Ah funny thing, I was JUST about to make a post about Rania :] But I’ll just address it here. Thanks for your message!

Personally, I like them. As a kpop fan, their aesthetic (the outfit and dancing) concept is soooo refreshing… I’m personally not a huge fan of the “aegyo”, “oppa-look-at-me” thing kpop has going on, so seeing something as seductive and daring and sexy as this is really awesome, despite the controversies it’s stirring up.

I was trolling on Allkpop, and I came across this comment that made my blood boil: There’s nothing about a woman feeling sexy with the clothes she wears that screams “RAPE ME”. It’s not her outfit that makes her a victim — it’s misogyny and patriarchy in society. Rape happens (in most contexts) when a woman’s sexuality is being flaunted (either through the clothes she wears or the things she says), and a man becomes threatened by it so he feels the need to overpower her with something he has the advantage in: physical force. It’s the men’s fault that they can’t keep it in their pants whenever a woman walks down the road donning something she feels good in. It’s those who rape that aren’t respecting our rights as women. We have all the right to feel as empowered as males do, and the clothes we wear is one of those things we can use to express ourselves. I think after seeing this comment, I became more and more defensive for Rania. I hope the statement these girls (and I mean their producer and concept designer as well) are making is something fans and critics talk about for a while, because there are many sides to this issue.

With that said, there are a few criticisms I have for the group. The biggest one is their song content:

“Doctor, doctor Feel-Good… come make me feel real good…”

As catchy the song is (I won’t lie, I listened to it about 8292343 times on repeat last night), it is suggesting submissive behavior to men — that in order to “feel good”, a man needs to be involved. THEN AGAIN, the fact that these lyrics are being said in forms of commands, you can even argue that Rania is DEMANDING a guy to make them feel good, therefore subjecting the guy to their wishes. Or am I just being too overanalytical idk

I realized all this lyric analysis wouldn’t be necessary IF our society was not so misogynistic and patriarchal in the first place. Because we have to examine how Rania is being perceived just says that our society is full of people who question the way women express themselves, and whether or not it’s “detrimental”. Nothing is detrimental if EVERYONE had their personal morals and values set in place.

Oh, and another thing that upsets me is the double-standards of broadcasting agencies. Asides the fact that GDTOP and other great lyricists were recently been accused of “slang and suggestive lyrics” (what else is new), remember the time when GDTOP’s knockout was banned from like KBS and MBC? It just goes to SHOW that even the industry ITSELF isn’t sure of what’s “decent” and what’s not. But then again, I smell the threat of prohibition hitting Rania soon, so maybe it’s too soon to judge.

But yeah, as far as I am aware this issue is so multi-faceted, and there are so many aspects that I’m not very knowledgeable in. Regardless, I personally love what they have going on. I just wish people would quit the whole “rape” and “whore” thing because it’s so reductionist. (And “whore” means something waay different than “slut”, imo at least.) I plan to look a tad deeper into this issue though, but at the meantime I think they’re totally kickass :]

There’s currently a huge debate going on about the whole issue of “slut” and victimization of sexual assualt… you can read an article here by The Star if you’re interested :]

And let me know what you (and everyone else out there) think as well! Thanks again for your message!

[Further discussion on the issue]