Anyone think the word koreaboo is losing its meaning (1 Viewer)

[kisshuhua09baby]

Kid you not I don't even take the word serious anymore because it's now just an irritating buzzword that people have to deal with in their comment sections even if they're not trying to mail order Korean wives or wtv people think we do. I think we need a better word because someone could certainly fit the definition of a koreaboo in an objective sense but not be going about it in a negative way which to me sort of indicates a bit of a fallacy in the term's usage. If everyone who's super obsessed with Korean culture, makeup, clothes, and beauty is a Koreaboo (which is meant to be negative in this sense) then why are foreign celebrities from outside Asian countries not equally criticized when they have a desire to go to Korea to become celebrities, learn Korean, & change their whole look and demeanor to appeal to Korean society? I'm not saying white folks don't get their lashings in the Koreaboo thing, but I've seen an influx of ladies who are Asian (but have more tan skin bc they're South/Southeast Asian) get told by kpop fans that they're koreaboos or trying to be Asian for being interested in Korean entertainment and makeup. Now am I probably giving TikTok users too much credit by assuming they know that more than 6 Asian countries exist? Absolutely! But it feeds back into this issue: Where is the actual line between tokenizing and appropriating Korean culture vs appreciating it? I think the distinction is obvious but most people pretend there isn't one because the internet likes having lolcows to poke sticks at for a few weeks like Berry, a person who didn't even have anything to do with kpop when she rose to prominence but touched a nerve with the community because despite their constant preaching of respecting culture they couldn't take a second to rub their two brain cells and find out that Japanese & Korean idol culture is different, cuz they would've hopefully thus realized this didn't affect their lives at all. That's the other thing. Soft femininity and Asian culture are generally considered the same which is super weird considering doing so feeds into orientalist stereotypes thought it's not what I'm really getting at with this talking point. I say it to say that many times I've seen koreaboo be used to describe someone doing a soft style of makeup that can often times be popular in countries like Korea, China, & Japan but has become popular outside of that. I don't see anyone getting accused of appropriating Caribbean culture when they wear bright makeup with loud colors that are common to see during the Carnival fest. I think this is usually less of a cultural appropriation problem and more of kpop fans getting possessive over popular trends that sprout from Korea out of deep seeded personal insecurity. This isn't the case when someone who is Korean calls out blatant disrespect but I doubt that most of the people who leave these malicious comments are Korean or trying to "correct" people's behavior with good intentions

 

[athenaaa]

It’s definitely losing meaning. People use it for peopke who don’t even display Koreaboo habits. It is okay fir a kpop fan to want to learn the language or to learn about the culture. In fact I believe we should try to learn about as many cultures and learn basic phases in as many languages as possible

 

[The_LastRomeo]

Definitely 😭

 

[Sugar]

NGL I FORGOT KOREABOO WAS A DAMN THING

 

[Horizonshard]

Just because a word is being used the wrong way doesn't mean it has lost meaning. It just means some people have lost brain cells.

 

[Sugar]

Just because a word is being used the wrong way doesn't mean it has lost meaning. It just means some people have lost brain cells.

exactly I shall say