All's fair on the internet
Though I was intrigued to wake up to news of Lisette Bustamante working with SNSD for their upcoming MV, I was intrigued in a completely different way (re: wtf is this piece of s---?!) about this comic, titled ‘Joy Ride 529, Lady’s Generation Past Pictures', (alt source) which basically implies that SNSD slept their way into success. (Curious though, that it was posted last February, when SNSD's popularity was on the rise, but only reached All K-Pop now.) According to comments, the cartoonist, Yoon Suh In, has a history of being a crude misogynist, but there were some other interesting things in comments as well.
1. Things like this are to be expected?
One commenter wrote: "they are idols and in the eye of the public, this is going to happen no matter how much you protest." Which begs the question: Just because they're in the public eye, they're not privy to protection against such defamation? Though it is true that public figures have to deal with these kind of assumptions all the time, but should we as an audience simply expect it and not fight against such statements?
2. They did this to themselves?
There were several commenters who brought up H!P, stating that there had been worse things drawn/written about them such as porn drawings. There exists the same kind of thing in SNSD fandom, from drawings to written pieces. I'm not sure if H!P has done any overtly sexual songs or anything like "Tell Me Your Wish" but can we say that since they have this "mature" image, they were inviting things such as this - drawings, writings depicting them in sexual and possibly demeaning ways - to happen? (We could even bring the boys into this: is there a link between males being seen as more sexual beings and the popularity of yaoi/slash?)
3. Don't tell us it *isn't* true?
As of writing this, there are 93 comments posted on the entry in OMTD and there's quite a mix of people either taking offense or being amused by the comic and reactions to it. Does this mean that SM's attempts to make SNSD seem "wholesome/sexually available but virginal and all around perfect and precious" aren't working? That people can't see them as *not* having done something like sleep around to get to the top? Or is this more of a look into how jaded fans of the idol industry have become due to the inundation of groups with "cute" acts? (Though, one has to note that T-ara won No 1 at Popular Song so the cute act is still going strong) Or are the two issues linked to make an amazing question that I can't formulate?
4. On a larger scale:
What constitutes as sexual harassment on the internet? One commenter wrote: "I'm sure it wouldn't be ~sexual harassment~ if it were a picture of two of the girls kissing or something."
I'll be out for most of the day without internet, so please discuss (or not) amongst yourselves~
1. Things like this are to be expected?
One commenter wrote: "they are idols and in the eye of the public, this is going to happen no matter how much you protest." Which begs the question: Just because they're in the public eye, they're not privy to protection against such defamation? Though it is true that public figures have to deal with these kind of assumptions all the time, but should we as an audience simply expect it and not fight against such statements?
2. They did this to themselves?
There were several commenters who brought up H!P, stating that there had been worse things drawn/written about them such as porn drawings. There exists the same kind of thing in SNSD fandom, from drawings to written pieces. I'm not sure if H!P has done any overtly sexual songs or anything like "Tell Me Your Wish" but can we say that since they have this "mature" image, they were inviting things such as this - drawings, writings depicting them in sexual and possibly demeaning ways - to happen? (We could even bring the boys into this: is there a link between males being seen as more sexual beings and the popularity of yaoi/slash?)
3. Don't tell us it *isn't* true?
As of writing this, there are 93 comments posted on the entry in OMTD and there's quite a mix of people either taking offense or being amused by the comic and reactions to it. Does this mean that SM's attempts to make SNSD seem "wholesome/sexually available but virginal and all around perfect and precious" aren't working? That people can't see them as *not* having done something like sleep around to get to the top? Or is this more of a look into how jaded fans of the idol industry have become due to the inundation of groups with "cute" acts? (Though, one has to note that T-ara won No 1 at Popular Song so the cute act is still going strong) Or are the two issues linked to make an amazing question that I can't formulate?
4. On a larger scale:
What constitutes as sexual harassment on the internet? One commenter wrote: "I'm sure it wouldn't be ~sexual harassment~ if it were a picture of two of the girls kissing or something."
I'll be out for most of the day without internet, so please discuss (or not) amongst yourselves~