March 21, 2014
It's a miracle if an idol doesn't screw up their career by saying something or doing something that either offends or is inappropriate in the eyes of the general population. With just a few simple words, they can lose thousands of fan club members, be un-contracted by an abundance of endorsement deals and be pushed to group disbandment. These idols get targeted daily, the idiom "forgive and forget" playing no pawn in the chess match and people who were unconditionally and indescribably in love with the speaker yesterday are now the same blood thirsty hounds today, their leaches off and their teeth clenched, wanting nothing more but the ultimate punishment--death-- being ensured to the doer, no mercy at the trial, no sympathy implored. And with this are just those few seconds that they wish nothing but to turn back. Those few seconds that they may have mildly wounded the persons unknowingly--like a tiny paper cut--yet are subject to exile. Those few seconds they released those words that left scarlet wetness to gorge from their bodies' open wounds like a poked water balloon, to leave a brutal scar that's looked upon every, single, day, that continuously awakens the memory of their fault, to push them off the cliff into the depths of thought and make them wish they have never been born or even--should remove themselves from the world because the convoluted, sickening and ultimately wrong idea that if the world doesn't find them useful, they are not, wanting nothing but to quickly satisfy the world with their lack of existence. To inflict pain and leave it aching and spreading around their bodies engulfing them and swallowing them into the pits of darkness, all because a few
Variety Shows are simply the home for idols to make their biggest mistakes, the best examples yet, KARA on Radio Star, in which bottles were thrown, useless tears were shed, insults were emitted and careers were ruined in the mere minutes given to the girls on the show. It's surprising to me that though so many idols like Girls' Generation's Tiffany are manager-like and control their group and themselves on what is being said, many other idols still believe that wherever they go, it's still a playground, where no rules are enforced and they can do whatever they want. Because of this, idols are faced with accusations of being rude, misbehaved and unmannerly and their images are hurt despite the years of training that are not used to develop talents but instead are used to better visuals, improve verbal utterings on live television and not look like an idiot outside.
Social Network is another way for idols to lose control. To them, websites are more than just a way to connect with fans. It's a 100% guaranteed way of getting attention from the people who will do almost anything to even breathe the same air their biases are breathing. It's not the ability to waste time dilly-dallying rather than going to a schedule that draws them to Instagram, Twitter and even more rarely, Facebook. But it's rather the attention they will receive and the overall growth of people giving them attention as they release more and more pictures and videos of them acting "dorky" or "a person just like you and me". Many idols play it cool with social networking for example, Girls' Generation's Taeyeon who has one of the most popular idol Instagram accounts to this day, nearly hitting the 2 million followers mark and still having yet to stir up controversy however, other idols such as T-ara and IU who both plummeted to rock bottom (IU rose from the pit, T-ara still has yet to improve) simply with either typed messages or images uploaded online? Pure victims of the word infection that's been spreading all throughout idols since day one. What many idols don't understand is that though they feel as if social networking should be a safe haven, more than just die-hard fans check their pages each and everyday. And being that the fact that the people who aren't deluded in the idea that 'oppar is so perf!', they tend to see around their words and are more critical on their actions.
Simple
Words.
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Remember Hyosung? The girl who single-handedly wiped out her whole group with just a simple sentence when trying to act like more than just a pretty face on a radio show.
“Our team respects each other’s individuality so our group doesn’t utilize democratization.”
Just like Hyosung, almost everyday, an abundance of Korean idols have a 'slip of the tongue' by saying something more naive than reasonable. This is the reason why numerous Korean netizens claim that idols are brainless baboons who, without idoldom, would be nothing but a burden to their parents. To them, they're insipid. They're bogus. They're deranged. And while a plethora of defensive international fans will nearly kill themselves saying that kind of language towards celebrities is false and unnecessary, you can't help but realize that those accusations actually aren't just filled with the rage towards idols in general and truly stem from somewhere--and with Hyosung, just like numerous other celebrities like INFINITE's Sunggyu who claimed women aged 30 and over are hags, anchorwoman Eun Young claiming women over 50kg are pigs and Super Junior's Shindong stupidly noting that women should not be fat and there is a standard between men and women for fatness in which men can be as fat as they want and women should not weigh more than a toothpick these remarks of stupidity and wishing for reflecting which cause the celebrity to lose fan base, respect or even their careers should not be taken lightly.
Variety Shows are simply the home for idols to make their biggest mistakes, the best examples yet, KARA on Radio Star, in which bottles were thrown, useless tears were shed, insults were emitted and careers were ruined in the mere minutes given to the girls on the show. It's surprising to me that though so many idols like Girls' Generation's Tiffany are manager-like and control their group and themselves on what is being said, many other idols still believe that wherever they go, it's still a playground, where no rules are enforced and they can do whatever they want. Because of this, idols are faced with accusations of being rude, misbehaved and unmannerly and their images are hurt despite the years of training that are not used to develop talents but instead are used to better visuals, improve verbal utterings on live television and not look like an idiot outside.
The problem with many variety shows however, are the fact that they continue to ask questions as if they have no boundaries. Going straight in for the kill rather than trying to relieve stress on the idol when asking their questions and forgetting to edit out parts that could otherwise make the idol seem idiotic or hurt their image.
What does all this mean?
There's no actual answer to this question. Idols tend to employ words, phrases or sentences in order to get their point across, add laughter to shows, tell secrets or simply not fall into the stupid category that idols always fall into. No matter what fans, companies or even the idols do, none of them can get away with the fact that the words they say can persuade, influence or hurt fans or even themselves. Even at the height of careers, there's always a camera watching, there's always a person listening and there's always a crowd waiting for them to fall to rock bottom just so they can spend their thirty minutes on lunch break laughing at how much an idiot the idol because that's simply what us netizens do. Idols are no more than a by-product of entertainment companies hands and should realize they are just tools to wallet stuffing and aren't looked at as even human beings to entertainment companies, to journalists, to anti-fans and to even fans. And at the end of the day, when all is said and done, fan cafes close, a plethora of articles release and careers are ended almost as fast as they began, it should always be remembered before hitting post on that one social networking site, before saying that one tiny little word that can change the whole meaning of a sentence on a variety show, before even thinking of a funny-to-you-however-maybe-not-so-funny-to-everyone-else kind of joke that sticks and stones may break your bones but words will always hurt you.
