You have to be perfect if you want to be a K-Pop group member

Korea has one of the largest Music industry in the world and K-Pop groups take huge part of in there. In Korea, They call them as an ‘Idol’. However, In order to success as an idol you have to be perfect. It is almost harsh that audience want from them. I will give a few needs that every idol have to go through.

First, You can not drink in public. Nowadays, it became flexible compared to old days but Audience are  still very conservative about their drinking issue. If you caught middle of drinking in public, you could get a lot of comment that the they disappointed at you. It doesn’t matter that you are adult. They just think It is not a good thing that role-model could do.

Second, You can not smoke. I know smoking is bad for your voice and it could harm their career as a singer. However, It is just matter of choice. You can not force someone to smoke or not. This problem becomes much more serious when you are a female. Audience never wants female celebrities to smoke. I know some audience want them to be healthy but some are just throwing swears at them. Again, It is choice from an adult. Why care?

Third, You can not love someone proudly. In a relationship, it is a critical thing for idol’s career. Fans doesn’t accept their lover. Furthermore, If you are not successed enough, You could lose a lot of fans. Fans wants to be their only lover. If you are succeeded enough to ignore leaving of fans, It doesn’t matter. However, There is a lot of new idols who just debuted. They need fans in order to success. Even their company banned their loving if they are not success enough. Even Though you got famous, There is another problem. Audience are keep compare between you and your lover. Basically, you get unpleasant evaluate about who’s better then who.

Lastly, You must be in perfect shape. It is probably most harshest thing. If you gain few weights, Audience will notice and starting to sneer at you. They want perfect shape, face and voice from idol. So they have to eat strict diet every day unless you are lucky. Every year the average weight of idol is keep decreasing. If you get plastic surgery to gratify them , you get another sneer. I mean, give me a break. They asked for perfection but they will never get gratified? Idols are working hard for their appearance but it seems to be never enough.

Idols are human being as well. You can not ask for perfection to them because humans are not perfect. You can Judge their performance but you can not banned their normal life. One of the member of Girl’s generation said at interview. “What would you do if you are not an idol member in your next life” / “ I want to be normal. I miss just normal life when i used to have”

A Real Man Is a Fake Man

There is show called ‘Real men’ in Korea. The show about 10 celebrities went to military service and show how they acclimate in there. They have to go each different positions in Korean military in every season. The goal is to introduce Korean military service and gives reminisce to discharged people.  Therefore, They used format in reality show. However, It seems like that a lot of Korean men sneer at this show. They think it is not ‘real’ military.

What a lame story to tell. I’m not trying to sneer at who sneered at this show. I’m just trying to explain how reality show works. Furthermore, They always have argument in a Facebook which is unnecessary. Let’s put it simple. TV show doesn’t have to be real. Even if it called ‘Real men’ or ‘Reality show’.

There is alway people who saying ‘I was in that force but that is not real. I worked twice harder.Don’t make it look easy’. It is one of most common criticism about this show. However, They know that every man should go military service in Korea. What makes them easy to say ‘Don’t make it look easy’?. We all know that is not  real. It is not a big deal that you went to same force. There is at least thousand people who were in that force and don’t say anything.

Let’s pretend that they cover a ‘real’ military. It is going to be boring. Trust me, I’ve been there. Who would watch that boring show in sunday night?. A show must make money in order to survive from broadcast station. If they covered a ‘real’ military, I don’t think they survived. They couldn’t even try pilot episode. I think.

You don’t have to believe the media. It’s not about just this show. You should know or understand that there are always some of fakeness in it. So, you to say “Oh, it’s not a real military. you must stop making this show”. It is never going to be a reason. If you think that is not real, I would ask “why not?”. Chill out. Just have fun. If you take reality show to a discussion , you have to stay all night doing pointless argument. Let’s not go there.

