Today's the last day of
Guest Blogger Week on the blog and we started with a bang, so we're going out with a bang. I'm bringing you a
very strongly worded post from
Line (aka
Nani) of
Nancakes.org. She's from Denmark but currently living in Seoul, South Korea (jealous!) and I met her through this blog because I posted a
video of Shinee's Key at Seoul Fashion Week here last year and she was in it. How funny is that?? Nani is infamous for her rants about stuff, so I knew when I asked her that we'd be in for it. :) She also blogs and vlogs about makeup and Kpop, amongst other things. Just remember, if you don't like curse words, or are easily offended, don't read on. Enjoy!
Nani Rants About Kpop Fans
Written by Nani of Nancakes.org
Let's start an argument among kpop fans, shall we? (just kidding... maybe) I'm not really gonna talk about the crazy-ass nut job "fans", also known as the infamous "sasaeng fans" (사생팬) today, because let's face it.. those are not really fans. However, having lived in Korea for 9 months now and having experienced how extremely rude and shameless we Western fans have apparently become, I'd like to politely ask you all to calm the fuck down for a second. I may get a little riled up in this entry, but this is something I've had on my mind for a while, and this "Guest Blogger Week" was (at least in my opinion) the perfect opportunity to get it out there. I try to be as good a person as I can be, but I'm not perfect - nobody is. There are just a few things I'd like to encourage kpop fans to either do or not do. If you feel a little "omg TLDR" already, you can always skip to the last two paragraphs. ^__^)/
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| Private img. that I took w/my cellphone at the GD concert |
I don't know how many of you guys have been to Korea, but usually when you go to a gig here, you can choose between two types of tickets (
IMG HERE) - standing and seating. Standing is on the ground floor of course, where you stand with lots of other fans near the stage, risking to be squished to death. Seating is (omg here comes the catch).... seating. You are assigned a seat where you SIT throughout the performance. Of course you're allowed to stand up if a really epic song comes on and you just gotta jam along to it, or if the song comes with a dance that requires standing up and dancing (or clapping) like a seal (good examples would be "Gangnam Style" and "Fantastic Baby"). However; throughout the entire show you are expected to sit down and remain seated. Not only because - well, you chose
"seating", so duh. But also because you're blocking the view for everybody else sitting behind you; and that, my friend, is unacceptable, as we all paid a lot of money to see whom ever is performing.
If you attended the
A Walk With the Stars 2012 event in Seoul Olympic Park last year, you'd know that that particular event was for foreigners in Korea only. There were a shit ton of Chinese and Japanese people but also a surprising amount of Westerners. The layout of the concert area was a small stage with white plastic chairs set out for everyone. Now SOMEHOW a lot of people at the event did not understand the point of a chair. As soon as the music started, 80% of these fucking idiots bolted out of their chairs and ran for the stage to catch a glimpse of their favorite idol. 15% (of the remaining 20%) then stood up on their chairs because hey, there was a huge meat wall of stupid fangirls blocking the view. Sadly that blocked the view for the rather confused left-over 5% of us, which resulted in a HUGE mess of people either staggering on their plastic chairs or on top of each other near the stage. If you watched my
A WALK WITH THE STARS VLOG from after the event (obviously), you probably noticed the masses of people near the stage. The
useless host had to tell everyone to please go back to their seats before the next artist could go on (for safety reasons) and I personally sat in my chair naively thinking
"Ah great, now people will pipe the fuck down, get back to their seats and we can continue" but no... Of course not. Everybody went back to their seats and sat down. The next artist was then announced and BAM now 87% of people bolted out of their seats like bullets out of a shut-gun to get a better look and some awesome close-up shots of their favorite oppas...
Fuck you all and fuck you hard
Seriously. Not only did you block the view for everyone else, you were being extremely disrespectful to the organizers of the event and you show clear signs of giving no fucks when it comes to respecting the culture (especially entertainment culture) of the country you're in. How god damn hard is it to sit in a fucking chair? COME ON, PEOPLE. We know what chairs are for, they are for sitting. It's not hard! The saddest part is that I can't only blame Western people for this (even though they are really good at being fucking rude at events), because the Chinese were shameless as well and they were very clearly cruisin' for bruisin' at one point. I honestly wanted to go to the host, take his mic, go on stage and ask everyone to sit their asses down and STAY there, otherwise I'd personally pay their particular seat a visit with a nail gun and make SURE they'd stay in their god damn seat until the show was over. My god... It seems that most fangirls in Asia turn into savages when there's an idol nearby. Ugh.
Anyway... I also had the honor to sit behind some dumb-ass foreign girls (judging by their accent, I think they were from somewhere in Britain) who decided to stand up throughout majority of the G-Dragon concert for whatever reason. I mean COME ON, ladies. Look behind you, there's a seat, you paid for that seat - now put your ass into it. I did not pay W99,000 (approx $95) to not be able to see shit, just because you're busy crying over mr. Dragon (while standing up, wtf who does that?). Ain't nobody got time for that. Be respectful to the people around you. You can cry about him when you get back to your hotel- or dorm room or even when you get outside the venue. I honestly don't get all this "crying" shit. Girls who cry when they see their idol... what are you doing?
