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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

🧨 General orders for Issue 3 now open. 🧨 Issue 003 is about the pressures & potentials of Hallyu bodies on screen and behind the scenes: idol bodies, dancing bodies, animated bodies, injured bodies, military bodies, laboring bodies, diasporic bodies, fan bodies.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Come hang out with MENT at Berkeley tomorrow! Limited copies of MENT Issue 003 print available. Plus conversations + hands-on lab about the role of Korean pop culture in our everyday life. RSVP or just stop by! More details here: www.mentmagazine.com/events/archi...

mentmagazine.com

Archiving Slow Resistance: Korean Popular Culture and Everyday Care — MENT Magazine

In a moment marked by burnout, financial strain, and racialized precarity, what does Korean pop culture make possible? This event brings together scholars, artists, writers, and fans to explore how so...

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Archiving Slow Resistance brings together scholars, artists, writers, and fans to explore how K-drama, K-pop, and Hallyu fandoms affect ordinary people in their everyday lives. Coming to you from UC Berkeley on 4/29!

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Join MENT at UC Berkeley on 4/29 (5:15-8pm) for Archiving Slow Resistance: Korean Popular Culture and Everyday Care, a public event on K-pop, K-drama, fandom, precarity, and everyday survival. [Post 2] Free and open to the public. Details + RSVP here: www.mentmagazine.com/events/archi...

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Last day to preorder MENT Issue 003!! Strong feelings about K-media, hot takes with stakes, fan spaces that build things, glitchy bodies, songs with history, screens with agendas, and essays that know what the hell they’re talking about. Print edition only. www.mentmagazine.com/store/p/ment...

mentmagazine.com

MENT Issue 003 Print Preorder | MENT Magazine — MENT Magazine

Pre-order the print edition of MENT Issue 003, a Korean pop culture magazine featuring essays, interviews, artwork, and experimental forms. Local pickups available in Berkeley and Los Angeles; shipped...

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

What happens to a body when a system tries to make it readable? Issue 003 explores that question across choreography, platforms, visual codes, military spectacle, cinematic frames, fan archives, and diasporic routes.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

연조 reflects on how her mother Bang Uhe Kyung’s anti-authoritarian songs in 1970s South Korea shape diasporic belonging and resistance in the present. Christina Ferraro traces how Nam June Paik’s once-futuristic media aesthetics return in K-pop as stylized retro citation.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

MENT Issue 003 preorders are open now through April 8. In “Stay a While: On Lee Chang-dong’s Pursuit of a Moral Style for the 21st Century,” Ethan J. Rosenberg examines Lee Chang-dong’s oeuvre to consider what a camera can do when it does not cut away.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

MENT Issue 003 preorders are open now through April 8. Robyn Hope shows how injury and absence glitch the machine of K-pop performance, exposing the precarious interdependencies that choreography usually smooths over.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

In “The Whole Internet Is Fandom Now,” Abigail De Kosnik reflects on the increasingly fan-like logics of digital life. Labor organizer & K-pop fan Katie Doan also asks how fan communities mobilize and how storytelling can translate into concrete political action.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Demons and hunters, idols and screens, songs that extract and songs that save: what conditions does KPop Demon Hunters spotlight? Issue 003 takes the film as a point of departure for asking what our contemporary media fantasies make visible, and what they still obscure.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Print preorders for MENT Issue 003 are open through April 8 at www.mentmagazine.com/store/p/ment... MENT exists to slow down viral culture, ground media objects in their historical contexts, and create the conditions for extended reflection.

