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Echoes of Gangnam Style and other music hits by South Korean pop sensation Park Jae-sang, better known as PSY, can be heard in almost every home when the unlikely star rose to fame overnight with his aforementioned hot single. Taking not just the K-pop world by storm, PSY’s stardom garnered attention globally and the world watched as Gangnam Style stayed on the top of the charts and PSY recently released his new single, Gentleman.
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As the new “in” thing and a popular trend among many youngsters, kids in Singapore would definitely have caught or are eager to watch the newest music video, Gentleman, released just last week. Mums and Dads might think that PSY’s latest stint is a harmless and funny viewing and could even make for a lighthearted family dinner table discussion. In his seemingly innocuous video, however, inconsideration and unacceptably rude behaviour looms behind the facade of enthused and vigorous dancing that works hand in hand with blase entertainment in its crudest sense.
Superficially comic and entertaining, PSY’s slapstick humour goes beyond the typical funnies to convey a deeper meaning. Consequently, what makes this apparently low-brow video menacing and discouraged for child viewership is in fact its very subtlety in not just condoning such misdemeanor but actually promoting it by glorifying the ungentlemanly actions materialised by PSY. What frightens us and many parents is that in the long run, exposure to such discourteous ideals might influence children to act in such a manner too.
While many might not have noticed it and might accuse us of being extra gritty with the little things, it is evident that PSY’s behaviour on screen is definitely not what we would teach our children. If parents were to encourage the viewing of such videos, a child might mistake this for what is acceptable and believe that there is nothing wrong with what PSY is doing. We take a look at the video and show you what we dislike and why children should not watch it — seemingly insignificant subtext you may not even have noticed being propagated by the boorish actions aplenty.
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Obnoxious, cocky, distasteful
Sure, a little fun for the boy can’t hurt and it may be amusing for some to see the tubby tuxedo-clad superstar saunter self-assuredly down a street and then into a luxury boutique with a bunch of old men holding his shopping bags behind him in tow. What parents don’t realise is that in letting their kid watch this sort of presumptuous behaviour, they might actually be breeding similar conceited attitudes in their little ones who would want to emulate PSY’s swagger. It doesn’t help, too, that his vain and sassy gestures pervade the entire video, and with nearly four minutes of such unbearable frivolity, if kids don’t pick up some bad habits, they are sure get turned off by the distaste.
Why only the girls?
It is hard to say if this one is deliberate, but it doesn’t take much to realise that most of the victims of PSY’s “terror” acts on Gentleman are of the fairer sex. In addition to the unending stream of faceless (literally, as they are back facing the camera) female supporting dancers, PSY causes a lady to fall off a treadmill, another one to fall off a chair and many more to suffer the torments of his juvenile pranks. While this might not be as blatant or viewed as much of a discouragement to watching the music video, it subliminally primes your little one to accepting that females naturally form the weaker sex and are made to be bullied. Bringing up either of your little boy or girl with this mindset might warp their perceptions of equality and intrinsically thwart their views on prejudicial treatments in the future.
Tit for tat
If all the trouble caused wasn’t a nuisance enough, PSY’s video eventually promotes that victims of his thoughtless actions can only stand up for themselves if they engage in the same brainless taunting as he does. Towards the end of the clip, he receives a taste of his own medicine, albeit only once, when another girl pulls a chair from behind him and causes him to fall. While the simplistic audience might giggle at this and find it remedy enough for all of PSY’s misdeeds throughout the video, we ponder more deeply and realise that what this encourages is actually a never-ending spiral of revenge and get-backs. Surely this isn’t something you want your child to pick up?
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A definite no-no for the kids
While today’s parents might contend that their kids know better than to mindlessly mimic inconsiderate actions they watch on screen, it still has to be acknowledged that what children watch plays a vital part in forming their beliefs and moulding who they are when they grow up. Children are extremely sensitive to media around them and very much influenced by what they see and hear. Exposure to this sort of programme would inevitably imprint upon them an opinion as well as a possible sway in attitude and behaviour that could negatively affect them in the long run.
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