People often say that Knetz have been holding a ridiculously huge double standard against
female idols in Kpop but do you know when it comes to serious boycotting by fans, only
male artists must go through such a scary phase?
Of course that sounds absolutely counter-intuitive but if you look into the big picture, you
will see female idols often face criticism even from fans, but those fans hardly ever
boycotted them for real.
However, when fans decided to turn their backs on male idols, they would become much more
cold-hearted.
Formerly GOT7’s Jackson
Talking of real gentlemen of Kpop, Jackson was once among the top mentioned names because
he’s always been the kind of person who was not only sensible but also extremely caring
to everyone.
However, things turned out to not be as perfect as they seem because Jackson has recently
gotten caught up in a drama where he, along with the super-duper controversial name in
the recent time – Li Yifeng, was accused of frequently visiting prostitutes.
While none of the accusations were confirmed, he had already lost his biggest fanbase and
many believed this clearly meant that Jackson was boycotted by his own fans and sooner or
later, his career would be doomed due to the lack of support.
Things all started after the Beijing Police Station officially confirmed that famous Chinese
actor Li Yifeng had used prostitution services on various occasions, leading to his losing
most of the commercial deals and being banned from the industry.
Then almost right off the bat, the Chinese influencer Blase Wan Wan insinuated that there
was more to the story and three male artists whose surnames started with W, C, and H were
also involved in this drama.
Some initially heard on the bush telegraph that Jackson was the one whose surname started
with W but many fans still defended him at this point.
Yet, the situation quickly escalated as his biggest eight-year fansite Wangga0328 shutdown
with a suspicious final message: “Hope that you remember your dream and passion when you
started, and be able to live without shame”.
Since Chinese fans are famous for their loyalty and generosity in supporting artists, the
sudden closure led to people’s speculation that Jackson was indeed involved in the prostitution
scandal.
According to netizens, this marked a crucially adverse mark in Jackson’s career as this
fanbar has been with him since the day he was just a kid leaving for South Korea, meaning
Jackson’s majority of support for his career came from this bar and their closure was equal
to a great loss.
Especially when Jackson’s reputation in China was said to flop as earlier this year,
a used-to-be fan claimed that he had constantly asked his fandom to seed and buy achievements
for his music products.
While the future remained unseen, the fact that Jackson is facing a potential large-scale
ban in China yet his fans don’t bother to defend or make a fuss with the government
has partially proven that he’s in big trouble.
If he kept going this way and failed to release any clear statements, netizens believed Jackson
would soon disappear from the industry for good.
BTS
While BTS has maintained the top boy group position for years, many of their fans are
gradually leaving the fandom for good.
I know, that sounds ridiculous because if such a thing happened, the act would be flopping
right now but still, fans are leaving their fandom and the reason mostly comes down to
one thing: BTS is getting too political.
On Twitter, the tweet questioning “Why bts so political now'' attracted lots of attention
and according to people in the comment section, it was annoying to see BTS, as a Kpop star,
has been active in so many political activities recently, from doing interviews and presses
with the President of South Korea to deliver a big speech about self-awareness at the UN.
Some “fans” just found it annoying that BTS didn’t dedicate their whole efforts
into music but started to do political things, which was a pretty controversial realm because
fans from one country may not favor the political climate of another at all.
Those who had left the fandom also brought up the allegation that BTS’ music was getting
lamer and lamer to bash them.
As used-to-be fans who had followed the group since the very first day, they believed BTS
was shifting way too far from their initial purpose: promoting self-love, and from 2016
forward, the only thing they did well was to follow the same repetitive, One-Direction-inspired
music formula to gain popularity in the States.
While this topic is still a big debate because some said their music was getting better considering
the exponentially growing fandom, many fans reckoned BTS no longer deserved their support
since the act was now too busy chasing money rather than spreading a meaningful message
like before.
One even recorded her tossing away all of BTS’ merch and considering the fact that
she bought many albums of the era where BTS was still an unnamed rookie, her giving up
on the group was a huge red flag hinting at a future where many other fans would follow
suit.
Even when they didn’t mean to shake off their ARMY title, questions like “Why would
a strong fan that has supported BTS suddenly leave the fandom?”
would possibly remain in their mind, making them second guess their choice to support
the group.
Also, according to them, the act didn’t even wholeheartedly participate in the political
realm either since with a short speech at the UN, RM still needed someone to help him
write it rather than him speaking from the bottom of his heart.
However, there were still many ARMYs defended the group, saying a part of their fandom was
really dramatic and overreacting as BTS’s change was for the sake of greater success.
As nothing remains the same and changes must be made for the better, and in this case,
BTS had opted for a more radio-friendly music genre to gain more coverage in the West as
well as had strengthened their bonds with the authorities, they should never be judged
just because they are moving big steps.
Former WINNER’s Nam Tae Hyun
Having been caught up in a big scandal where Nam Tae Hyun was accused of abusing drugs
and physically assaulting his girlfriend, many said he was probably trying to test the
patience of a few remaining fans because in the past, he had been boycotted by lots of
fans yet never seemed to learn from the mistake.
For example in 2016, a fansite of Nam Tae Hyun, Slytherin94, announced shutdown because
they realized his image was nothing like on the Internet and the fan master was too exhausted
to keep up with the editing of his photos.
This fan master even outright bashed his image, telling other fans to stop looking up to his
ideal image online because he barely looked like that in real life.
While many were annoyed because it made no sense for a fansite to shame the idol’s
appearance they once supported, many speculated there was more to the story because this fansite
had been with Nam Tae Hyun for three years and simply canceling him over his “not looking
good enough” was senseless.
That’s also when other fans of Nam Tae Hyun dug deeper into the matter and soon enough,
they found out that he had been leading such a scandalous life that YG Entertainment had
to give up on him after two years.
First, they found out that the male idol once triggered his fans in 2014, aka the year he
had just debuted, for shouting informally at fans “He’s speaking,” so that they
could shut up for Kang Seung Yoon to speak.
This ended up getting him into such a big criticism that he had to apologize and promised
to be more careful next time.
Of course lots of fans stopped supporting him right after this incident but many others
decided to stay as they believed he was just a kid.
As one fan quoted the words of Yotuber Lee Jin-ho, Nam Tae Hyun had also done multiple
things that hurt fans, including dating seven celebrities in just two years and taking some
to WINNER’s dorm.
As a result, lots of fans turned their back on him yet because he was later seen to have
a serious breakdown on a livestream, speaking in tears and asking for a gun, some empathized
and stayed.
But do you think they would stay anymore after he was accused of abusing drugs and beating
up his own lover?
Well, very likely not.
So basically, Nam Tae Hyun’s fanbase was almost like zero at this point and because
the evidence of every mistake he made seemed legit, no one bother to defend or empathize
with him anymore.
So, do you think these idols deserve such negative reactions from fans?
Are there any misunderstandings that have not been resolved?