexual identity. Firstly, they use certain fashion items as the signifier of homosexuality on a gay community level. They use their clothing to attract the sexual partners. On tribal identity level, diverse and fragmented styles could be shown besides the effeminate style. Homosexual men's clothing can be classified into the following four dominate styles: the drag look, the macho look, the androgynous look and conventional look. Findings also indicate that gay males make different clothing choices for different situations in order to blend into the heterosexual or homosexual society.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.696-704
• /
• 2003

The main purpose of this study is to examine the gay men's clothing attitude and preference according to gender role, for reviewing their clothing culture. Specifically, this study focuses on 1) investigating gay men's clothing attitude(brand orientation, conformity, fashion leadership, sexual attractiveness), 2) identifying their clothing preference, 3) comparing the difference of lifestyle, and 4) comparing the difference of their preference color and wearing the accessary, according to their gender role. Futhermore, this study compares those factors between gay men and heterosexual men. The data was collected from 168 persons(76 gay men and 92 heterosexual men) in LGHRF(Lesbian & Gay Human Rights Federation), Korea Gaymen's Coalition and adult men living in Seoul. To analyze data, the methodology adopted in this study is frequency, t-test, and ANOVA. The results found in this study are as followings: First, sexual attractiveness was significant factor for the gay men's clothing attitude and not concern about conformity. According to the gender role, bottom, who have much of the woman in composition, was more higher for the fashion leadership than top, who have a propensity for masculine. Second, gay men prefer to masculine, simple and casual style. According to the gender role, 'top' was more likely to masculine, simple and formal style rather than 'Bottom'. Third, Gay men were much more concern about a cultural life style. Furthermore, a preference color for both group was blue. Especially, gay men tended to prefer a chromatic color. The implication getting from conclusion in this study was to study Gay men's taste for a fashion, clothing attitude and their preference to purchase, etc., in considering their buying power for clothing in a fashion market.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
• /
• v.55 no.2
• /
• pp.259-292
• /
• 2009

When AIDS evolved into a narrative, there were lots of mythologies on AIDS. Among them, the one that AIDS is a gay plague was accepted without any special rejection. Now AIDS is no longer a gay-related disease. At the beginning of the epidemic, however, AIDS was said to be a gay plague and gays were blamed for their life styles. Although AIDS was new, it had been in the mind of people. That is, the truths about AIDS were distorted and misunderstood. The social aspects of AIDS were based not on real scientific facts but on the prejudice and the practices which heterosexual society had invented for homosexuals. Here the AIDS crisis is said to be politicized. The socio-political responses to AIDS were effected by the dominance of Reaganism. So this paper investigates the effects of AIDS on the gay community and the reactions of the Reagan administration through analyzing ten American AIDS plays. Four issues are discussed to develop the paper's main idea: the meaning of AIDS, the past to be remembered, the new family system, and the indifference of President Reagan and the silence of media. AIDS means death; the relation between homosexuality and AIDS cannot be separated. Under these social circumstances AIDS becomes a symbol for moral corruption and the person with AIDS is thought to be punished. But a gay person can overcome the fear of death through regaining promiscuous sex and confirming his identity as a gay. Also to survive in the heterosexual society a gay has to make a new family system. Finally the indifference of the Reagan administration and the virtual silence of the media make the crisis more serious. In the conclusion homosexuals are compared to the Jewish people and the responsibility of gay community is also discussed. The important thing is that facing the AIDS crisis, the gay community has spiritually grown up.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.123-136
• /
• 2021

While same-sex marriage is officially legal in 28 countries, widespread discrimination continues against people in the LGBTQ community in Confucian Asian countries. This study examines how media exposure affects attitudes towards gay men using the cultivation theory in China, where LGBTQ issues are still censored in media. Moreover, this study looks into the immediate effect of watching gay content on attitudes towards a friend's coming out. Based on the survey of 236 young adults aged 18-22, the study results showed that heavy viewers of gay content and female had a more favorable attitude towards gay men. Furthermore, while the participants favored non-gay content, those who viewed gay content were more supportive of a friend's coming out than those who watched non-gay content. The findings indicated the cultivation effect on attitude towards same-sex relationships in a Confucian Asian country that can be used to foster a more inclusive society.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.23-46
• /
• 2017

