Michigo

Michigo: Dirty Nasty Ass Fun, Feet, and Misfits.

Michigo was released in April 2013 as a part of G-Dragon’s album Coup d’état.

Methodology

As I am not a native Korean speaker, I do not analyse text in these commentaries beyond
a literal, simplistic meaning. This is an unfortunate logistical shortcoming which cannot be
overcome till I develop native fluency or GD and TOP come and translate their lyrics line by line
for me. Knowing how richly referential and nuanced their solo videos are, I know that the lyrics
must be similarly rich in layered meaning, but, alas, I have no access to this world as of now.
However, I do treat videos as authorial works, informed, directed, and conceptualised by the
artist. In Michigo, as with his other solo works, G-Dragon’s own involvement with the concept
and direction is immediately apparent from the 'making' video.
Commentary

Michigo is about non-heteronormative sexual identity. It is couched in a frenetic, black-humoured

bizarreness which goes well with the electro-dubstep sound, but it is at its heart a LGBTQA
manifesto. Rather than the overt sexual symbolism of BIGBANG’s Bae Bae (2015) which
hits even the most literal-minded viewer in the face with its sexual imagery like a syringe full
of semen, the engagement with what is still a social taboo in Korea is much more coded in
Michigo. Rather than the heterosexual blowsiness of Bae Bae, Michigo is a tribute to alternative
sexualities and adolescent experimentations with sex and sexual identity.

Had this video been made in a less conservative cultural setting, perhaps the artist would have
said so in the ‘making’ video. However, situated where he is, G-Dragon had to continue the
metaphor ‘behind the scenes’, thus creating an endless mobius strip of allusion where the codes
he generates in the text bleed into real life.

In the making video, G-Dragon says the video is about Jiyong who has very large feet (size 400)
and therefore he is unable to dance or play and feels like a loser.

‘You are watching Jiyong unable to dance or play because of his big feet. It’s me unable to play.
Don’t you feel bad for me? I want to dance so much, shake it and get crazy but I can’t, so I look
like a loser.’
The feet symbolism is only indirectly phallic here although large feet are often supposed to
correlate to penis size. Scientifically, however, no correlation has been proved between foot and
erect penis size.* The large foot size here represents being a misfit—and as the ‘misfittingness’
relates to sexuality, the reference is indeed sexual, but not in the most obvious way.

(Fun fact: A correlation has been shown between the ratio of the index and ring finger lengths
and erect penile length. The shorter the index finger compared to the ring finger, the longer the
erect penis. It has something to do with growth hormones in utero. Never say DKP doesn’t give
you useful information.)

Narratively, the video is shot in several fixed settings, identified in the making video. The subway,
the toilet, the parents’, the hospital, the library, the street, the box storage, and friends. Here, GD
plays several roles—Subway boy, Toilet boy, Library boy, Box Storage boy, Street Man, Rebellious
punk son and boyfriend, and himself. As with the scheme of many of GD’s videos, the narrative is
bookended between one character. Here, it is Subway Boy Jiyong with the large feet.

