•  
  •  
 
Kritika Kultura

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4095-5923; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6405-5965

Abstract

This article draws upon qualitative interviews with seventeen LGBTQ+ individuals to explore the role of K-pop fandom in providing support to queer communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article adds a new critical perspective into academic and journalistic accounts of K-pop fandom to insist on K-pop consumption as a practice that fundamentally improves fans’ mental health. Beginning by establishing how K-pop fandom spaces, particularly on social media, were considered to already support LGBTQ+ fans’ attempts to make sense of their gendered and sexual identities under societal heteronormativity, the article details specific benefits that LGBTQ+ fans experienced with regard to their mental health during the pandemic. These benefits include an increased sense of connection that combatted feelings of isolation engendered by lockdowns, a sense of emotional support generated by following K-pop idols as role models during the pandemic, and the provision of material support through fan activism. The article concludes by theorizing K-pop fandom as a queer space built upon shared affects which allowed LGBTQ+ consumers experiencing compounded isolation and disadvantage during the COVID-19 pandemic to build solidarities that positively impacted their mental health. The article ultimately reveals that prior accounts which pathologize K-pop fandom behavior as socially unproductive do not fully capture how the ontological security generated by fandom has come to represent a key emotional anchor from which LGBTQ+ fans develop a sense of security and resilience.

Download

Share

COinS