This article examines the sexualization of place under conditions of the compressed modernization and reflexive cosmopolitanism. In particular, I adopt Michel de Certeau's spatial didactic model of strategy and tactic to investigate the dynamics at play in the gay labelling of a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (Coffee Bean) in South Korea, and explore the 'gaying' that takes place within preconceived heteronormative space. Using interview data, I additionally explore the negotiation tactics and coping mechanisms at work when gays compete with heterosexuals for non-gay place. The results illustrate how gays gay in heteronormative space and how heteronormative space harmoniously embodies gay men. The findings suggest that spatial location and tactic play important roles in stimulating compromise of sexual territory. Gay Bean benefits from being nestled between locations with histories of tolerance, while it also prospers from reflexive cosmopolitan ideals of diversity and acceptance of others. Gay identity and gaying is interpreted as foreign in Korea, which buttresses gay performativity in spaces welcoming of foreigners and so-called "deviance." However, how gaying functions within place relies not only on spatial histories of tolerance outside, but also on the tactics of identity negotiation within. The findings suggest that spatial and tactical conditions induce gay individuals to police other gay-identified individuals when gays gay in so-called heteronormative places.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.101-120
• /
• 2016

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the daily lives of gay men and assess their interests in fashion and appearance management with the goal of better understanding the roles or meanings of fashion in their lives. In-depth interview method was adopted and the responses were analyzed qualitatively. Six homosexual men were interviewed, and the outcome of each conversation was recorded and analyzed; each man had a different background and thus showed different behavioral patterns. The life patterns distinct to Korean gays, the importance the highly patriarchal society places on family lineage and mandatory military service, for example, were discussed. Even though the interviewees asserted that their interests in fashion is not related to their sexual orientation, fashion was utilized as a means of self-expression by these gay men.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.25-51
• /
• 2023

The purpose of the study was to validate the Korean version of the Heterophobia Scale for Gay Male (HGM). Heterophobia refers to the rejection, fear, and avoidance that sexual minorities feel against of heterosexuals. The three subscales of HGM assesses the unease/avoidance, disconnectedness, and expected rejection fromwith heterosexual male. To validate the Korean HGM, item translation, item analysis, and exploratory factor analysis were conducted. From the Using exploratory factor analysis of the Korean version of the HGM(N=213), per 13 items, a 3-factor model consisting of 13 items wereas determined. The Cconfirmatory factor analysis supported the goodness of fit of the 3-factor structure of the K-HGM (N=153) and showed adequate model fit, K-HGM showed adequate the internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity and Criterion validity was good with other related scales (K-SOMS, K-MISS-G, SDS-9, and RS). In conclusion, the K-HGM is a valid measure of heterophobia for gay male within the Korean population. Based on the findings, implications, practical use, limitations, and suggestions for future study are discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.12 no.12
• /
• pp.555-566
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the strategy of representation of homosexuality in the mainstream media and its meaning. And it also concerns what would be the limit of representations of homosexuality and what would be the discourse these representations produce in the major terrestrial broadcasting. For this investigation, we conducted the analysis of , the mainstream television drama, focused on the gay couple characters and their representations of conflicts and resolutions by comparing with the two heterosexual couples to figure out the differentiated representation strategies of homosexuality. As results of the analysis, the representation of sociogenic cause of conflict is absent for gay couple while it was found in the case of one heterosexual couple. And gay couple is exposed to the interpersonal conflicts against their family members than heterosexual couples and described as victims. Lastly, gay couple was represented as needing mediators to solve their problems while heterosexual couple was represented as ensuring subjectivity for the resolutions of conflicts.

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

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.343-362
• /
• 2016

Despite recent social movements to protect homosexuals' rights in Korea, psychological research investigating attitudes toward homosexuals has been largely ignored. The present study examined Koreans' explicit and implicit attitudes toward homosexuals and how openness is related to them. College students (N = 56) responded to questionnaires assessing explicit attitudes toward homosexuals and openness, one of the five factors of personality. They then took an Implicit Association Test designed to assess implicit attitudes toward homosexuals. We found that participants in general had more negative explicit attitudes toward gay men than lesbians. Implicit prejudice against gay men was also higher than lesbians. There was no participant sex difference in implicit attitudes toward gay men. However, male participants had more negative implicit attitudes toward lesbians than female participants did; in fact, females' implicit attitudes toward lesbians were not biased. While openness was negatively related only to explicit prejudice, values, one of the facets of openness, was negatively related to both explicit and implicit prejudice. This was the first study in Korea that investigated both explicit and implicit attitudes toward gay men and lesbians.