Did BTS Make Asian Guys Hotter?

There's a lot of people who also fetishize Asian people. Fetishes for Asian guys? I think it's always been a thing that Asians are fetishized. Like, oh my god, you're Korean? They ask me if I listen to K-pop or like, oh, are you from Korea? There is definitely a little bit of fetishization in that. A lot of Asian men around the world are wondering right now, if BTS is considered sexy, does that make all Asian men sexy? Did the popularity of BTS make Asian men sexier to everybody else? A lot of my Asian friends who are male, like, their confidence is skyrocketing right now. My Tinder and Hinge profile has been, like, popping. Justin, are you Korean? Yes. Were you at all influenced by the BTS style or K-pop style in general? Yeah, and definitely it has, like, affected me a lot living in the U.S. Yeah, a lot of my guy friends have gotten, you know, more attention. It gives, like, that demographic of men some clout a little bit, you know? K-pop and BTS definitely put Asian males more into the conversation. On TikTok, if you see the kind of Asian guys that are blowing up, it is, like, mostly, like, the ones that look, you know, the BTS look, right? The perms, and they've got the skinny heads, and they're, like, doing the little, like... I think definitely so. Like, there's a lot of people who also, like, fetishize Asian people. There's, like, a lot more fetishes for Asian guys. I think it's always been a thing that, like, Asians are fetishized. Like, oh, my God, you're Korean? They ask me if I listen to, like, K-pop or, like, oh, are you from Korea? Oh, my God, you look like something, something from, like, whatever band. Have you gone out with any of them? Yeah. Once BTS started becoming popular, my, like, white friends really, like, into, like, all these guys that, like, my Korean friends have, like, always been into, if that makes sense. There is definitely, like, a little bit of, like, fetishization in that sense. My sister was into K-pop quite a bit. She liked BTS a lot. Asian men in general have become really idealized and almost fetishized in a way. And these very unrealistic standards because of the way that people are consuming, like, K-pop. Previously, I feel like a lot of people perceived, like, Asians, especially, like, Asian guys as, like, more nerdy and whatnot. Everyone's always, like, oh, Asian people are so smart. They do math and all of that. If BTS' next viral video was them playing software engineers in the office, would that change the perception at all? I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe it would be seen as, like, making fun of them. I think the stereotype has been, like, kind of, like, nerdy and just more, like, school-focused. And they've never really been shown in a light where they can be, like, like, you know, like, this, like, attractive light, if that makes sense. And I feel like since it's, like, so up-and-coming, it just seems so, like, different that people are, like, so interested to learn more about it. If you are a guy that's within proximity of using BTS and that look, should you do it, yes or no? Yeah, you should. You should. You should. I'm getting a lot of interesting answers from real people. But right now, I just want to thank EME Hive for partnering with us on this video. Guys, EME Hive is the number one Asian live streaming and dating app where you can share your life with friends or get serious about dating. EME Hive has over 1.5 million users around the globe. And 150,000 happy partners. A lot of success stories, too. It is a genuine way to meet and chat with live real people via video. And it eliminates catfishing while promoting real connections. They help you meet the right person by providing advanced matching algorithms and filters such as ethnicity, height, education, interest, and even the age they arrived in the U.S. EME Hive is the place for Asians for dating, mingling, and entertainment. If you guys want to check it out, please click on that link down below now. Back to some real answers from real people. If Asian guys feel like they want to get more attention in the West, what are some recommendations? I don't know. I feel like my opinion is they have to dress more American or look more American. So I guess get buff. Try to dress more casual and more American, I guess. And then be tan, athletic, stuff like that. I don't know, man. Just be yourself. Brush your teeth. Clean your nails. You don't want to do something specifically for how you want others to perceive you. I feel like it's their worldview that needs to be improved. So I don't think anyone definitely needs to do anything just to change other people's perception. I don't think that trying to pretend to be a stereotype is going to help at the end of the day. If Asian Americans are still feeling overlooked, that's not a problem with them. They shouldn't feel the need to fit in if the society they live in isn't accepting towards them. Just be confident and own your culture and just be who you are. Put