The soft masculinity of flower boys From Buddhist principles to aesthetic surgery

"Flower Boy": not just the title of an album by Tyler, The Creator, but a neologism of South Korean origin that encapsulates an ideological and aesthetic wave that today, after more than twenty years, is also landing among Western trends. A flower boy ('kkonminam') is an appellation used to describe a boy who is 'as beautiful as a flower', young, slim, attractive and attentive to his look, from clothing to skin care, from hairstyle to make-up. Since the mid-2000s, this term has been used to refer to all those K-Pop band members, actors and young idols who prefer a graceful physical presence to the canons of Western male beauty, with prominent jaws and well-defined muscles. Flower boys sport an innocent and androgynous aesthetic that is inspired by that of the bishōnen ('beautiful young men') of Japanese manga and anime for girls ('shōjo'), but without manifesting all those sexual and and androerotic ideals of Japanese pop culture, with roots stretching back to the era of the Chinese Forbidden City. 

Diametrically opposed is the situation in China, where the government has recently banned 'effeminate men' ('niang pao', 'female guns') from appearing on television, with a restrictive manoeuvre that, in addition to increasing control over education and culture, forces broadcasters to exclude from broadcasts all those who represent aesthetic currents considered abnormal and immoral, far from the tradition of the Chinese Communist Party. Leader Xi Jinping has launched a veritable derisive hunt for 'sissy pants', a derogatory term for those who deviate from the concept of traditional virility, in favour of a more neutral look. A sharp turn that will have consequences in fashion but above all in the fight for individual freedom, in clear opposition to the new values of fluidity and gender identity. What is currently forbidden in China may be called 'queer' in Italy, but has been a consistent reality in South Korea for decades. More than a trend, it is a common thought that places male aesthetics on the same level as female aesthetics: that of the flower boys is an authentic genderless ideology, of which both men and women promote themselves through an eternal praise of beauty.