Collage of K-drama stills featuring people reading, overlaid with a vintage television graphic that reads “Slow the smash hit. Read the print issue” and MENT magazine branding.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

🚨RAFFLE ALERT🚨 We’re giving away an #ATEEZ album and autographed postcard by #Wooyoung or #Yunho to THREE lucky winners. See here for details on how to enter: linktr.ee/mentmagazine Enter by October 6th. Good luck! 🍀🫰

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

🧨 It’s a MENT double feature! 🧨 This Sat 9/27, find us in 2 cities at once: the Bay Area Chuseok Festival in SF (11am-4pm)+ Line Friends K-Pop Square in LA (11am-6pm). Come meet our editors + grab a copy of our limited edition inaugural issue before it’s gone.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

At MENT, we believe that attending to silenced histories can transform the present. If that resonates, join our conversation. Pitch us for issue 003 by 9/30. See detailed pitch guidelines here: docs.google.com/document/d/1... #KPOP #WritingCommmunity

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

#KPOP is more than just sound–it tells stories of selfhood, culture, and connection. How might collage art help us uncover these layers and build new ones around the idols we love? Mixed media artist izumo explores this in MENT Issue 002. Learn more at mentmagazine.com/issue002.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Pitch your ideas for Issue 003 now. See pitch guidelines here: docs.google.com/document/d/1... For pitches, please note we encourage full draft submissions but continue to accept shorter pitches as well.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

At MENT, we believe that adoration carries agency, and fandom can function as critique. If that resonates, join our conversation. Pitch us for Issue 003 by 9/30. See detailed pitch guidelines here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Screenshot from “K-pop Demon Hunters” with text overlay

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

One week later, and we’re still buzzing from the amazing panels, connections, and K-pop dance lessons at our Issue 001 launch event! ✨🫰 Thank you to everyone who came out and created with us. Swipe through to relive some of the best moments here, and stay tuned for more exciting things to come.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

🚨TODAY🚨 Join us at dublab LA to celebrate our first print issue. The issue will be available for purchase exclusively at this event! This event will also include conversational panels, a #KPOP dance workshop led by Team BUK, and boba! givebutter.com/bangtanremixed

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

🚨 Join us THIS WEEKEND on August 17th at dublab LA to celebrate our first print issue. The issue will be available for purchase exclusively at this event, so reserve your spot now: givebutter.com/bangtanremixed

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

As we lead up to our Issue 001 launch event, we want to continue to celebrate the rich history of Korean Media 💿📺 Today, we’re focusing on #ShippingCulture and its origins in #KPOP. Have you ever shipped two of your favorite idols? Read more: mentmagazine.com/issue002

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

🚨 Join us on August 17th at dublab LA to celebrate our first print issue. The issue will be available for purchase exclusively at this event, so reserve your spot now: givebutter.com/bangtanremixed

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Izumo’s mixed media art recasts the dynamism and color of #TAEYONG into a new visual language. Check out this and other artworks in MENT Issue 002 available to read now: mentmagazine.com/issue002

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

🚨 Join us, the BTS Critical Reader, and GYOPO on August 17th in LA to celebrate our first print issue! ✨Stop by for boba, snacks, panels, a dance workshop, and the opportunity to purchase our inaugural issue in print! RSVP now to save your spot: givebutter.com/bangtanremixed

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

#Shinee Onew’s solo album undergoes a mixed-media transformation in Izumo’s artwork. How do fanworks re-interpret K-pop media in new directions? How might K-pop offer a new visual language for our modes of self-expression? Watch this video and others like it at mentmagazine.com/issue002

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

🚨 Join us, in collaboration with the BTS Critical Reader and GYOPO, on August 17th in LA to celebrate our first print issue! ✨Stop by for boba, snacks, panels, a dance workshop, and the opportunity to purchase our inaugural issue in print! RSVP now to save your spot: givebutter.com/bangtanremixed

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

If the visuals of #KPOP have ever sparked your own creative imagination, don’t miss our conversation with mixed media artist Izumo. Join us as we reflect on artistic growth, fan art as resistance, and why imperfections in art still matter in the age of AI.

Still from Izumo’s mixed media video artwork, “Blame It on My Youth” (2023).

