It is apparent that K-pop is blooming faster than ever with the rise of 4th Generation
groups, together with experiments in new music, fashion, online interaction with fans, etc.
Along with developments, however, there are the commonly seen details that tend to bore
or even annoy the general audience of K-pop.
Most of them tend to come from the media, fandoms or stereotypes rather than idols’
true wish, which effectively hampers the charm that should have been more than enough of
K-pop idols.
1.
Lookalikes that do not look alike
In order to highlight the gorgeous visuals of their idols, fans often love to point out
similar traits between their biases and other idols, mostly sunbaenims who are more famed
in the K-pop scene.
However, this is sometimes taken too far, to the point that non-fans or even other fans
of the same idols fail to see any similarities between the two.
One example is Kep1er’s Chaehyun and Red Velvet’s Irene.
Ever since her appearance on Girls Planet 999, Chaehyun has been said to look like Irene
by lots of fans.
Some believe that as Chaehyun used to be an SM’s trainee, she has the same visual vibe
as the main visual of Red Velvet.
After her debut as the center of Kep1er, more articles on Chaehyun’s resemblances with
Irene have been published.
Fans even put together the white-beret pictures of both idols for comparison.
However, even from such a similar angle, Chaehyun’s and Irene’s eyebrows, eyes, noses and mouth
shapes differ radically.
Besides, while Chaehyun exudes a down-to-earth and adorable vibe, Irene gives off an apparent
air of an ice queen.
The similarity here might be just their beret and hair style.
Another example would be the “little Suzy” trend.
As MissA’s Bae Suzy rose to fame thanks to her clear and innocent look, many other
female idols have been compared to her in terms of visuals.
One of the “victims” of such comparisons is DIA’s Chaeyeon, who has been always dubbed
as “little Suzy”.
However, according to many people, Chaeyeon’s look has nothing to do with Suzy’s.
While Suzy has a typical Vline jaw, Chaeyeon possesses a rare L-line one.
With her pronounced and sharp jawline, Chaeyeon looks totally different from Suzy at any angle.
The two idols’ mouth shapes and eyes are also not exactly similar.
Fans of both Chaeyeon and, especially, Suzy, do not seem so happy with the comparison either.
They said that calling Chaeyeon “little Suzy” is absurd and ridiculous because the
two don’t have that big of an age gap, plus, these comparison things will only backfire
on Chaeyeon.
2.
Underage idols forced to act like mature girls
It is nothing strange to see K-pop idols debut from a young age, some at just 14 or 15 years
old.
The problem is, such teenage idols do not always get the concepts or images suitable
with their ages.
In fact, most of these idols are often forced into mature styles and poses, in an effort
to enhance their sexy look or charismatic stage presence.
That, however, often backfires and draws more hatred towards young idols, especially female
ones.
A notable example is IVE’s Jang Wonyoung.
This name is no longer alien to K-pop fans, as Wonyoung has gained considerable attention
since her appearance in Produce 48 for her clear and innocent visuals.
However, after debuting, Wonyoung is believed to change her naive style into a more seductive
and exotic one though at that time, she’s not yet to be 16.
Specifically, Wonyoung was seen several times doing provocative choreography in extremely
short and revealing outfits.
Although this is definitely the management company's strategy to make money quickly and
it's not Wonyoung's fault, the poor teenage girl is still the target of criticism and
the victim of some inappropriate keywords on Google.
Another example is Yuna from ITZY.
She is now often recognized with her… perfect body proportion, which shouldn’t be a topic
to talk about an underage girl.
However, hundreds of photos showing Yuna's body curves are still all over the internet
and people are constantly crying and screaming over them.
That sounds kinda disturbing…
Not only that, Yuna was also said to look too old for her age, like she’s 18 but looks
28.
Even Yuna herself once admitted that she really looks older than her age and revealed that
some people assumed she had graduated from high school.
3.
Excessive winking
In order to add some spice into stage presence, many idols have tried winking during performance
to catch the eyes of the audience.
In particular, the WANNA ONE’s former member, Park Jihoon, even got instant fame right after
his “one wink wonder” in the first stage of Produce 101 season 2.
After the hit of Jihoon’s wink, several girls in Produce 48 also tried the fairy wink
during their first stage in the show.
Mostly, winks are supposed to look cute and flirty towards fans.
However, some idols, especially rookies, overdid this trick so much that it tends to get boring.
There are plenty of examples, namely Kep1er’s Bahiyyih.
Just in one stage, fans can notice Bahiyyih winking from time to time, with quite rigid
expressions.
She is also compared to IVE’s Wonyoung, who was also bashed for excessive winking
in every performance.
Wonyoung even once "showed off her talent" of blinking continuously for 1 minute, making
netizens feel scared rather than cute.
Some even wondered if Wonyoung had problems with her eye muscles or something because
her eyes just kept twitching.
Apparently, winking may be a cuteness weapon, but overusing it seems not really fine because
that sometimes makes the audience feel tired and awkward.
4.
Hatred against idols of foreign nationalities
Though some may say, let politics stay away from K-pop, it seems that many more K-netizens
believe the contrary.
Following the tension between the nations, as well as the anti-China, anti-Japan waves
in Korea, some K-pop idols have been bashed for showing support for their home countries.
A recent example is the big hate surrounding Ningning from the rising girlgroup - AESPA
after she posted support for Chinese athletes in the Winter Olympics Beijing 2022.
In her messages to fans on Bubble, Ningning congratulated Chinese athletes on winning
gold medals and expressed her appreciation for every athlete.
Being revealed amidst the cheating controversy surrounding Chinese’s gold medal in short-track
speed skater, Ningning’s message fanned the fire already burning among K-netizens.
Their anger all boiled down to Ningning’s nationality - Chinese, triggering the tension
between the two countries in several issues.
However, as fans pointed out, Ningning sent the congratulation message 2 days before the
cheating controversy broke out.
Besides, as Bubble is a paid platform, it is not even legal to leak contents from this
platform.
Nonetheless, Ningning still got massive hatred after this so-called “scandal”.
She was bashed just for texting “I miss you” and “Goodnight” in Chinese.
Many expressed their wish for Ningning to leave the group and come back to China.
In other cases, many other foreign idols in K-pop have been bashed simply out of racism.
A notable example can be Lisa.
Despite her fame and great influence, Lisa got bashed just for being…
Thai, because some toxic Knetizens just don’t like Southeast Asian people.
Things were so tense to the point Lisa even got several death threats online.
Needless to say, such hatred is outright unreasonable.
So, these are the four most annoying things in K-pop collected by us based on netizen's
complaints.
What do you think should make it to the list as well?
Please let us know in the comment section.
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