I’ve actually been thinking about posting this for a few months but I think the recent situation with Manon has highlighted my point really well.
The greatest power any idol has is their perceived lack of autonomy. People see idols as heavily restricted by their companies and this leads to a “good tsars, bad boyars” mindset amongst fans – when an idol does something bad, the evil faceless staff and company are to blame, when an idol does something good, the idol takes full credit of this.
Katseye have broken this belief by presenting themselves as high agency and free. This isn’t always an issue but the girls don’t just have high-fandom engagement, they have high *controversy* engagement. They see EVERYTHING and will clap back immediately, even if the responses in question are about pretty meaningless stuff. It felt like every week or every other week I would log onto Twitter and see yet another WeVerse paragraph about something mild. The difference in time between these posts was also something that really shocked me, discourse would start and within a day or two there would be a response from the Kats.
But what happens when you’re willing to defend your older boyfriend of a few months but not group mate facing racism and mistreatment from the label? What happens when your own father is going on a hate spree against one of your closest friends and being racist against Asians? You cannot simply slip back into the restricted idol image as it looks inauthentic to do so. When a loudly outspoken group stays quiet on the biggest controversy of their careers, it looks like a choice as opposed to forced silence. The narrative of the Katseye girls being lowkey shady towards Manon has persisted since the documentary and while I don’t believe it, it’s definitely being reinforced right now especially in the eyes of those who are outside the fandom and less aware of the bond between the girls.
Aside from this context, the “chronically online Gen Z American” persona mixed with the K-Pop level of fan interaction is a recipe for parasocial disaster. K-Pop stans are already parasocial enough but I think that the cultural and linguistic barrier between K-idols and their international fans does provide a small deterrent to some behaviour. On the other hand, it’s much easier to project one’s own feelings onto the Katseye girls because their age and Western image is far more relatable. That paired with a daily messaging app and the girls being super casual with fans can create harmful fandom dynamics
I completely empathise with the girls’ urge to defend themselves from online hatred but you have to understand why basically no other celebrities do this all the time. I’m genuinely surprised that no one at HYBE or Geffen told them to just leave it. I’m not worried about perception in the public eye (I lowkey think they’re too big for that to matter at this point), I think this is damaging for the girls themselves. They are going through a hate train right now and it’s emboldening for haters to know that they can ragebait the members into the response they want. A snarky meme is fine but writing essays displays a high level of vulnerability – you show the people that hate you most that you’re genuinely bothered about their opinion. They’re young so it’s perfectly understandable but they really need to go to the Yoonchae school of taking the high road sometimes.
I wrote this yesterday and today I was scrolling Twitter to find that Bangchan from StrayKids is beefing random Armys that called him corny over his “Dubwai chocowate” messages using baby talk. Again, I empathise but it really is an ego boost for trolls when a world-famous millionaire takes time out of their day to go on a mini tirade about their opinions.
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