Big Feet Jiyong wears preppy clothes, including a Pringle cricket jumper and a ‘Girl’baseball cap.
He gets into a subway car covered in graffiti and stickers like the New York Subwa system, but
the map inside is that of the London Tube.
This then is no real place—it is a stand in for an uncaring and indifferent urban dystopia, and
for society at large. This is also seen in the destinations in the carriage—Washington Hts/8 Av
giving the impression of being situated in the real world, but then Maeuntang and St Mandoo—
which are Korean dishes.
The subway car is, in fact choc a bloc with references-- from the DNAF ( dirty nasty ass fun from
the lyrics) to the GFGX ( Graphics Fucked by Generation XXX) posters—an influence that one
also see in GD’s Instagram name. One could spend hours looking at the various stickers and
pieces of graffiti and still miss half the inside jokes. (The chicken ‘homo’ sticker for example,
refers to a young, virginal gay boy.)
Masks, which form such an integral part of GD’s visual language, are also present here—
most people other than the protagonist/s wear a doll-like impassive face. Big Feet Jiyong is
intimidated by them and hides himself behind his book. This book is ‘Shouting out to the world:
a run for the dream’, the best-selling biography of BIGBANG in which their early struggle and life
has been immortalised. The book establishes that Big Feet Jiyong exists in a world where GD
also exists, as the numerous GD stickers plastered around the subway car also testify. This will
be further emphasised in a later stage when Big Feet Jiyong shares a space with GD’s friends as
a fan.
The book being featured in the MV also perhaps reveals that the revelations in it are incomplete.
That the persona that has been made for GD is not his true self, and the journey in the subway,
littered with ‘Hello, I AM—’ stickers, is a metaphorical quest for true identity. Most of the stickers
are not legible, at least to a ‘general’ audience, but the illegibility is intentional. This obscurantism
that one sees often in GD’s later work as a visual artist, is also a feature of Jean-Michel
Basquiat’s work, who has continued to be an influence upon his artistic vision. Attention goes to
that which has been hidden, so we seek to read the names we can’t read.
Bigfeet Jiyong stares longingly at a pair of normal sized beautifully shod feet and hides then
hides behind his book.
The owner of these feet, Bowl-Cut Jiyong, reminiscent of Heartbreaker GD, is smooth-haired,
gender indeterminate, clad in fashionable slim-fitting leather and lavishly accessorised, and
turns the carriage into a personal dance club—or rather this is the life that Big feet Jiyong thinks
Bowl-Cut Jiyong--with his elegant, normal-sized feet-- lives. We impose upon strangers the
values and aspirations that we hold dear—and this is even more true in the Age of Instagram,
where stranger envy has become a life feature.
Of course, this narrative is not about the shoes or the dancing, but about another kind of play.
Big Feet Jiyong envies Bowl-Cut Jiyong’s ability to fit in AND stand out—that is, explore his
non-normative sexual and gender identity. In the Carriage Dance Club, Bowl-Cut Jiyong manages
to both ‘Go Crazy’ and ‘shake it’ as the lyrics exhort. People do not ignore Bowl-Cut Jiyong, like
they do Big Feet Jiyong, and neither is he intimidated by them. Rather he leads them in a dance
of gay abandon in having ‘Dirty Nasty Ass Fun’.
Enter the Pink Elephant. Pink elephants signify the element of the absurd and the impossible, of
hallucinatory break from reality ( see Dumbo’s drunk hallucination in the eponymous 1941 Disney
film), but are also a reference to gay sub-culture, which like the metaphorical elephant in the
room, remains unaddressed by the mainstream world. The elephant trunk here is a recognisable
stand in for a penis, and Bowl-Cut Jiyong does rather suggestive things to it. He’s in it, he is it, he
rides it, he fondles it, he pulls the trunk and it slaps him—it’s all rather obvious and phallic, and as
the lyrics say, and as is writ large in the carriage , this is ‘dirty nasty ass fun.’
These scenes are interspersed with scenes of GD and his friends—who are, presumably, admired
by Big Feet Jiyong. 7even, Teddy, Taeyang and mysterious GD in his Giyongchy hat appear--all
living an existence that seems so admirable and distant to Big Feet Jiyong.

The ‘Shut up’ of the song takes us to a toilet where Afro-Wearing Jiyong stands in front of
mystical urinal which shimmers with magical light. Afro-Wearing Jiyong has a pink hair-pick in
his hair and wears a black leather harness and a black bandana. These are symbols that signify
community—as the hair-pick as ornament did for afro-wearing blacks when the hair style began
to be liberated from the asphyxiating and oppressive stranglehold of the notion that Caucasian
hair is ‘normal’ hair.

The afro here is a comment against the notion of normativity, and how dangerous and
suffocating one idea of being or sexuality or appearance is seen as a correct one and everything
that is different from this conventional normativity is seen as different, exotic, problematic,
rebellious, wrong or deviant. The black harness and bandana are recognisable codes in
queer-flagging. Both mean the person likes S&M and is a switcher- i.e can top or bottom and can
be the giver or receiver of these sexual acts.

The pink hair-pick is not coincidental--) like the pink elephant, it stands as a visual Polari.
'Look at me, recognise me, I am one of you', it says. The Toilet here becomes a site of sordid
assignations—not because the act of seeking gay sex is sordid, but because persecution by
normativity displaces gay romance/sex-seeking from the outside world and confines it to
such places. Afro-Wearing Jiyong is supposedly urinating in this toilet, but his actions are
more exaggerated, animated and prolonged than required for urination. His dance approaches
a climax with the onomatopoeic frenzy of the lyrics in the background (odong doo dong,
vroom vroom). The reference is clearly to sexual pleasuring—which becomes obvious when
Afro-Wearing Jiyong makes an ‘orgasm’ face and draws attention to his face in an exaggerated
display of yawning, even as the lyrics refence ‘eyes losing their focus’ and ‘empty it all at the
spot’.
This scene is interspersed with Big feet Jiyong in a dentist’s chair in a hospital. His over large
feet are being examined by medical professionals, and X-rays of his feet are displayed in the
background. The medical professionals are clearly nonplussed by his abnormality. They do not
understand Jiyong’s feet and examine them using tools entirely unsuited for the purpose. This
lack of understanding, this befuddlement shown by the ‘normal’, forms a central theme of this
video. It also hints at the dangerous and traumatising normalising therapies that many societies
imposed upon homosexuals, treating their sexuality as a psychological or physical affliction and
deviancy.
Afro-Wearing Jiyong sees himself in the mirror—'too dangerous’, say the lyrics, and we see
that someone else is in the toilet cubicle. Only his feet in neat oxfords are visible to us and to
Afro-Wearing Jiyong.