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| I borrowed Victoria's beautiful face for this one. Credit: Deviantart. |
These crying idiots look like emotional wrecks unable to control their emotions (which they probably are anyway) and it's so embarrassing to have to look at. I've met kpop idols several times (quite a few of them actually) but I didn't feel the need to bawl, looking like a drowned raccoon after having done so even once. Would someone enlighten me here: why do these people cry so much? I don't get it. At the MCM event last year, this girl BURST into tears after Hyungjoon shook her hand. Whyyyyy? It's so odd and it obviously made the poor guy extremely uncomfortable. I had two acquaintances from my uni at the A Walk With the Stars event as well, and one of them started crying when Infinite came on stage, while the other cried uncontrollably when she saw BAP perform somewhere later that week. Why do you people cry about these things? Is it because you love them? Are you excited? Are you happy or sad, because I can't tell anymore. Is it that these people are so handsome and perfect and unobtainable? It may be annoying as hell, but you gotta live with it, honey; they won't notice you. And even if they did see you cry at their gig, they most likely wouldn't wanna marry (or fuck) you for it. Hell, they most likely won't ever marry or date a fan because let's get real: you're all crazy as shieeeet.
Speaking of crazy, let's take a great example of when it even happens in sweet ol' Amur'ca. I wasn't present at the K-CON (is that what it was called?) but I heard some very interesting things about the event. Apparently it was unorganized as #&("/)#€ but it was also worsened slightly by a few fans trying to hand Kris (and other members of EXO-M/K) some smut fanfictions.
I shit you not, these motherfuckers had the audacity to print their (most likely super horribly written) sexual frustrations onto paper and give it to the idols that they featured in their little perverted, grammatical cluster-fuck of a short story. WHAT. THE. FUCKERY. Could you not? I mean seriously.. Please. Don't do that. I guess you could say that Kris was probably be rather chill about it, as he grew up in Canada (and thereby knows that Western culture can be rather ridiculous). However, all this "shipping" bullshit needs restrictions. How about we just keep it within the nicely sealed walls of the fandom itself and its forums. I know that some fanfic writers are bloody GOOD at what they do (smut or not) but these writers rarely care about who sees their work nor how famous they get. They get popular because they're good. Then of course we apparently also have the super bad, immature "writers" who desperately want recognition for their shitty stories, post them all over the internet and then get this idiotic idea that "hey, let's print it out and give it to Kreaaaaaase-oppaahhh at KCON omg yezzzz" (at least that's how I imagine it happening lol). But this is just when it gets really really awkward and really fucking gross.
If you worked hard to perfect your skills, wouldn't it feel extremely degrading if a fan came up to you and gave you a story he/she wrote about how you have sex with your best friends under the most ridiculous circumstances? If you trained for 4 years under a strict label and could now finally realize your dream to become an idol, yet your fans' only responses are "You're hot" or "omg you and your friend would be so hot together" wouldn't you be upset about it? Many of you claim to feel really close to your idols and love them to death, saying that you'd spend all your money and all your time on them - yet, you don't even possess the decency to respect them as people. Because that's what they are; people. Nothing more and nothing less. And what you're doing is that you're degrading these people to statues, to objects. Yeah, statues can be beautiful, but that's mostly all they are; they're confined to one, aesthetically pleasing or appalling being. They're either beautiful or ugly, sometimes sad. Idols are people and they're way more than just that. They can ignite a light that'll inspire you to do something great for others (or for yourself), they can inspire you to follow your dreams, get over bullying or fight back a force that's dragging you down. They can be your fit-spiration and guide you towards living a healthier life and they can encourage you to do well in school.
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| Yay Super Junior! |
They deliver the music that you love, they perform the dances that you diligently practice after school and they do the interviews and variety shows late at night and early in the morning that you and your friends talk about every day. You claim to love and adore them, but you treat them like trash. Why is it so hard for some of you to respect them as people and stay behind the line of what's acceptable? Why do you always have to be more and more extreme? Is it the attention? Because guess what; your bff lied.
Negative attention is not better than no attention at all. Negative attention is negative. And you shouldn't want to have something negative in your life at all. Be a good fan, set a good example and then hopefully that tendency will spread like a disease to the rest of the fandoms all over the world - be they kpop-related or not. These people give us hope and encouragement, they go through hard training for their fans and they work late hours to make us happy. How about we give a little respect in return? Of course we cannot do much about the crazy 10-year-old pre-pubescent, Korean screamos at their shows, but we can behave like well-groomed ladies and gents and show the rest of the fandom that we are well-mannered people who respect and love our idols in a dedicated but appropriate way. We don't have to be boring, but let's be cool about it and not weird. Or let's just... aim to be as little weird as possible for now. Lol.
You can also catch more of Nani at Nancakes.org, formspring, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Tumblr.
Loved it or hated it? Want more of this sort of thing? Leave us a message below, and thanks for reading Guest Blogger Week.
Source:
Nani of
Nancakes.org. Take out with full credit. Images credited as tagged and where due.
