HYBE Stylist Criticizes IU’s “Love Wins All” MV With BTS’s V For Its “Exploitative” Message
On January 23, IU returned with “Love Wins All,” featuring BTS‘s V as her love interest. The music video has gained attention everywhere, as netizens praised the chemistry between the two stars.
The video features the two idols running away from a mysterious cube that likely played a part in their apocalyptic world.
While netizens loved the science-fiction love story, some have looked beyond and criticized the music video concepts.
Nara Kim is a model, stylist, and artist who describes herself as “bisexual openly queer.”
As part of Styled by Cheri Nara, Nara has styled many K-Pop artists over the years. Since 2022, the duo have been behind many of LE SSERAFIM’s looks.
Following the release of “Love Wins All,” Nara shared a post featuring hashtags related to the music video and confirmed she was referring to it in a story. The stylist stated that she didn’t want to “be distorted as a straight and non-disable person with normalcy.”
I don’t want to be distorted as a straight and non-disabled person with normalcy through the camera. I’m satisfied with myself. #lovewins #lovewinsall
— Nara Kim
She is referring to the magical camera in the “Love Wins All” MV that allows IU and V to see themselves without their injuries, including V’s blindness and IU’s alleged deafness.
Nara expands on her point in a secondary story, mentioning how the original title was “Love Wins,” a phrase used by the LGBTQIA+ community, which was later changed. She says that the video depicts two characters with disabilities who appear to be happier without them and, had the title remained the same, would have shown a heteronormative relationship under the phrase.
The reason why I mentioned this is that The song was initially titled “Love Wins.”
Korean queers, who thought queer’s slogan had been stolen, were furious. There is still controversy after the title of the song was changed and the music video was released.
The two main charactersIU and V) in the music video appear as blind and deaf people who are chased by
“discrimination and oppression”.
Different situation from reality shows through camcorder (it means love filter, the director says) and the two appear to be happier (without disability)in this.— Nara
She continues, saying that she feels the music video used disabilities and minorities as props in a story about overcoming adversity while having two rich, non-disabled celebrities play these roles. Nara finishes by saying that the world is what needs to be overcome and asks that minorities stop being used as inspirational material.
I mean, a music video featuring two rich, non-disabled world stars (known as cisgender hetero) uses disabilities, minorities as props to say about overcoming, ending up with a very normal ending of wearing a wedding dress and a tuxedo.
What needs to be overcome is the world, not disability or minorities. Stop the shallow compassion and using minorities as inspirational material
— Nara
Nara’s viewpoint comes from the ableist concept of “inspiration p*rn.” Inspiration p*rn (also called inspiration exploitation) usually features a disabled individual overcoming or accomplishing something and can first appear harmless and uplifting.
However, this type of content can perpetuate the idea that disabled people are weak and unable to help themselves. Abled people will often use this type of content to boost themselves and monetize content using disabled people without any further advocating.
@imtiffanyyu “No excuses” exploits disabled people #AntiAbleism #Ableism #EndAbleism #LearnOnTikTok #TikTokPartner #Disability #DiverseVoices #Inspiration
While IU’s music video can be seen as a couple wishing to return to the way things previously were, Nara does bring up points that some have agreed with.
This is a point of debate. Straight people playing a queer character, neurotypical people playing neurodivergent people etc, but never giving a chance to a person who actually experiences such things. I understand her concerns, that's a lot to talk about this topics https://t.co/4B2ZRg71vO
— ｌｅｉａ ¹³ 🪞🥚 (@jmminism) January 24, 2024
