In Korean, euphemisms like “she’s wagging her tail”—she’s a flirt—and “she’s hiding her tail”—go into hiding—frame women in terms of allure and deception. Cats and foxes, too, are often portrayed negatively in many fables and considered to be deceitful creatures. SUNMI, however, casts these animals and their movements in a positive light with her choreography in “TAIL.” The artists and her backup dancers form tails from their arms and legs, reminiscent of a nine-tailed fox, while SUNMI’s sharp nails and eyeliner, along with the way she crawls on all fours and swings her outstretched arms, suggests the agile, fluid movements of a cat. In the “TAIL” concept video, SUNMI reveals why she chose tails as the overarching image for the song, music video and choreography by explaining what “wag your tail” means: “Do not hide. Express yourself.” Traditionally used negatively in reference to women, SUNMI instead chooses to flirt or “wag her tail” as a means of self-expression.

During her “TAIL” performance, she brings her body close to a seated male dancer, even climbing on top of him. She also brings the line connecting her back and her hips into focus as she lowers her upper body to crawl between the dancers’ legs; this is the kind of image that usually comes to mind when people think of sensual female artists. As SUNMI pulls herself closer to the dancer in the chair, she sings, “I’m not much of a drinker / But I’m a dream girl.” Exquisitely dressed, SUNMI sings, “Question mark, question mark / Stop asking me questions,” as she flourishes animal tails of all different shapes and sizes. It is the kind of dance that turns her into a sultry dream girl. However, at the same time, these suggestive performances are at times taken out of context to create fodder for controversy, while the female performers are stigmatized. SUNMI moves this way to expose this hypocritical view about her and other female artists like her.

SUNMI takes on a Catwoman-like persona in an homage to the character from the movie Batman Returns. Catwoman nearly dies when a man shoves her out of a skyscraper but a group of cats bring her back to consciousness. SUNMI goes through the same ordeal in the “TAIL” music video, and she wants revenge on the man who pushed her so badly that she dreams of tying him to a train track. This also calls to mind the scene of the fancily dressed dream girl overpowering the man she has tied up in a chair. The music video, then, gives context for why this woman’s mind is in such an incomprehensible state, which in turn allows us to view all the motions in her performance from her crazed, Catwoman-like perspective. Throughout her performance, SUNMI looks at times serious, and wears a smile at others, rapidly switching between being choked and knocking someone in the head. The things she does for love keep her returning to painful situations that make her feel like she is being strangled, and she inevitably harbors complicated feelings about herself for the things she has done. SUNMI, through an unstable character like Catwoman, gives context to and consolidates this complicated mind into a coherent display on the stage.

It is no accident that “TAIL” looks like something out of a musical. As though Catwoman’s life story had been injected into Cats, the song, lyrics, performance, story and Catwoman “dream girl” allusion in “TAIL” all come together to express SUNMI’s personal story like a musical. As the song progresses, the number of dancers needed to tell Catwoman’s story gradually increases. They also serve as a background for TV performances of the song, which cannot be staged like a musical. The deep notes of the song powerfully hit the eardrums as they create a wide stage for SUNMI’s voice to whip across. Her voice is somewhat buried beneath the rest of the music, which stands in contrast to most K-pop songs, where the vocals are typically given priority. For another, the melody in the chorus is exactly the same every time. The result is fewer dramatically high notes and more room for SUNMI to perform within her vocal range during the chorus, with lines like, “We’re madly in love / Kiss each other like crazy.” Instead, the tempo slows at the words, “Hold the tail straight up high / Stand on edge, fussier,” signaling, as in a musical number, the upcoming climax. Using jazz as a framework, “TAIL” and its B-side “What the Flower” are altogether written similarly enough to monologues that they can stand as a character motif in a musical. In “TAIL,” SUNMI portrays a woman breaking free of stereotypes and, as she progressively frees herself of K-pop’s expectations, finding the image that works best for her. The song is the product of a highly imaginative artist producing her own artistic self-expression.

Paradoxically, this necessarily makes “TAIL” a controversial work. SUNMI tightly integrates the lyrics, music video, and her facial expressions and movement through shared context to convey her vision. In order to show how she comes to accept the apparent contradiction between the beloved dream girl and the seductive “tail-wagging” woman, SUNMI must play both in “TAIL,” and after watching her performance, the aim is quite clear. As she moves up on the seated dancer in the video, his body obstructs our view, preventing us from seeing just what she is doing. Instead, we are given a close-up of her vexed face. But not everyone will take the time to read SUNMI’s expression and uncover her intent. In the choreography video released alongside “TAIL,” she looks like she is about to collapse as she lifts her legs while on her hands and knees. On Yu Huiyeol’s Sketchbook, broadcasted on KBS2, SUNMI was asked if the choreography is challenging; she responded that it is not easy, and even showed off the bruises she developed on her knees while practicing the crawling moves. SUNMI talked with the dance crew that she worked with on their YouTube channel about how she exercised in conjunction with her practice to really hone her moves, and she also revealed she bulked up leading up to the tour. Regardless of her intentions or efforts, some people will only focus on certain parts of the choreography, or just comment that she has put on weight or that her body has otherwise changed. No matter what she does, a certain percentage of people will see her as a sex symbol and criticize her body online. Nevertheless, SUNMI strives to reveal the inner workings of her mind, no matter how contradictory they may appear, and explain how such complicated characters came to coexist inside one person.

This is exactly how SUNMI has come to occupy an unrivaled position in the K-pop industry. Both in Korea and throughout the world, female artists are bound to face pushback any time they release material that might be considered contentious or controversial. Being swept up in such controversy can deal a considerable blow to female artists regardless of their actual output. Despite this, SUNMI pushes through talking about herself, even in the face of controversy or negative comments, thrusting the complex, multi-faceted attitude of women squarely into the center of the K-pop world. Words with a strong negative connotation or which suggest a lack of independence—think a “Siren” luring sailors to their deaths, “gashina” as a term to put young women down, or the so-called “nalari” or “wild girl”—have been reclaimed by women so that they can use them in positive reference to themselves. In “What the Flower,” released alongside “TAIL,” the flower is told “you don’t have to smile” and yet must, and has to resort to saying, “Why do you keep on touching me?” and, “Stop it.” The title is not simply a clever play on a swear word; SUNMI also attaches to flowers the idea that being beautiful makes them tough instead. By redefining the language used to talk about women, she reworks such words to better express the women’s lives as seen by the people living them. Though at times contradictory, contrarian, or seemingly unlovable by some, they all live a life that needs to be expressed.