Minami 2

[koganbot]

Starting this second thread regarding the Minami incident to forestall Livejournal's terrifying collapsed-thread syndrome encroaching on the previous thread (here).



My guess is that it'd be hard for any fan to endorse Minami's self-abasement. Even those who support idol "purity" and manage to link it to being sex-free and boyfriend-free will have that overridden by the sense that Minami is a damsel in distress. In fact, those people might especially be the ones who will have their "damsel in distress" buttons bumped, and will be genuinely torn.

The rest of my thoughts are about K-pop, since I know next to nothing about J-pop:

In K-pop, is the no-dating rule really all that pervasive? Doing a little bit of Websearching, discovered that back in 2010 when T-ara's Soyeon was rumored to be dating Supreme Team's E-sens, neither agency managed to deny it at first, even though apparently it wasn't true. Core Contents Media: "They are very close but we haven’t heard about an official relationship yet. We believe that if two adults come together to date, it should be something worth congratulating." Is possibly the only sensible thing Core Contents Media has ever stated in a press release; anyway, confirms what I remember Jiyeon saying about T-ara not being under a no-dating rule.

What are the shades of meaning to the word "Scandal"? In this interview report I'm uncertain as to whether or not E-sens et al. are using the word facetiously. Perhaps the Korean word that gets translated as "scandal" has shades of meaning not present in English, e.g., in Korean "scandal" is often simply shorthand for "latest comeback" or "received a MacArthur Foundation genius grant."

And here's a story from October 2010 that I particularly cherish: the rumors about Soyeon and E-sens having just broken, Netizens come to the only possible logical conclusion: this romance was manufactured by Core Contents Media as a conspiracy to distract attention from Jiyeon's alleged-nude-photo scandal.

http://www.allkpop.com/2010/10/t-ara%E2%80%99s-soyeon-and-supreme-team%E2%80%99s-e-sens-are

NETIZENS, YOU GOTTA LOVE 'EM!

(Photo at top is of Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) (right) and his secretary Angelo (Vince Barnett) in the original Scarface. Angelo was an excellent choice for secretary in that (1) he didn't know how to write, and (2) he didn't quite understand the telephone; so, when someone on the other end insulted him, he took out his gun and was set to shoot, figuring that if you could talk through a phone you could fire bullets through it as well.)

Comments

[askbask.livejournal.com]

I don't know that 'no dating' is that pervasive, but it seems generally accepted that most of it goes on away from the public. I can understand not wanting to go public with, but it doesn't seem to have much of an impact when it is brought to the public, like with the guy from Shinee, another top tier band in terms of fanatical fans, and actress Shin Se Kyung. Shindong in Super Junior is engaged I believe, although he does have less of a 'girls swoon over him' image (but I've seen plenty of people who do). A member from SPICA was dating one from the legendary Shinhwa last year, but they broke it off. Compared to the numerous dating stories on actors in the same age group it's lacking. The common thing to do when you want to tease but not go all the way is saying "I've dated since I debuted.. but not now of course" so the fear of being too honest is still there (but then you can get the same from some actress on Letterman when he probes and pokes).

There was a story in December and then the fans were just 'oh we know already' http://forums.allkpop.com/threads/so-the-korean-bbc-already-know-about-u-kwon-relationship-before-this.83934/

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

I think it's interesting that while idol fans on both sides dig dirt up, Kpop fanclubs rally to protect their precious idols, while the Jpop "handsome" wota date the girls and then happily sell the story to the press. (Although one of them was pretty hilariously bad, claiming that he didn't have sex with the member because he had work the next day... :\)

In a sense, Kpop fans are more aware that their idols are breaking the rules, but cover up the knowledge in the fear that a nebulous "everyone else" will destroy their idols' career if it gets out. The Jpop wota seem to suspend disbelief, but are harsher on the punishment for it, even though several former idols have admitted to dating while they were idols. (And it's even more well-known on the male side)

And like you mention, Kpop plays like it's not as dependent on purity, with idols teasing about dating and first kiss stories, (and change said first kiss stories several times throughout the course of their careers) but are quick to maintain their purity of the moment.
It's still more progressive than Jpop right now, though, where past discretion is still enough to ruin careers.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

And as discussed in the other post we sometiems get hilariously unbelievable explanations from the labels like the IU joke.