The Dark Side Of K-pop (1)— Infantilization

If you are a regular consumer of Instagram and Twitter content or any other social media, you quite frequently might have stumbled upon beautiful, intimidating males and females either dancing, singing, flexing their beautiful bods, or maybe advertising luxury brands. You might even have fallen for one of them or started shipping them or started listening to their music or are already a fan. It is evident from the title; this is the K-pop industry.

The most hustling industry in modern days; bright colors, beautiful idols, extravagant costumes, crazy rich companies. K-pop is maybe the only entertainment industry in Asia that has been able to influence western culture and standards and import its soft power to countries like the USA, the UK, Japan, China, India and so many more. So, let’s take a look at what goes behind the shine and sparkle of this fantasy world, the shadow that is hidden by the light, let’s take a look at the dark side of K-pop. This is going to be a series, a pretty bumpy ride. First of all, I’d like to mention that these are all my opinions and not facts. Second, I have done all the research possible, then and only then I have decided to publish this.

INFANTILIZATION

Infantilization is the treatment of grownup adults like children, in layman’s language infantilization is babying someone. South Korean culture has a cutesy concept which they call aegyo (to act cute), everybody can do aegyo irrespective of their age but aegyo is mostly related to youth. Idols sometimes debut at about 15 or 16 years of age when they usually are at the brink of puberty and are utterly innocent, but what the fans fail to understand is that they eventually do grow out of it. Fans develop a maternal or paternal kind of sensitivity towards their idols, presuming that their favorites are innocent and need to be protected, and refuse to let go of their weird obsession even when their favorite idol has reached his or her 20s. The K-pop fanbase mostly includes teenagers hence, as is the demand so is the supply, the idols need to produce content that these teenagers might find “relatable” for which they need to look younger, and to do so they are supposed to look or act cute, now some of them love doing so while the others are forced to do it. Idols like Jungkook, IU, Jimin and so many more who debuted pretty young are tired of being infantilized.

· The babying of idols is not something new, it has been going on for generations, the thing is that nobody understood the severity of the situation because watching it from the outside may seem like a big joke but when looking closely it is a kind of bullying that is taking place. Fans aren’t protecting their idols they are preventing their idol’s growth as an artist and also as a person.

· Idols should be held accountable for whatever they say or do. They are not “innocent babies” and South Korea isn’t disconnected from the internet, they are grown and responsible human beings. K-pop never falls back in cultural appropriation; when the world is so connected, incorporating factors from other cultures is common and it is fine until and unless the artist respects and understands the culture and its people and does not use them as mere props for his or her act. Kai’s dreads in Ko Ko bop music video, Jhope’s dreads in Chicken Noodle Soup, RM’s dreads in Mic Drop, Ganesh idol kept on the floor in the ‘How You Like That’ music video, Lisa’s box braids in ‘Kill This Love’, Jennie’s bindi in ‘ddu du ddu du’ are some forms of cultural appropriations done by some of the insanely famous K-pop groups. Some of these members were confronted while some weren’t even mentioned as fans defended their idols by stating that ‘they are good people’, completely ignoring the fact that these idols are also humans and they can make mistakes too. Fans should call out their favs when this appropriation of culture gets offensive and inappropriate instead of blaming the company, the staff, or anyone else just because they think that their favs have no idea what is going on in the world outside. Lim Youngmin, a former member of AB6IX, was removed from the group because of his drunk driving charges which enraged fans who took to Twitter defending their favorite idol stating that removing him from the group was an extreme step and that Youngmin did not deserve it.

· Idols deserve respect. They work hard and earn their bread. Their companies make them push their limits every time and as they receive more and more fame the pressure increases. During fan meets, all the fans that they meet have already stereotyped their idols according to their cute stage concepts. Calling them cute isn’t bad but gifting baby clothes, rattles, feeding bottles, hitting them (even out of love) is not respectful.

· People of all ages want their opinions to be taken seriously and idols are no different. They are individuals having thoughts and opinions which they choose to express and as fans, we mustn’t merely ignore them or hate them for it. IU, a singer who is also considered “the sister of Korea” even wrote a song about this titled ‘Twenty-three’ which was about her growing up into an adult but all she did was get hate for it. She hates being babied and it makes her uncomfortable, even though she has made this clear in public, fans continue to treat her the same way they did when she debuted as a 15-year-old.

· Idols are constantly dealing with the enormous pressure of constantly being in the public eye. Some idols go too hard on themselves for not being able to cope with this stress and spiral into depression, hence ruining their self-image in their own eyes. At such a time, they might get hurt even by the slightest of actions, like a fan calling them a ‘kid’. They might think that they have ruined their public image and won’t be taken seriously anymore. When his ‘panty’ incident had gone viral, Kai stated on “Knowing Bros”, a renowned reality TV show, that reality TV makes him nervous because showing his cute and funny side to the public might result in them not taking his dance seriously

· Fans need to stop imposing stereotypical images of their favorites onto them. Jungkook, who is now a 23-year-old young man was only a mere 15-year-old teenager when he debuted in BTS. Being the maknae of the team he was often adored by his elder members and he still is, but the difference between his fellow members and fans is that they never disregarded or blocked Jungkook’s transformation from a naive teenager to a responsible adult. Jungkook, dearly known as JK, had his bangs since his debut like a normal teenager would but as he reached his 20s, he then liked his manly image more and thus started growing his hair out, partitioning them, rocking a mullet, etc. The fans weren’t ecstatic with JK experimenting with his hair as they loved his typical straight bangs, short hair persona and hence unnecessarily criticized him for doing what he wanted to do.

Mentioned above are some of the consequences of infantilization according to my opinion (yours can be different); letting idols get away with anything they do is not acceptable and so is treating them in a way they don’t want to be treated. Hence infantilization is ought to stop, and as K-pop grows huger and the fan kingdom grows knowledgeable, I think this issue will most certainly reduce. I did not intend to spread hate against any of the idols, I love them and their music and I wish them the best. I hope I did not offend anybody.