Another week has passed by but did you get the details of some hottest controversies
that turned the Kpop industry upside down?
Jang Wonyoung got ridiculed for her style of eating pizza, Jennie under fire for allegedly
disrespecting Asian fans, and NCT Dream got bashed for being undeserving of the Daesang
at Seoul Music Award.
There are so many mixed opinions on these controversies that we’re about to analyze
right now.
1.
Jang Wonyoung got ridiculed for eating pizza too pretty
Well, looks like every time Wonyoung eats, she creates controversies.
People are saying her eating pizza this time was even more cringy than the strawberry one,
which brought her a ton of new anti fans.
Specifically, when filming for Papa John’s pizza commercial, Wonyoung’s style of eating
really makes viewers flinch as she cutely bites into the pizza slice, twisting her shoulders,
then winks twice and pouts once in just 5 seconds, while the string of cheese is awkwardly
clinging from her mouth.
People found this scene super disturbing to their eyes, and hate comments immediately
fluxed all over social media.
Netizens accused Wonyoung of only focusing on showing off her visual and trying to steal
the spotlight of the product.
Since this is a food advertisement, she needs to consider the product’s features to trigger
viewers’ eating desire.
However, netizens expressed that looking at the way Wonyoung eats made them lose their
appetite, while some even said that they just wanted to puke.
Since debuting with IVE, the 2004-born female idol constantly got accused of being too obsessed
with her image, going out of her way to maintain her look, but she doesn’t know that this
is in fact doing her a disservice.
That’s why netizens advise Jang Wonyoung to stop trying way too hard on her appearance,
instead start spending more time practicing to be a decent idol, rather than relying on
advertisement contracts because she obviously isn’t doing it well.
Seeing their idol once again getting ridiculed, Wonyoung’s fans immediately counterattacked.
Their argument says it’s completely normal and even professional of Wonyoung when acting
like that, because the models when filming CFs usually tend to overreact.
To prove their defense, fans also provide numerous gifs of other models with similar
poses like Wonyoung while filming pizza commercials, and questioned netizens why they never made
a fuss about these but decided to bash Jang Wonyoung?
What’s more, everything Wonyoung did in that CF must have been approved by the advertisers,
and there’s no way they would let it on air if it’s not appropriate.
If Wonyoung’s expressions were truly that weird, why does every advertiser want to hire
her?
In a nutshell, fans believe this is again hatred ignited by insecure females aimed at
Jang Wonyoung just because she is famous, beautiful and is leading an incredible life.
2.
Jennie faced criticism for allegedly discriminating between Asian fans and European fans.
Looks like the label “Lazy Jennie” hasn't let go of Jennie yet as this is the third
time the female idol got under fire for allegedly not giving her best on stage.
Worse, a lot of netizens even accused her of disrespecting Asian fans while licking
European fans’ boots, and claiming there’s definitely a discrimination here.
Things started when Chinese netizens made a compilation video comparing Jennie’s performance
in Europe versus hers in Hong Kong and South Korean concerts, as well as some other locations.
The difference is said to be quite noticeable.
Here, fans pointed out that Jennie was extremely energetic in Europe, however in Hong Kong,
her movements felt much more lackluster and tired.
Unlike Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rosé were doing fairly well and showed their enthusiasm
during all concerts.
Due to this, netizens accused Jennie of having a different attitude towards fans from different
countries, lacking respect for Asian fans and treating them as if they were less important.
This controversy then became a hot search topic on Weibo with nearly a billion results.
Meanwhile, the comparing video reached more than 13 million views and 1.2 million likes,
leading to various mixed opinions.
However, most of the negative comments came from people who didn’t even go to the show.
These people only sit at home watching cuts posted on the internet and thought they knew
the whole story.
In fact, the choreography and beat for the Hong Kong concert have actually been changed
softer compared to the European version.
The reason for such changes is because concerts in Asia are often required to be toned down
in order to adapt to the conservative culture here.
In Europe, Jennie can wear short skirts, go full-on sexy and make daring moves on stage
with 100% energy.
However, if she does the same in Asia, she could make many audiences feel uncomfortable,
who could very likely go online and start slutshaming her.
It seems that the public is applying a "double standard" on Jennie.
No matter what she does, she will still appear a sinner in the eyes of some so-called fans
while in fact, it should be appreciated that Blackpink and their team have considered the
culture difference when making concerts in order not to cause controversies.
Still, considering this is not the first time Jennie got accused of being “lazy”, a
lot of netizens are still cautious towards opinions defending her.
3.
NCT Dream got trolled for winning SMA Daesang out of nowhere
So the Seoul Music Awards 2023 has taken place with many prominent acts like BTS and IVE
being honored in some highest categories.
However, these excellent names still lost it to the SM smash hit boy group NCT Dream,
when these boys surpassed all of them to bring home the most prestigious award Daesang for
Glitch Mode and Beatbox, which made the audience super confused.
Worth mentioning, SMA Daesang is an award given to the best among the best artists,
based on album sales, digital sales, online voting points, and the final evaluation from
the jury.
Last year, NCT Dream was quite active when releasing 3 albums including Glitch Mode in
March, Beatbox in May, and Candy in December with millions of views and sales.
However, while the title tracks of the albums went viral internationally, they did not seem
to work as well in South Korea.
Therefore, lots of the audience found it not convincing for NCT Dream to receive this prestigious
award.
They believe that other artists such as BTS and IVE are more deserving of the Daesang,
and alleged that SM Entertainment had rigged the awards show, considering last year Daesang
was also awarded to NCT 127, making fans so frustrated that they even asked Seoul Music
Awards to change its name to SM Music Awards or Sooman Music Awards, because it looks like
one of the conditions for winning Daesangs is being SM artists.
Still, the biggest reason making netizens believe this is 100% a rig is that NCT Dream
actually knew they would receive the Daesang beforehand.
The evidence is that in an exclusive interview, member Jeno mentioned that since this was
the group’s first Daesang of 2023, they wanted the participation of all the members
in the performance.
This is why Haechan and Mark’s appearance was done through VCR recording since they
couldn’t physically appear at the show.
The article was later edited to replace “the first Daesang of 2023” with “the first
award show of 2023”, but the damage was done as published copies were already widely
spread.
Seems like this time, even fans are unable to defend NCT Dream.
They can only blame SM for embarrassing their idols, and express their sympathy with NCT
Dream for suddenly getting trolled just because of their agency’s manipulation.
That’s why it came as a surprise that the boys won Daesang this year even though fans
didn’t organize votes for it.
That is all for today’s discussion.
Let’s comment down below to share your opinions on all these controversies with us and stay
tuned for another video of this series.