crucify me and i will haunt you

oh no ok

this was written for school so  it's really formal. doesn't mean im incorrect. -MoonOfTheNight-  asked and i delivered

English Orals: Something is Really Fundamentally Wrong with K-Pop Stans on Twitter and Why I am Absolutely Correct.

Just before we start; I have been a K-Pop stan since 2017. I am a fan of one single group, and this is from my point of view. I also, unfortunately, decided to install twitter because Instagram was not keeping me up-to-date with my idol's activities. I created my account in 2021. I do not really use my account, as I use Twitter every 6-7 business days when I don't find anything particularly interesting on Insta. And every single time I regret opening that godforsaken bird app.

Maybe it is because of the type of content I engage in, or it is just Twitter in general, but a majority of the populace I have encountered is absolutely bonkers. If I was allowed to pull up my Twitter feed in the middle of this speech, I would give you a visual representation of what exactly is wrong with people, but for now, I can only paraphrase.

Imagine, you're a K-Pop idol. You have trained for years and years to finally debut in a group. You have been placed in a dorm full of people around your age; your bandmates. One fine sunny day you open Twitter because you wanted to know what people think about you. You search your name. you scroll through the tweets. You proceed to close your phone, pray to God for people's sanity and go to sleep because you have had enough internet for the day.

What exactly is it that makes you do that? Why, it's the K-Pop stans!

It's weird right? Losing morals over people who you don't know personally? Sending death threats to another fandom, sending death threats to idols just for winning a music show? A music show that airs weekly? Every single album is promoted for a duration of 3-4 weeks. It would have been much more morally correct to wait a week and let the album purchases and music video views, the things that actually matter, increase. But no, last resort was never a thought. If you're not going to work for your faves to win, just accept it.

Even without the negativity of such drastic measures, K-Pop Twitter also shows signs of stalkers. The number of "fans" following BTS member Jungkook around the city of Qatar has been appalling. It has not even been 3 weeks since this instance.

There are also the makers of scandals. Scandals are probably the biggest threat to any K-idol's career. Hell, even dating is considered a scandal. Bullying scandals have cost several idols their careers. Seo Soojin, a former member of the group (G)I-DLE, had been kicked out of her group by her company due to such false rumors, along with former Le Serafim member Kim Garam.

These scandals have also led to idols developing anxiety and depression, which at times lead to suicide on the idols' part. On 18th December 2017, Kim Jonghyun of SHINee we found dead, taking his own life.

Even though there is an overabundance of these fake scandals, when eventually there is a real scandal where the idol is guilty, there is a surge of support for them. Fans are truly more worried about a person potentially lying than a person potentially abusing another. Seriously, get a grip.

Even if we are not talking about the heavy parts of K-Pop Twitter, there is the psychological aspect of this craphole.

Infantilizing actual adults, even grown men in their thirties, sexualizing minors, sexualizing people who have shown clear disapproval, harmful "jokes", reducing idols to the struggles they shared (that they had no obligation to), just generally reducing a person to a character, a caricature almost.

Bang Chan, leader and founder of Stray Kids, has been notorious for getting sexualized by his fans in such a vile manner, even after expressing clear discomfort. ENHYPEN member NIKI, a literal minor, has also been sexualized. Perks of debuting as a literal 14 years I guess.

Han Jisung, another member of the K-Pop group Stray Kids, has been open about his struggles with social anxiety. In return, he either gets reduced to just his anxiety or his anxiety gets made fun of. This has also been an issue with ex-DAY6 member Jae and his ADHD.

Solo stans, that is people who are fans of only one member of a group instead of the entire group. These people will never be happy with whatever they get. If their fave is not doing a lot, they are being mistreated and if their fave is doing a lot, they are being overworked.

Another Stray Kids member, Hwang Hyunjin has been hived with such solo stans. Stray Kids had an album released their new album MAXIDENT. On the 4th of October, the news of his grandfather passing away was shared with the fans. Understandably, he was not able to promote much this comeback. His solo stans were harping about him being mistreated. The same fans who had complained about him being overworked during their last comeback in March, all while insulting the other members.

Shipping, or idealizing a relationship between idols, from the same or from different groups has caused problems too. Referencing to the fact that dating is considered scandals as well, this may cause problems to an idol's career. Many idols have been known to be publicly uncomfortable in terms of shipping, but many fans continue to still do so. Also, regarding shipping within a group, many idols have expressed discomfort as South Korea, homeplace of a vast majority of these idols is very outwardly homophobic and most K-Pop groups are either boy groups or girl groups. Not to mention, it is also invasion of privacy.

An occasional "oh my God, he's so hot/cute" is not the problem. The problem is being thoroughly inappropriate on a site that is very much available for the people you're Tweeting about. Exercising a little bit of mental restraint and paying for a couple of months' worth of therapy would benefit everyone involved in this scenario.