yourself out there. Don't care about what anyone thinks. It's really just be who you are and that can go for many things. But I don't think any Asian guy should feel shame for things that he likes or things that he does. All we as women want to see is a confident guy who can own up to his experience. I don't know. That's attractive. That's what's cool. That's what's hot. Did all Asian guys benefit from the rise of BTS or only more of a certain look? Yeah, I think it benefits mostly East Asians, like Korean, Chinese, Americans. I'm not too sure about Southeast Asians, like Filipinos. But, you know, in general, I feel like there's more media representation. A lot of people think that they're just in touch with their feminine side and they're very confident in showing that. And so, yeah, I think people have been more open-minded about it, I think. Definitely the people that benefited are the ones who have that clear glass skin, those earrings on TikTok with, like, the gelled hair, some makeup. I feel like anybody who tries and recreates those kind of looks and takes inspiration from it definitely benefits. It's such a specific look that has been kind of picked. The specific look, tall, right, and your specific hairstyles, and then your skin has to look a certain way. Back in, like, high school, I was super into, like, K-pop and, like, Big Bang. They were a group of rappers that, like, I personally feel like women, if they seen guys that were more like them, like women of color, we're just going to talk about that because, you know, that's the only perspective I can give. Like, we would find those men more attractive and would think that those men would find us more attractive than, let's say, someone who's, like, a K-rock star and they, like, make, like, music with guitars and stuff like that. Like, it depends on what their vibe is. A rapper, probably you would assume, would be more likely to like women of color or women more of that culture. Yeah, yeah, definitely. The rise of BTS has drawn a lot of eyeballs to that type of Asian guy, but it doesn't mean that a lot of women are trying to go after those type of guys, correct? Yeah, no, I don't think that they would, like, now try to, like, pursue those type of guys. They just now find them interesting. We can find certain men interesting on, like, movies, TV shows and stuff like that. Like, we could fantasize about them, but I don't feel like, you know, they would be searching for them or, like, trying to date them. All right, everybody, you've heard some responses from the people outside. Now we're going to take it back here and give you our opinion and our analysis of some of their answers because the main question is, did the rise of BTS make Asian men sexier? David, what's your answer? It's an earthquake. It was a legitimate earthquake. It shook the world. But I don't know if you guys know about earthquakes, Andrew. They happen to happen in one area. There hasn't been, like, a global earthquake yet. They're local. Earthquakes and volcanoes and stuff, they're local. They shake the things around them closest a lot. And then, you know, the rings reverberate out lesser and lesser until, at some point, the earthquake essentially ceases to exist. What you're asking is you have to ask yourself, guys, if you're trying to analyze how much you're going to benefit from this, is how close to the epicenter to the earthquake are you? Right. How close are you to where the boulder fell into the water and there was tidal waves or ripples that emanated out from that? So, I think that there's people that are highly affected, people that are middle affected, and people that are lowly affected. So, for me, myself, I have to give BTS props. I think I've been impacted by it. But because I don't necessarily fit that visual aesthetic archetype, I'm going to go ahead and put it at a low impact. Yeah. Like, out of low, middle, high. I think BTS has impacted my life at a small level. Yeah. I mean, I would say, generally, most people would put you more into the K-rapper category or comedian from a K-drama category. Or the person who's, like, does one of those, like, K-pop commentary shows. I have literally been mistaken for that guy. Yeah. I would say, for me, the impact has been middle level. Maybe a notch higher than you, but not, obviously, reaching the tier of, like, me actually having the soft guy look with the flowy hair. So, I have benefited a little bit. And I felt it, especially from the women who have messaged me. Right. And I think that it really – I saw some interesting points from the interviews. There was an African-American girl who said, you know, I'm intrigued by K-pop to think that Asian men are sexier. But it doesn't mean that they're in my circles. It doesn't mean that the ones in my circle fit that look. And it doesn't mean that the ones that I like that look K-pop or K-drama are going to swipe on me on dating apps, even though I would swipe on them. Yeah. And actually, a lot of people that we talked to did bring up the whole