Besides talents and appearance, the thing that helps idols earn brownie points from
netizens is a pure and controversy-free image.
Keeping it away from controversies is what idols are supposed to do by their agency.
Having said that, there are many idols who have been caught having inappropriate behaviors
lately, which put them under harsh criticism from netizens.
Curious about the identity of these idols?
Stay tuned to see who they are.
So, recently, many social platforms, especially Twitter, have become so explosive when there
is a circulated video about an alleged idol couple canoodling as well as having intimate
interaction with each other in a bar or something like that, which soon captured netizens’
attention.
Many of them immediately suspected that the couple in this video is actually Golden Child’s
Jaehyun and Alice’s Yeonje as soon as they saw the hashtag written by the post owner
right below the comment section.
What is also worth mentioning is that the two idols were also allegedly embroiled in
a dating rumor earlier, which made netizens even believe that they are the ones in the
video.
Well, needless to say, right after the video went viral, both Jaehyun and Yeonje became
the center of criticism.
Many netizens taunted them for not keeping their image clean as these actions are said
to not be appropriate for idols, especially between male and female idols.
They need to be aware of that and keep their distance instead of publicly showing their
affection in such an offensive way.
So their behavior in the middle of the crowd is exactly like ruining their image, and setting
a bad example for other rookies.
What’s more, this would be nothing to discuss if it’s their personal space but this is
obviously a public place there are many people around them, so some said that it was so shameless
of them when doing so.
Not only that, netizens also felt bad for other group members as they could be affected
negatively after the controversy.
As for their fans, they all claimed that there’s no evidence to confirm that the two people
in the video are Jaehyun and Yeonje as it isn’t shot close-up of their faces but in
fact just the back of the man and the woman’s face is covered by her hair, not to mention
the video quality is also poor.
Some fans even put the video on repeat many times, but they couldn’t find any minor
similarities between their idols and the people in the video.
They thus asked netizens to not rush to believe such misleading information on social platforms
and criticize their idols while they in fact aren’t involved in this controversy.
Up to now, the video has gained so much attention from netizens, and even reached 2.7 million
views on Twitter.
In response to the controversy, Yeonje’s agency, IOK Company, just made a brief and
vague statement that they wouldn't be able to confirm the matter that they didn’t know
well, while Woollim Entertainment kept silent regarding the controversy.
The answers from the idols’ agency seemed to not satisfy netizens as the problem is
still a hot topic on social platforms lately.
When K-pop enters its fourth generation, more and more rookie groups are making their way
and even risk their own images into the cutthroat music race, so members in their early teens
are no longer outliers.
However, netizens often react critically when new idols debut who are not yet 16 years old
as they are afraid that at such a young age, she is not yet ready for the Korean sought-after
entertainment industry.
Especially, when having to perform with the group in revealing overexposed outfits, they
are all under harsh criticism.
The two following female idols are typical examples.
First of all, Kim Rayul from the survival show “U2U: Up to You” by AfreecaTV.
Because of debuting at the age of 14, the generational and especially appearance gap
is inevitable.
In group performances, Kim Rayul often stands out because she is much younger as a child
than the rest of her group members.
However, what made netizens totally speechless is when her management agency let an 11-year-old
girl debut as an idol with sensual choreography, which further received backlash.
The excessively showing off choreography and abbreviated clothes that are not suitable
for the age of 11 have driven netizens mad.
Netizens condemn the glaring incidents of sexual exploitation of minors in the industry
on many Korean online forums.
She's literally fresh outside or literally just graduated from a Korean elementary school,
so she is too young to debut, let alone do such unsuitable choreography.
Even worse, many expressed their worry about the future of Kim Rayul in case she will have
to put on overexposed outfits and choreography to be in line with their members as their
rumored concept will be a 'Girl Crush' vibe.
The management company is showing the act of "Pedophilia" and worse the possibility
of the child being sexually assaulted.
As a result, this will negatively impact their psychological development.
It would be better if she could continue to go to school without getting into the highly
competitive K-pop industry at such a young age.
To defend this issue, many fans claim that it’s her parents to blame because they are
the ones who allowed her to participate in this survival show, so it’s not inappropriate
if netizens blame the company for debuting them.
Moreover, as it is her dream to become an idol, not her parents or her management agency,
it cannot be considered sexual exploitation.
However, a majority of netizens agree that Kim Rayul should spend her time focusing on
her studies.
The following case that I'm about to tell you will also make your mind totally astonished.
This is when LE SSERAFIM’s Hong Eunchae received harsh criticism for wearing an extremely
short skirt.
In particular, on October 20th, an article titled “A girl group member who’s being
talked about due to her skirt being too short” was posted on a Korean online forum.
The post contains a video of LE SSERAFIM’s maknae Hong Eunchae wearing a jacket over
a tight top and a short mini skirt as opposed to her usual innocent image.
Although Hong Eunchae is seen smiling brightly as she spins round and round, flaunting her
youthful and mischievous beauty, netizens pointed out that her skirt was too short,
and barely covered her buttocks.
Worth mentioning, Eunchae was born in 2006, which means that she is just 16 years old,
so letting her wear such short outfits is even more unacceptable and offensive to underage
artists.
Many netizens commented that even if she has a well-proportioned body or was wearing safety
shorts, it's absolutely not advisable to wear clothes that are too short at such a teenage
age.
However, many netizens argued that there was nothing wrong with the outfit as she already
wore shorts underneath so it wasn’t a serious matter.
In fact, the problem here is the way netizens perceive it.
Moreover, it should be the stylist who was responsible for letting her put on such a
too-short skirt when she was just 16 years old.
They should have customized the skirt to look good on her.
Don’t you know that this is not the first time that LE SSERAFIM has sparked a controversy
about outfit performance?
During LE SSERAFIM 2022 "Fearless" Show, Hybe received fierce criticism when EunChae only
wore a white bra and high heels.
Even worse, the footage of her walking on the stage is extremely repulsive as the cameraman
often recorded the close-up angle from the bottom, making the skirt even shorter.
And when it comes to their debut MV "Fearless" released, netizens protested Hype because
the MV was created in a rather sexy style, and the choreography featured the members
lying on the floor shaking their hips, which is not suitable for EunChae.
The group's agency was again criticized for sexualizing minors.
So, do you think these idols really have problems with their behaviors or are they just victims
of their companies who would do whatever it takes for money?