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

From the experience of diaspora to #StrayKids Camille Chong (@camiscribbles.bsky.social) explores the implications of “strayness” and how being a #KPOP fan helped her with her Singaporean identity. When does community inspire us to connect beyond our normal boundaries?

Image by Amber Lee. Adapted from images of “Stray Kids Special Zine” included in Social Path / Super Bowl (Japanese Ver.) limited edition B; Prime Ministers Plane to Fly Inter City (132335129), April 21, 2006, by Sheba_Also 43,000 photos (Wikimedia Commons); and Torn Ripped Wrinkled Damaged Paper Free High Resolution Texture Creative Commons (8077074905), October 11, 2012, by D Sharon Pruitt (Wikimedia Commons).

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

We’re continuing our celebration of the rich history of Korean media! Today we’re focusing on the evolution of digital comics and the introduction of the vertical “webtoon” layout style. Be sure to check out Issue 002 for more analysis like this and follow for more facts about Korean media history

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

From state repression of the past and present to the quiet power of memorial archives, Yoojin Kim considers how Gwangju’s memory shapes resistance today. When does history interact with the present—and when does it get buried beneath it? Read now at www.mentmagazine.com/issue002/gwangju-memoirs

Image by Amber Lee. Adapted from (Landscape with Marshes), 1898, by De Lancey Gill, born Chester, SC 1859-died Alexandria, VA 1940 (Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Goree M. Pellen and Florence Pellen Duffy); Korean Sandals (Chipsin), c. 1950s, Straw, ca. 1950s (Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada), image by Daderot, July 4, 2013 (Wikimedia Commons); Sandals, Uniform, School (AM 1999.183.3), ca. 1999(Collection of Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, 1999.183.3; Wikimedia Commons); and Korean Shoes for Upper-Class Women (Woon-Hye), c. 1880s, Silk, ca. 1880s(Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada), image by Daderot, July 4, 2013 (Wikimedia Commons).

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

From revenge-fueled plot twists to moral tests, Sue Hyon Bae unpacks how cancer in #Kdramas script neoliberal selfhood. When does suffering empower—and when does it enforce control? Read now at www.mentmagazine.com/issue002/rev... #MarryMyHusband #LifeisBeautiful

Image by Amber Lee and Hyo Lee. Adapted from Marry My Husband promotional still, 2024 (tvN, accessed via TMDB) and Red Rose Petals, February 25, 2010, by THOR (Wikimedia Commons).

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Korean murder rom-coms: just a popular #KDRAMA subgenre or also a cultural mirror? Anisa Khalifa (@anisa.bsky.social) investigates the overlaps between shows like #SuspiciousPartner and #CrashCourseinRomance with real life gender inequality and gender-based violence in South Korea.

Image by Amber Lee. Adapted from The Murderer (alternate title Der Mörder), 1914, by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies M.82.288.112, Los Angeles County Museum of Art); Crash Course in Romance promotional still, 2023 (tvN); and Splattered White Paint 1, April 18, 2012, by Downtowngal (Wikimedia Commons).

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

We’re continuing our celebration of the rich history of Korean media! ✨ Today, we’re focusing on the evolution of censorship in K-pop. Be sure to check out Issue 002 for more analysis like this and follow for more facts about Korean media history🫰

Blue glitch background with Seo Taiji and Boys icon overlay.

Censorship of music and television in South Korea was once handled by the Public Performance Ethics Committee, which gradually lost influence in the 1990s before being abolished in 1996. Its replacement, the Broadcasting Ethics Committee, marked a shift that lifted restrictions on record production and eased moral standards for televised content. This transition opened the door for greater creative freedom, helping fuel the rise of the modern K-pop industry.

For more on K-pop’s early development, see Hyunjoon Shin’s “Itaewon Class, Gangnam Style, and Yeouido Star: The Industrial Revolution of Korean Pop in the 1990s” in The Cambridge Companion to K-pop.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

K-pop livestreams: fleeting connections or intimate labor on demand? Adan Jerreat-Poole unpacks how digital platforms turn desire into work, comparing idols and webcam models to question digital parasocial relationships. When does desire connect and when does it extract?

