In the 7th episode hosted by writer and BTS stan Virginia Duan of Mandarin Mama, she discusses sex, masculinity, Asian male bodies, and how it relates to BTS.
Noona ARMY Podcastย discusses the particular challenges and aspects of being a middle aged female fan of K-pop global sensation BTS.
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References
For an article with similar themes in which I discuss being a middle-aged BTS fan in detail:
Thank you for acknowledging the “older” fan. I’m in my 60s and the only person I can talk to about BTS is my pre-teen granddaughter! So that excludes a lot of the more mature conversation angles; we talk about BT21, cute hair, and such. She’s even curious about song messages. I was around for the British Invasion of the 60s, and nothing even approached that electricity until I discovered BTS in the spring of 2019.
In the meantime, I’m gonna do me. And thanks for doing you. ๐
Thank you so much!!! Yes, it’s nice to have fellow older fans to talk about stuff that younger fans can’t quite relate to just yet. ๐ Keep doing you! You matter. ๐
Hi – Thank you for your history of the de-sexualisation of the Asian male in the US. I had seen a lot of comments about this, but not providing the context even though I had some awareness of how Chinese people came to live in the US and Canada. I was a little bemused by the Asian emasculation idea, because even as a child of the 50s growing up in Scotland, where Asian males were Very Rare, I have always found Asian people – and males – sexually attractive.
I find myself continually bemused by the apparent ambivalence around BTS’ ‘gender bending’ behaviours – are they gay questions. I agree with you – their preferences are their own. If they are gay or not, who cares?
The whole issue is fuelled by their willingness to behave ‘like a girl’, wear pastels, wear flowers, do aegyo, embrace each other, sleep together, tolerate and engage in touch. All that only speaks to me of sexual confidence. It’s very cuddly, and very sexy – to me.
Thank you for standing up for our desires as older women and for it to be OK for us to want, and OK to fantasise! Anyone who has older women friends, and shares frank conversations with us, will know that we are awake to any beautiful male or female and all they carry with them. I’ve worked all my life with strong and open minded (and open-mouthed) women of all orientations, and sharing such conversations has always been a joy – and an education. RM actually said ‘Use me’ and I’m sure he had this among other things in mind.
We are adults, and we want and we know the difference between want and have, between reality and fantasy. But too too too often we are made to feel ashamed.
It’s also so important to remember that as we get older, we are less and less likely to touch another person, or to be touched or held. Touch is a fundamental need for every human being. I am 65 tomorrow, live alone, but am pretty shameless and when I go out, make it a point to touch people, whenever I can – just a hand on an arm, or a cupping of my palm on a shoulder, and if I meet an acquaintance, a hug. It is not unknown for random men who have never met me before to spontaneously hug me. So something’s working! So many times, I can see it brightens the other person’s day as well as my own.
Oh, the status quo, that is so threatened by women! if only we could upend the status quo simply by wanting, haha !
Thank you so much for making these podcasts, and specifically for the valuable history lesson in this one. I am 62, a Gloria Steinem era feminist, and vehemently opposed to the patriarchy in all it’s cultural, societal, political and religious expressions. I absolutely love BTS, every single one of them, just the way they are, and had no idea that there were other adult women out there in my age group who also consider themselves passionately ARMY. I love the musical artistry of BTS, the focus and dedication, the dancing, the songs themselves, and find all of BTS to be achingly beautiful and extremely sexy, each in his own way, in everything they wear and however they choose to present themselves that day. They give me hope for the future, that with BTS leading the way, ARMY will change the world for them. It gives me hope that things will be different for my granddaughters. I know of only 1 other open BTS ARMY noona in my daily life, a 35 year old woman from work. Thank you so much for this article and for broaching this subject, and showing me there is a community for me too in BTS’s ARMY. Oh, and I am an experienced Psychiatric RN, BSN with 10 years of college and a lot of life experience behind me. Rock on, BTS, I ๐๐๐ you, and you too, Noona.. Peace and prosperity to you, Noona.