“Rock Your Body!”: Examining the Performance of Masculinity of the Backstreet Boys, One Direction, and BTS

Abstract

[eng] Masculinity has become an extensively discussed topic in gender studies since the decade of the 90s, after Judith Butler’s gender performativity theory revolutionised the way in which gender is viewed. Studies on refashioned masculinities typically focus on prominent famous personalities, such as politicians, actors, or musicians, due to their global influence as mediatic bodies, but masculinity as performed by boy bands has not been as abundantly examined. Boy bands, as influential gendered models, have a big impact on the social construction of gender of younger generations. Thus, by conducting an analysis in chronological order, from the late 90s to the 2020s, this dissertation will aim at examining masculinity as performed by 3 influential boy bands, with the intention of perceiving a shift in performances of masculinity. By analysing their music videos, photoshoots and personality traits, this paper will inspect the performances of masculinity of the Backstreet Boys in the late 90s and early 2000s, One Direction in the 2010s, and BTS in the 2020s. The overall analysis seems to prove that there has been an evolution from boy bands reinforcing their heteronormativity through hegemonic acts of masculinity, to a more permissive performance of gender by celebrities, legitimizing a fluid and non-restrictive discourse on gender performativity.