Image by Hyo Lee. Adapted from screenshot of Jungkook sleeping on livestream, June 12, 2023 (Weverse Live, accessed via Allkpop); Eye on Window, New York, 1943, Nathan Lerner (Art Institute Chicago, Gift of David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg); Young Americans are Captivated at the BTS World Tour Concert(translated title), September 6, 2018, by LG Electronics (Wikimedia Commons); Korea KPOP World Festival 53, October 20, 2013, by Korea.net Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han) (Wikimedia Commons); A Wall with Torn Posters, by ISO Republic (Freerange); A Wall with Various Stickers on It. Background Grunge Street Art, Background Textures(Pixaby, accessed via Picryl).

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

From the viral rise of #LoveintheBigCity to the activist labor of Brazilian fans, Ligia Prezia Lemos (@ligiaprezialemos.bsky.social) and Mariana Marques De Lima explore how LGBTQ+ rights are defended across borders. When does fandom become frontline? Read now at www.mentmagazine.com/issue002/bra...

Image by Hyo Lee. Adapted from Textile Design, 1957-59, by Alexander Hayden Girard (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Gift of Alexander H. Girard); São Paulo Protest against Putin and Russia's Anti-Gay Laws (9579150488), August 23, 2013, by Ben Tavener (Wikimedia Commons); São Paulo Protest against Putin and Russia's Anti-Gay Laws (9576383675), August 23, 2013, by Ben Tavener (Wikimedia Commons); São Paulo Protest against Putin and Russia's Anti-Gay Laws (9579176722), August 23, 2013, by Ben Tavener (Wikimedia Commons); Flag of South Korea(Cropped), August 9, 2010, by J. Patrick Fischer (Wikimedia Commons); Brazilian Flag, November 4, 2023, by Boaventuravinicius (Wikimedia Commons); Protesto contra LGBTfobia no DF-2, October 10, 2014, by Anderson Riedel (Wikimedia Commons), II Parada do Orgulho Louco - - - Mad Pride parade, May 29, 2009, by Alfredo Mascarenhas (Wikimedia Commons); and Love in the Big City promotional still (TVING, accessed via Soompi).

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Do you have experience in print design, page layout, or translating digital content to print? We’re putting our first and second issues into print, and we’d love your help! DM us if you’re interested in volunteering.

Dark grey background with multicolored icons on the right. Text on the left reads: “Do you have experience with print media? We’re turning our issues into print! If you have experience in print design, page layout, translating digital content to print, and would like to volunteer, DM us!“

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Choco Pie: seductive “Capitalist Cream” or the sweet proof of North Korean “humanity”? Madeleine Han examines how the popular Korean snack embodies Cold War legacies and offers material for reimagining political possibility. 🔗 Read now: www.mentmagazine.com/issue002/cho...

Image by Hyo Lee. Adapted from image of wrapped Orion Choco Pie (Orion); North Korea’s Ballistic Missile-North Korea Victory Day-2013 01, July 26, 2013, by Stefan Krasowski (Wikimedia Commons); The North Korean Flag, May 5, 2007, by Gilad Rom (Flickr); and others. The number and layering of images in this collage prevents full attribution. Full citations available upon request.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

From classical music’s overlaps with #kpop to analyzing musical ‘noise,’ Emma Chang from @reacttothek.bsky.social and our editors dive into the nitty gritty of K-pop’s distinctive sound. Read now www.mentmagazine.com/issue002/rea...

Image by Amber Lee. Adapted from photographs provided by Emma Chang; Study for “Music”, 1894, by Francis Augustus Lathrop (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum); the autographed partiture of the Polonaise Op. 53 in A flat major for piano, 1842, by Frédéric Chopin (Heineman Music Collection [Unbound], Pierpont Morgan Library Dept. of Music Manuscripts and Books, Wikimedia Commons).

