Nurse Outfit with Red Heels... BLACKPINK's 'Love Sick Girls' Sexual Objectification Controversy

A scene from the music video of girl group BLACKPINK's new song 'Lovesick Girls.' Photo by BLACKPINK YouTube video capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] The recently released music video for the girl group BLACKPINK's new song "Lovesick Girls" has sparked controversy for sexualizing nurses.

The Health and Medical Workers' Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions issued a statement on the 5th, saying, "In BLACKPINK's 'Lovesick Girls' music video by YG Entertainment, one of the members appears dressed as a nurse," and added, "Although the hair cap, tight and short skirt, and high heels are seriously far from the current nurse uniform, under the excuse of costume (dressing up as a celebrity, character, or specific figure), the outfit and direction simply repeated the existing typical sexual codes."

The problematic scene is about five seconds in the middle of the music video, where member Jennie is seen dressed as a nurse while looking at a chart. In this scene, Jennie appears wearing a short, tight nurse outfit paired with red high heels.

The Health and Medical Workers' Union stated, "Despite nurses being healthcare workers and medical professionals, they have been subjected to sexual objectification and derogatory depictions that question their professionalism simply because many in the profession are women," and added, "Nurses have long fought to improve this, yet YG Entertainment sexualized nurses in BLACKPINK's music video."

They continued, "Nurses are still exposed to power harassment and sexual violence," and pointed out, "The more distorted images of nurses are repeated in popular culture, the worse this situation becomes." They urged, "Now that BLACKPINK's new song is ranking high on various global charts, we call on YG Entertainment to take responsible action commensurate with their popularity and influence."

BLACKPINK released their first full-length album, The Album, on the 2nd, four years after their debut. The title track, Lovesick Girls, immediately topped iTunes charts in 57 countries worldwide, and the music video surpassed 100 million views on YouTube within 75 hours of its release, gaining huge popularity.

Additionally, BLACKPINK's official YouTube channel surpassed 50 million subscribers, the first Korean YouTube channel to do so. This is the second-highest number of subscribers among global pop music artists, following pop star Justin Bieber (57.4 million subscribers).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.