Double Standard and Ugly Behavior of Toxic K-pop Stans
By: Fortuna Moslems
Tags: Kpop, Idols, Twitter, Bullying, Toxic Relationships

Double Standard and Ugly Behavior of Toxic K-pop Stans

*I am writing this based on my experience of being a normal K-pop stan for almost 8 years now.

As a person who joined this fan-world back when the second generation was still active, i’ve seen numerous things have changed including how K-pop stans support their idol; as in mental health wise support as a human being and material support as in buy albums or digital streams.

I would like to start off with the mental health support.

As a background for those who doesn’t really know what the atmosphere is like in this K-pop stan world, i would describe it as a full of standard world. From the very first start the Korean idol image have created the perspective they aren’t human with it’s imperfections, we would always find they are perfect with multiple talent and amazing visuals along with their bullet proof heart. As a result from that, we oftenly forgot that at the end of the day they are still human with it’s feelings and rights. From what i have seen, toxic K-pop stans always have this short angry tantrum that is ready to throw anytime soon if the idol don’t live up to their expectations. We all should normalize to not say nor act unpleasant if we see things aren’t going out the way we want because it is all just the made in perspective for the public.

If one day we found out that one of our favorite idol is dating someone they love, we all should support their decision in the first place as a “fan”. They are human who have rights to fall in love with whoever they want. Idols is NOT your future and they owe you NOTHING for it. Don’t get attach to them granted for your future, i’m sorry if i break your expectation in a rough way.

If you don’t like a certain group or member then it’s completely okay, not every idol can meet up your taste and expectation. Your obligation towards them is to not say anything harmful towards them, don’t camp under their music video or their social media account to just leave a dirty comment and throw your short angry tantrum towards them just because you don’t like them. They aren’t bullet proof as the image. We are all know it will effect their mental health. Don’t preach about mental health in real life if you still call out an idol just based on your taste. We all should stop this double standard. If you don’t like it then leave it. Don’t make false accusations, fake rumors and allegations just because you don’t like the way they are. All of this supra example ugly behavior irritate me into my soul that i feel like i have the obligation to speak up about it.

Korean idols who have debuted have suffered pretty bad to reach the high standard and cruel rivalry towards each other to just debut in this harsh industry. You have absolutely zero rights to destroy their career in a second with false rumor or destroy their career with the image you demand to them. We all should act wisely and start to treat K-pop idol as a human with supportive behavior, don’t try to limit their rights just because you don’t live up to the unexpected.

Second, i would like to talk about the material support and how K-pop stans determined the standard of success of their idol by numbers. I would say the way you hype your idol is affected by who your idol is, how is the feelings encompassing around the fandom and how you treat your idol itself. It’s all different construct with the background.

When i was stanning the second generation group of K-pop like Bigbang and Girls’ Generation, we didn’t see the number of views in their music video as the prioritize standard of success, because i feel like music was all about how we enjoy and appreciate the music itself and the number was just a bonusㅡnot on how we squeeze forcing ourself to make the number of views reach certain goals that make us forget our real obligation in life, and apparently that’s how things are in K-pop now. Don’t get me wrong, i oftenly join the mass streaming too. We are addicted to numbers and breaking records as if it’s the perfect definition of success despite the core meaning of music is to give strength and entertainment to the people who hear it (depends on why you choose to listen to their music.)

Maybe this factor is affected by the fact the internet world in second generation wasn’t as huge as it is now. There was barely a community place in internet where the K-pop stans would gather in general to enjoy the release of a music like in certain media platform nowㅡbecause in the past we use the official fanclub that not everyone can access it and only belong to the one who pay. Second generation stans would watch the music video and download it with a third party links then listen it in million times. Strangely despite the small number of views in their MV, the song was immaculate and didn’t ageㅡsome of them still get played in stores, used as background music, etc. I think the second generation perspective was the best to put out with toxicity and prevent the movement of fandom become a cult perspective.

If we try to apply this scenario in this modern K-pop stan world, i don’t think it will go well. The toxic one now always determine the talent and success of the idol through numbers, if it didn’t reach certain number they would call it as a “flop” even if the song is good or maybe have meaningful context to it. If the group isn’t known they will call it as “flop untalented”. It’s all just toxic ugly behavior and we should fix it ASAP.

I just want say this to the toxic who will probably read this. Just because a certain K-pop idol don’t receive the same attention like the successful global group, it doesn’t mean they are lack of talents. The underrated group isn’t a flop just because the number of views isn’t as much as the global groups has. They are lack of opportunities and exposure NOT talent. I am pretty sure all of K-pop idols have MORE talent who have worked hard to improve than us who only judge it based on our perspective through this modern screen.

We all should stop use numbers as determination of everything and should start to appreciate other idol that isn’t our bias.

Let’s normalize it to make things better in this world. This year have been a headache so let’s just not make anything worse.

In conclusion, stan them in a way they are not the way your expectations see them. Stan them in a normal way and normalize respect other K-pop idol that isn’t your fave.