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

If #WhenLifeGivesYouTangerines moved you with its depictions of Jeju everyday life, don’t miss our interview with acclaimed feminist and anthropologist Haejoang Cho. Professor Cho reflects on postwar Korea, the rise of Hallyu, and how fans might “gather and start activities to save the world.”

Image by Amber Lee. Adapted from screenshot of “The Real Aesoons are here! A Reaction Video to When Life Gives You Tangerines by the Jeju Painting Grandmothers Who Have Long Captured Jeju in Their Art” (translated title), 2025, by Netflix Korea (YouTube); St. Ives: Cornwall, 1883-1884, by James McNeill Whistler (National Museum of Asian Art, Gift of Charles Lang Freer); and Untitled (Landscape), ca. 1938, by Arthur Dove, born Canandaigua, NY 1880-died Huntington, NY 1946 (Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation).

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

From resonant #KPOP protest anthems to the clamor of industry “scandals,” our editors (@yinyuan.bsky.social @andreastlane.bsky.social) explore the politics of sonic agency. When does noise resist and when does it distract? Read now at mentmagazine.com/issue002/from-the-editors

Image by Amber Lee. Adapted from photograph of participants celebrating the impeachment of South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, December 14, 2024, by Ahn Young-joon (The Associated Press); Protest Against Importation of United States Beef in Busan, May 31, 2028, by Migojarad (Wikimedia Commons); Untitled, by Unidentified (American), 1936 (Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the General Services Administration); and Color Splatter, December 7, 2020, by Illestpreacha (Wikimedia Commons)

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

We’re live! From #LoveIntheBigCity to #StrayKids and #BTS livestreams—Issue 002 dives into K-drama revenge, Cold War snacks, fan activism, murder rom-coms, diaspora, and more. Read now at mentmagazine.com/issue002

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Reposted by MENT Magazine

Anisa Khalifa @anisa.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

out from me today in @mentmagazine.bsky.social: an extremely nerdy analysis of what I call the murder rom-com. why has murder become so common in #kdrama rom-coms, what makes this trope work (or not)—and what does the trend it say about real gendered violence? www.mentmagazine.com/issue002/mur...

mentmagazine.com

The Rise of the Murder Rom-Com — MENT Magazine

Anisa Khalifa examines what the murder rom-com reveals about the fears, desires, and realities of women living under the persistent threat of gendered violence. 

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Dramas Over Flowers: A K-drama Podcast @dramasoverflowers.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

feels like we’ve been teasing this for a long time, but it’s finally here: Anisa’s analysis about the rise of the murder rom-com, why it succeeds and when it fails, and what these fictional threats say about the real gendered violence women face today.

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

MENT Issue 002 is now live at mentmagazine.com/issue002. From the Gwangju Uprising to the recent protests against Yoon Suk Yeol, from murder rom-coms and cancer narratives to When Life Gives You Tangerines, from choco pies to K-pop light sticks, from Hallyu idols to webcam models 1/2

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

🚨 It’s coming! 🚨 One more day until MENT issue 002 goes live at mentmagazine.com Make sure you’re following so you know when the issue drops! Which piece are you most excited about? #ment #KPOP #Kdramas

Blue background with image of Hyunjin in the center. To the left reads “May 12 2025” and to the right reads “MENT Issue 002”

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

🚨 It’s coming!🚨 Only 3 days until MENT Issue 002 drops on May 12th at mentmagazine.com. Make sure you’re following us or are subscribed to our newsletter to be notified when the issue is live! #ment #KPOP #kdramas #kmedia

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MENT Magazine @mentmagazine.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

The wait is almost over… Issue 002 drops May 12th at mentmagazine.com ✨ #mentmagazine #KPOP #kdramas #digitalmagazine

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