[3][4] However, it is not uncommon for everyday people to behave in such a way, and is widely used as an expression of affection towards loved ones, family, and friends, and also as a hyper-sexualized form of seduction.
A pro-forma version of aegyo may become tradition for certain circumstances, such as when idols perform the "Gwiyomi" song, with actions made popular by the South Korean rapper Jung Ilhoon of BtoB.
Puzar argues that aegyo in popular culture affects how young South Korean women act, especially in romantic relationships.
Puzar and Hong relate aegyo to a similar Japanese practice amae and contextualize this behavior in terms of an androcentric patriarchy.
As the word originally depicts emotions felt by a young child toward his or her mother, a woman partaking in the social relation of amae is conceptually relegated to a position of an immature child of the society, dependent on care-takers" and draws significant parallels of this behavior with Korean concept of aegyo.
Korean women often use aegyo as a method of navigating and requesting favors in Korea's strict patriarchy while not directly challenging or disrupting it.
The primary use of aegyo in a workplace setting therefore is by females towards males in superior positions of authority (bosses), field research indicates the opposite cannot be seen as likely.
This use of aegyo is especially common in male dominated workplace environments and generally seen as something that benefits an individual's professional life but only for females.
Puzar and Hong conclude that "aegyo is almost certainly a strong contributing element to the discursive organisation of the ‘ideal Korean woman’, repeatedly reinforced by narratives and images produced and reproduced throughout everyday lives and mediatic representations."
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology describes aegyo as a "layered phenomenon standing in productive relations with other ideas and concepts typical of Korean remaining hierarchical (patriarchal and gerontocratic) societal organisation.