For Kpop idols, there is no mandatory rule about attitude but they seem to always follow
a standard pattern. Any idol who has a kinda carefree attitude will be considered rude
and uncultured. Unfortunately, the following idols that I’m about to mention were all
caught up in some serious attitude controversies as netizens believed they were having inappropriate
behavior with their teammates:
1. Shuhua said to be getting upset with Miyeon’s popularity
A few months ago, (G)-IDLE released a promotional video for TOMBOY where the members talked
and played a game together. Things were all fun and game until Shuhua’s allegedly “rude”
gestures toward Miyeon caused the attention of netizens and unfortunately, a heated controversy
broke out.
Specifically, (G)-IDLE together play a game with corn snacks. The winner who puts the
most snacks on her fingers will get a thumbnail for the M!Countdown performance, and it seemed
that Miyeon was the winner. While the other members were excitedly waiting for Miyeon
to count her snacks, Shuhua was seen rather nonchalant, she didn’t even smile once and
sometimes even rolled her eyes and shooked her head.
After Miyeon was announced to be the winner, Shuhua immediately raised her hand and continuously
said “I oppose!”, making other members extremely surprised. Despite Yuqi trying to
stop her by feeding her snacks, Shuhua still went on saying that Miyeon was already on
the previous thumbnail while pointing finger at her, repeating the promise of the group
to let her be on the thumbnail this time. It was not until Yuqi signaled her to be quiet
that Shuhua finally stopped protesting yet still said to put on an uneasy face and refused
to congratulate Miyeon.
Needless to say, many netizens were soon to come at Shuhua with harsh criticism toward
her allegedly disrespectful attitude and behaviors. They claimed that despite being the youngest
member of the group, Shuhua didn't seem to respect the other older members.
Some even believed that Shuhua might be jealous of Miyeon because they both hold the visual
position of the group and though Miyeon joined the group later, her popularity is always
at the top, and that’s why Shuhua has always been treating Miyeon with a competitive attitude.
Their proof of that is when Shuhua received the question “who was the member spending
the most time learning choreography”, she immediately replied “Miyeon” without using
honorifics or calling Miyeon "unnie". This makes many Korean fans, who highly value hierarchy,
thought that Shuhua was impolite to Miyeon and was intentionally implying that Miyeon
was bad at dancing so she needed a long time on that.
However, Shuhua’s fans explained that she was just joking without any malicious intention
and they found it quite funny. Morever, as the members promised to let Shuhua appear
on the next video’s thumbnail, she just reminded them of that. But her straightforward
attitude might make some netizens feel uncomfortable.
One more thing, usually videos in which idols interact like this always have a staff member
who is in charge of telling idols what to do and what to say by writing guides on a
board, so it's not fair that many people believed that Shuhua was really mean when she was probably
just following the instructions.
2. STAYC said to make fun of J
A few months ago, STAYC was suddenly entangled in a… bully controversy as netizens believed
there was something off about the way the group members treat J, the youngest in STAYC.
Specifically, in the RUN2U live performance, Yoon, Seeun and Sumin were seen trying to
imitate J's voice. They even did it in a very enthusiastic way to highlight the imitation
and make J embarrassed.
As they wished, poor J was so angry she had to stop singing and angrily grab Yoon's shoulder
before everyone stopped their joke.
It is known that J possesses a signature deep voice, so she often becomes the target of
teasing as the rest of the girls think it was funny and frequently imitate her voice,
and even make it sound like a man.
Obviously, this is not the first time J was made fun of by other members. Almost every
time STAYC released a new song, she became the target of this joke and it made some netizens,
especially J’s fans, feel extremely annoyed.
They believed that Yoon and other members had taken the imitation far from entertainment
as their joke might make J feel insecure about herself. Many people even believed that the
members were trying to bully J because in Kpop, there have been many cases of female
idols being bullied by their groupmates, especially the case of Hyunjoo (April) and Mina (AOA).
Therefore, J’s fans were extremely concerned whether this was happening with their idol.
They said that looking at J's face when she got teased, there was clearly no interest
and she must have been very upset as any person getting teased like that all the time would
feel self-conscious. Others also believe that the members went a bit too far as they kept
making fun of a thing that belongs to J’s nature that she can't control.
However, some people find this not a big deal but just a harmless joke between the girls.
And it’s just that many netizens who are overly sensitive are blowing things out of
proportion as well as making others have a bad view of the group.
Fortunately, J finally spoke up about this controversy, she said, "Sometimes, we can
make fun of each other, but we will never keep it to ourselves for too long. Don't worry
about it too much, you guys".
3. SinB said to look down on other members
For some reason, SinB is often called out by netizens when it comes to idols who have
bad behaviors toward group members.
In mid-2016, a post on Pann drew a lot of attention when it accused SinB of often having
unpleasant and somewhat sassy attitudes towards other members.
Specifically, the OP reminded people of the time when SinB was allegedly rude towards
Sowon. In an episode of G-Friend’s reality show, SinB was seen asking Sowon - who is
3 years older than her - to bring her water with her chin jerking up and a haughty language:
“Hey, I said get me water!”
This made Sowon appear quite uncomfortable, she said, “What? You said ‘hey’ to me?”
Right after that, SinB continued to annoyingly ask Umji to change seats with her.
Not stopping there, some netizens said that they noticed there are many times SinB looked
at Eunha with an unfriendly gaze and tried to bring Eunha down. For example in a video,
when Eunha joked that she was the tallest member in the group, SinB immediately clapped
back, "You lie all the time, I’m so pissed", making Eunha feel quite uncomfortable.
This is not the first time SinB has been caught up in attitude controversy. Before that, SinB
was fiercely criticized when she refused to sing while dancing and let other members take
over her part, and especially when she was believed to show her disdain toward Umji - the
member considered the ugliest female idol of kpop at the time. Specifically, when a
male idol said that he wanted to travel abroad with Umji, SinB appeared to be extremely surprised
and burst out laughing. This reaction of her made netizens believe that she is looking
down on her fellow.
Despite being quite young, the female idol is often the object of criticism from K-netizens
for her cold facial expressions and somewhat carefree behavior. Even, a netizen summed
up a pile of her not-so-good attitude in a post on Pann, pointing out many situations
when SinB was caught with an irritated look and a frowning face toward other members.
However, GFRIEND’s fans quickly came to defend SinB, saying that she did not intentionally
make such an uncomfortable stare, but it was all because of her having a resting bitch
face that makes people often mistake that she is getting cranky.
As for her problem with EunHa, Sowon, and Umji, it was completely a misunderstanding.
Many believe that as G-friend members are as close as sisters, SinB was just trying
to tease other members as a way to express her love for them. Also, SinB and Eunha have
been close since they were elementary students and spent many years studying and practicing
together, so there is totally no conflict or hate between them as rumored.
Lots of netizens also said that SinB is the victim of many edited gifs and videos which
could be misleading to her personality. For example, she was evil-edited in Mnet's “Queendom
2” as the production team wanted to portray her as the villain of the show and make people
misunderstand her as an arrogant girl who looked down on others. To save herself from
being the editing material in the next episodes due to her RBF, SinB had to hold a phone with
a LED sign saying that she was actually having a good mood.
So, do you think these idols really have an attitude problem or are some netizens just
trying to bring them down with baseless accusations?