Idols being in the same group sometimes doesn’t mean they are treated equally.
Many netizens believe that more often than not, each idol will receive treatment commensurate
with their popularity in the group and this has given rise to a lot of controversies.
Here are the idols that netizens think are being discriminated against by their own agencies
and fans just because their reputation was believed to be not as high as other members’.
IVE’s Leeseo, Rei, and Gaeul
Though IVE has just debuted less than a year, they are already a prominent name among hundreds
of gen4 groups not only because they have 2 extremely popular former members of IZ*ONE
but also because of the outstanding talents and visuals of all 6 girls
However, many people believe that not all members are treated equally but there is an
obvious unfairness.
In particular, some pointed out that Leeseo, Rei and Gaeul are the 3 members whose positions
and roles are often overlooked in the group as they are not properly taken care of compared
to the other 3 members.
Compelling evidence of the disdain of the 3 girls is the division of bedrooms in their
apartment revealed by MBC’s Omniscient Point of Interference program.
The girls were seen living in a luxury apartment with a spacious livingroom and breathtaking
views.
The thing is, while Wonyoung, Yujin, and Liz all have their private rooms with all kinds
of amenities, Leeseo, Rei, and Gaeul share a room with 3 beds separated by some screens,
and without individual wardrobes.
Many netizens believe that this room is kind of suffocating and cramped for 3 people.
Leeseo, Rei and Gaeul seem to have no personal space of their own, and the screens seem to
make things worse.
Meanwhile Wonyoung, Yujin, and Liz all live comfortably in their spacious and tidy bedroom
with large windows.
This made a lot of people angrily question why there is such injustice in the group and
say that they found this really ridiculous.
However, to clear unnecessary doubts, Wonyoung and Yujin have shared that the members were
not divided into rooms but chose their own.
Leeseo, Rei, and Gaeul just like to live together so they picked the largest room.
Even the manager had to say that he had no right to decide which room belonged to whom.
Unfortunately, many netizens just don’t buy that and believe that each member should
have a private room and Starship could’ve reconstructed the apartment to make more private
rooms for each member or could’ve offered IVE another one that has enough rooms for
all 6 girls, but they didn’t.
Besides, a netizen doubted that if Leeseo, Rei and Gaeul really want to gather together
in one room, why they even made a cubicle for each bed, and the fact that Wonyoung,
Yujin and Liz all have private room means they don't like being together?
Thus, many claimed that there is indeed discrimination among IVE’s members based on each member’s
popularity and said that some fans just please stop making excuses for this.
KEP1ER’s Huening Bahiyyih
On January 21, KEP1ER hosted a Music Art fansign, which was an event where fans could exchange
and sign autographs.
This should be a joyful and memorable event hadn’t Bahiyyih been in such terrible circumstances
at this very fansign.
Specifically, in a recorded video, KEP1ER members were all seen given gifts and happily
posing with them for photos, except for Bahiyyih.
The poor girl’s table was completely empty without a single gift and Bahiyyih herself
appeared to be embarrassed, awkward, and even miserable as if she were going to cry.
However, she still tried to act normal and joke with other members.
Witnessing that, netizens expressed pity for Bahiyyih and criticized the attitude of some
Korean fans.
In this way, they demanded equal treatment for all 9 members.
Furthermore, some netizens pointed out that other KEP1ER members have poor collaboration
and low affection because when they saw Bahiyyih sitting alone and bewildered, they had no
attempt to cheer her up and just focused on posing with the gifts while they should have
comforted Bahiyyih by sharing her some gifts; even the manager also decided to turn a blind
eye to that issue and stayed idle.
The incident got worse when Bahiyyih-antis saw this as an opportunity to mock and insult
her, saying that she was not well-known in Korea and that she should’ve realized this
truth long ago because "no followers, no gifts"
In the attempt to make their idol not feel lonely and lost, Bahiyyih’s fans started
to leave positive comments to encourage her on social networks, saying that they would
send her all the prettiest gifts she deserves and would donate to her in every project.
