Irene from Red Velvet: the first feminist icon in K-pop?
The lead singer of Red Velvet has performed for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and her band is hugely successful, but it is being a role model for young women that matters the most to her
The band’s members and their music are cheerful and vibrant, but Red Velvet are more complex than the average K-pop outfit. With a sound best described as pop-infused hip hop, Red Velvet are also unafraid to dabble in the darker side of the K-pop sound.
One of their most popular music videos, Peek-A-Boo, shows the members at a gothic mansion hunting a man around with a crossbow, while Russian Roulette shows the girls living in a pastel-coloured world as they sing about competitiveness between women.
In the past few months, Irene, the group’s leader and main vocalist, has been under the spotlight, and not just because she stood beside North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a photo taken during April’s historic K-pop concert in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang – she is also a reader of feminist literature.
In March, when Irene told her followers that she was reading Kim Ji Young, Born 1982 – a feminist book which addresses the patriarchal nature of South Korean society – many male fans were angered. Despite some backlash against her perceived feminism, Irene stood her ground and ignored the controversy.
With South Korea coming to terms with its own #MeToo movement and young people becoming increasingly aware of the need for gender equality, here’s more about Irene, possibly K-pop’s first feminist icon.
Early life
Irene, born Bae Ju-hyun, is a native of Daegu, South Korea’s third-largest city after Seoul and Busan. She grew up speaking the local Daegu dialect, which is quite different from the standard Seoul dialect, and spent much of her time as a trainee trying to master her Seoul accent.