Reading K-Pop Memes on Social Media Through a Gendered Perspective: The Case of Darjeeling and Kalimpong

The Korean Cultural wave or Hallyu is not new to India, a decade back Korean films like ‘A Millionaire’s first love’, ‘A Moment to Remember’, ‘My Sassy Girl’ etc. were popular amongst the youth of Darjeeling and Kalimpong. This popularity reached its zenith with the series ‘Boys Over Flowers’ when suddenly teenagers and young adults started to dress up like the characters in these films and series. There was a concerted effort to learn the Korean language and listen to Korean songs, everyone wanted to look like and emulate Gu Jun-Pyo, Jan-Di etc. Modelling yourself on Korean celebrities and Korean fictional characters became the cool thing to do. Now a decade later with the global popularity of Korean bands like BTS and Blackpink, the Korean cultural wave has a new leash of life, but as new trend alongside the fanfare is seen to be emerging in Darjeeling and Kalimpong, once which was looked upon as the epitome of being hip has been reduced to a joke. Sexist and homophobic memes are being shared across social media and anyone especially boys who are fans or aspire to look like and dress up as these Korean idols are mercilessly trolled. This paper aims to look into these new phenomena, by making a textual analysis of these memes shared via Facebook. This paper will try to understand the perpetuation of homophobia and hyper-masculinity amongst young adults taking into context the Korean cultural wave. It aims to understand the motivation and implications of this trend by interviewing high-school and college going students in Darjeeling and Kalimpong.