International fans were also determined to do whatever it takes to win the next fansign
tickets and hand Bahiyyih gifts.
Le Sserafim’s Kim Garam
Due to the promotion of their first album "Fearless", LE SSERAFIM frequently appear
on stage and at outdoor fansigns to increase popularity.
However, while Sakura, Chaewon, Yunjin, Kazuha, and Eunchae often receive compliments and
are supported by fans, Garam gets nothing but brutal silence.
The neglect of the public to Garam is shown in various ways.
For instance, in a fan-recorded video where Le Sserafim got out of the car and moved inside
the filming location, while the other members were all greeted and interacted by fans, all
Garam got was just eerie silence because as soon as she got out of the car, the atmosphere
suddenly became awkward and intense because no one even said a word.
It wasn't until Garam was about to enter the building that people heard a male fan greet
her.
Another video where the group did aegyo for fans also emphasized the discrimination that
Korean fans have towards Garam.
While Kazuha and Yunjin earned applause and nice responses as you can hear very loud cheers,
Garam's performance was met with indifference and complete silence.
Furthermore, Le Sserafim followers have reported that almost all of the postings and videos
about Garam on social media receive continual hateful comments from Korean netizens, as
well as a few international fanbases.
Many people have urged Source Music to clear this case quickly because if they let this
situation drag on, it can cause severe damage to her psycho status.
Besides the people boycotting Garam, there are still some who feel pity and sympathy
for her as well as condemn the people who, according to them, have disrespectful attitudes
and actions towards such a young girl while her controversy has not been cleared up yet.
BTS’s J-Hope
The fact that BTS is the most popular boygroup doesn't mean that the members are all treated
the same.
And many fans believe that J-Hope is the member who gets left out the most often.
Despite being the main dancer of the group along with Jimin and that means J-hope deserves
to be in the center position more often, the last time he had a quality center was in “Mic
Drop” five years ago.
The discrimination even worsens when it comes to taking photos and videos for advertising
and publications, J-Hope was rarely seen in the center and sometimes even disappeared
from the lineup.
For instance, in 2018, Dispatch released a special BTS magazine called Dispatch Dicon,
this good news suddenly became a source of anger among J-hope’s fans because the number
of J-Hope's personal photos was much less than the other members’, and he didn’t
even have any pages of his own.
Although this was considered the carelessness of the design team, J-Hope's fans did not
think so and believed that Dispatch was being discriminated against him.
Another time, J-hope was completely missing from the Japan online showcase VCR intro,
while the others still appeared in the video.
Besides, he also is the one who most frequently receives the fewest lines, yet line allocation
is a contentious subject.
According to Kbizzoom, J-Hope’s lines only accounted for 4 minutes and 44 seconds of
the whole BTS’s U.S concert which lasted for 3 hours with 24 songs in total in 2021.
As if it wasn’t enough, during BTS’s performance at Lotte Duty-Free Family Concert 2019, an
OT6 fan held up a poster in which J-Hope‘s face was removed.
While walking around the stage to interact with fans, J-hope seemed to have noticed this
poster and reacted immediately, he still had a smile on his face, but used his hand to
make a heart shape and then broke it.
J-Hope's reaction was praised as very smart and delicate, but we all know that he must
have been hurt a lot as that was not the only time he got estranged from some so-called
ARMYs.
The male idol once sadly admitted that when he visited the official BTS fan cafe, he saw
many messages sent to BTS members, but none were for him.
He recalled with an awkward expression and then almost burst into tears but still tried
to put on a smile and said “It’s okay”.
Despite always being discriminated against in one way or another, J-Hope has always remained
optimistic and is determined not to let those negative things affect his positive attitude
towards life.
So do you think these idols are the most rejected in their group or not?
Or people are just sweating the small stuff?