The scene switches as Punk Jiyong is laid out on his parents’ lap being disciplined in a highly
sexualised S&M spanking which ‘feels good’, but also references the familial disapproval
that attaches to non-normative sexual identities in many societies even today. This is, sadly,
particularly true for South Korea, where being outed as non-heteronormative is still difficult
for most people. Punk Jiyong wears a white bandana—a queer flag for light S&M—which he is
currently experiencing. ‘Mother, Father, who are you, who am I, where am I?’ he asks, and then
declares he’s a ‘D boy’. D-Boy has many meanings, including a drug-dealer in the rap vocabulary,
but here it is likely to refer to a dick boy.
Meanwhile, the doctor tickles Jiyong’s massive foot with a pink feather—it is a recognisably
erotic an symbolic device-- feathers have been used to queer flag in many societies, and pink
feathers are now often associated with drag. Big Foot Jiyong tries to accept his big feet for
what they are, and begins to take care of them—another refence to orgasm and self-pleasuring,
but also to self-acceptance.
Afro-Wearing Jiyong is back dancing at his shimmering urinal, making another orgasm face. He
is interrupted by other people, the ‘normals’, including a cleaner, because while the public toilet is
a site of sexual encounters and gratification for persecuted sexual minorities, it also carries the
danger of interruption and discovery.
In the Toilet, Cubicle Guy starts dancing and Afro Jiyong tries to contact him—he jumps up and
down and finally succeeds in seeing Cubicle Guy and gives us a pleased thumbs up. Clearly, he
likes what he sees.
But then as Big Feet Jiyong’s feet prove immune to another ill advised cure and examination--the
Doctor bends a fork against his foot—Afro-Wearing Jiyong is slapped in the face—a reminder of
the physical dangers of seeking sexual gratification while gay.
This blow is mirrored by the doctor examining Big Feet Jiyong, who gets slapped by the huge
feet, exactly mirroring the actions of Afro-Wearing Jiyong.

Finally, we see Cubicle Guy for the first time. He wears a full Thom Browne suit, complete with
a square mortarboard hat and carries a leather S&M Chrome Hearts paddle. This is no longer
insinuation—it is an obvious homage to S&M. The making video tells us that this is also Street
Man.
We return to Dance Club carriage, where Bowl-Cut Jiyong allows us to catch a glimpse of a
poster of grinning penises before we are blinded by the striking paddle of Street Man.

Buxom girls gyrate around Bowl-Cut Jiyong, while Street Man performs at his own dom party in
a shady back alley, complete with a dustbin.

As Bowl-Cut Jiyong lifts his fingers to ask us to keep silent, keep secret, Street Man adjusts his
clothes. The implication is clearly of sexual encounters but also of something much darker. The
silence and secrecy imposed by homosexuality being taboo in a society means that violence,
exploitation and non-consensual domination become a part of this story.

The lyrics make a reference to girls being a dessert, and the cloying persistence of
heteronormativity in all representations of romantic and sexual ideals, even as an ominous hand
approaches Bowl-Cut Jiyong. Punk Jiyong and his Punk girlfriend dance in a room that goes
from red to green, signifying not only the push and pull of a relationship but also the fluidity of
sexuality and its boundaries.
 The girlfriend ends her session with a bosom-pumping dance where she fondles and plays with
her breasts on camera. (Surprisingly, it was this relatively tame section which the Billboard’s
reviewer picked as a racy part which could invite sanction. I don’t know which video he was
watching.)
Student Jiyong, who may be a grown-up version of Afro-Wearing Jiyong, is in a library,
surrounded by other staid, masked students. His scenes are interspersed with Box Storage
Guys who balance boxes in the same way that Student Jiyong balances books. Both tasks are
mindless, onerous, repetitive, and representative of mind-numbing conformity.
But suddenly, Walrus-Hatted Jiyong (could this be a reference to the mis-written revolutionary
anthem 'I am the Walrus' by the Beatles?) breaks the order of these worlds and Student Jiyong
starts to dance uncontrollably as do GD and his friends. Big Feet JIYONG, hidden under a table,
hears the chaos around him and also begins to dance, and then finds himself in the back alley
where Street Man shoots at him with a ‘G’-gun. The ray gun shoots at Big Feet Jiyong so he
starts an inadvertent quickstep to avoid being shot. Lo and behold, Big feet Jiyong can now
dance. All it needed was an encounter with Street Man in a back ally and his G-gun. Yes, the
allusions are not subtle. He is, after all, a D-Boy.
Big Feet Jiyong wakes up in the subway— all of this was but a dream. He gets off on to the
platform, where it turns out, he actually can dance. The train doors close to reveal the title of the
song ‘Go', with an arrow in the O pointing inwards, the opposite of hard masculinity.
Michigo was released on the line app.

* Choi, I. H., Kim, K. H., Jung, H., Yoon, S. J., Kim, S. W., & Kim, T. B. (2011). Second to fourth
digit ratio: a predictor of adult penile length. Asian journal of andrology, 13(5), 710–714.
https://doi.org/10.1038/aja.2011.75