idea of fetishization. And I do think there is a line to draw between being intrigued and fetishizing. Now, obviously, if you're getting crazy messages from K-pop fangirls that are messaging you right off the bat saying, oh, my gosh, are you Korean? Are you Korean? Are you Korean? Now, there was a guy in the video who mentioned that he gets some of those messages. That would be a little bit more in the fetishization lane as long as it doesn't get super weird. But I'll say this. A lot of Asian guys, you know, coming from where they started at, they'll take some fetishization. Right. I think in America in particular, there was like a deficit to make up. It might have been negative five. Right. So you got to add five on top of that just to get to zero and then another five to get to five. Right. Whereas in, let's say, for example, Eastern Europe, where the maybe pre-built notion of what an Asian man represented was already zeroed out neutral. Then you get plus 10. You get all 10 points versus being at negative five plus 10, positive five. So I think that that is basically, in my opinion, what is alluding to the difference of K-pop's impact in Eastern Europe and Latin America versus America. There was a bigger deficit in the American environment for Asian men to compensate for. Yeah. Also, if there are non-Asian women who are going to visit South Korea, they probably are more attracted to Korean men. If you're going to actually go to that country. Oh, somebody did mention. Well, you know, if you're like a nerdy Chinese guy, you're like pretty far away from the blast that like these like really good looking, you know, K-pop, K-drama, Korean guys are having. So this girl was like, yeah, I'm really waiting for that. I'm looking out for my brother. Yeah, I think that if you are a nerdier guy that's not Korean or whatever, and you feel like you can take on that style somehow, I don't see it hurting you. But you're right that you may be a little bit farther from the epicenter. David, you talked to a 55 year old Korean business owner. What did he say? He just said, yeah, you know, like BTS changed the culture. That's a big statement when he says they changed the culture. Now, I feel like being a Korean person from that time period, obviously, he probably never imagined that the hall you would go. He did say he studied pop culture very deeply, both American and South Korean. And then he said that he attributes it really to just like the high quality of production. He's like, yeah, it's really like governments in on it. And all the companies, everybody like takes it really serious. So like the quality is going to be there. And I think when the quality is there, then people respond. He also owned a K-pop fan shop and Korean corndog stand. So, yeah, so he was fully bought it. He's all in. He's all in on the hall. No, but I actually do agree with him. I do think that people see the quality of the quality translates to views. The views can translate to the person in a girl's vicinity who looks the closest to that. Yeah. One last thing I do note that some people kind of agree that although BTS is very popular, very intriguing, very desirable in many ways, they also did not break all Asian male stereotypes. Right. Because you're saying the way they're getting big as BTS, it's not like hyper masculine. And if Asian men are viewed as effeminate, but it's almost like a they're not super like them. Yeah, I think I think a larger question and we might do another video about this is did BTS actually redefine masculinity or not? And I think there's arguments for it and there's arguments against it. But I'll break it. I would actually compare it to the way like Tyler, the creator, Childish Gambino or etc. Pharrell sort of redefined hip hop and traditional hip hop still always there. But there's just more lanes open now. That's how I would say you had an observation between how K-drama guys look and K-pop. Yeah, I would say that from what I saw, K-pop guys, they almost look more like Bieber, which is more like a lad or like a boyish. Right. And then K-drama guys, fundamentally, even if they're young, they have a very chiseled, more masculine kind of conventional Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, maybe even Robert Pattinson look, whereas the K-pop guys, it's more, you know, Bieber, Shawn Mendes that looks. Yeah. Softer looks in music. I think music can go has a larger range of looks that they can roll with versus when it comes to dramas. They want their like men to like really appear to be men and then the women to be play as women. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for watching that video. Big shout out to EME Hive for partnering with us on that video. EME Hive is the number one Asian live streaming and dating app where you can share your life with friends and also go on a serious date. So listen, you got your options on the website. Check it out down below. Big shout out to EME Hive and everybody. That's it for now. And until next time, we out. Peace.