There is a lot of argument going on about this show. It caused from lots of discharged people. To be honest, It is hard to watch how pointless it is. Furthermore, Korean audience has tend to take the media too seriously. I just want to say one thing. Relax, have fun. That is what the media ultimately exist for. I’d rather give compliments to celebrities or casts who work hard for this fun.  

How i became a media geek

I love media. You can simply call me a media geek. I always watch different media and observe them. It is one of my passion for my life. I even own the largest online reality show fan community in Korea. You might wondering why or how I became a media geek. 

10 years ago, I was a high school student who liked computer game. One day, I turned on TV and i saw afro haired woman. She was very pretty. She was giving advice to 10 different girls and yet she was very charismatic. I quickly became a fan of this show called ‘America’s next top model’. At that time, I spent a lot of time doing internet so i decided to find out more about this show. Unfortunately, There wasn’t enough information in Korean websites. Therefore, I decided to search American websites. Luckily, I could find a way to download the show. I watched every season of it and i decided to make a fan community for it. That was one of biggest steps in my life. 03.19.2006, My community started ambitiously. 

I loved movies as well. I don’t know why but I always wanted to share my opinion about movie with others all the times. I joined a saturday movie watching club from school. Every saturday, if I watched a movie i needed to share my opinion in somewhere. When i found community called ‘Djuna’, I screamed. There was a lot of professional movie reviews and there was  a discussion board as well.  They used a lot of difficult words but I was happy enough to study. Since this experience, I started to review or observe every media that I watched. 

Then I became a university student. I was a freshmen who was full of ambition. So I wanted to extend my community to the next step.Therefore, I extended category from ‘America’s next top model’ to ‘reality show in general’. Sadly, I had to go a military service one year after. However, Extension had been made when I was absent from community. ‘Korea’s next top model’ and ‘Project runway korea’ had huge success. So, my community got even bigger.I even got a call from producer of ‘Korea’s next top model’. In 2012, I had a meeting with an executive producer. I could not believe that I gave an opinion to them. This experience was very special and made me want to be a producer. 

I still own a community and I still continue my life pattern as a media geek. Sadly, my favorite shows are ended but my life have not changed at all. There is always a new media coming out and i’m going to observe every single one of them. Hopefully, I could be the one who is going to make a great media in a future.  

Interests Links

http://www.djuna.kr/xe/
: Mainly movie reviewing but they also have opinion about Korea media in general.
(Korean)


http://www.thetvaddict.com/

http://insidesurvivor.com/
: My favorite show :D

http://www.rtvgames.com/forumsindex.php

Could add after

About me

Seung Jin Alex Oh

Hello! My name is Alex. I'm currently studying English at Busan University Of Foreign Studies. I'm Korean. Therefore my English could be wrong in many times. All comments and feedback are welcome (Includes grammar,sentence error). Feel free to teach me :D

I own an on-line community about reality show since 2006. Therefore i always had an interest in media. Especially i enjoy watching media a lot. Drama,Talk Show even music is my life for me. I like to reviewing media as well. You can call me media geek or freak because i wouldn't mind :). 

In this blog, I'm going to post about Korea media and internet culture. If you have a same interests or like my post, feel free to contact me ! 

Thank you 

MEGALIA : Feminists community that fights for hatred towards to female

Korea has the fastest internet speed on the planet. Therefore, There are a lot of internet users who are very out-spoken.Furthermore, Korean internet users were not ashamed of using  ‘Female hatred Words’. Users created humongous amount of words that make fun of female. There was an air that it is ok to make fun of female’.Feminists fought against this air but it was not enough for some reason.

However ‘Megalia’ created on 2015. It was feminists community that fought against female hatred. Megalia quickly got famous and their voice was not ignorable. They used same way as male based communities has used which was violent. They call it ‘Mirroring’. They say ‘it is the most effective way to give awareness’. So, the war has began between gender based communities. However, Korean online gender based communities are being counter productive for some reasons : Dignity,Violent and Gossip fight.

Dignity is important. Even war has a law. If you are in a fight, you should respect your opponent. You are no more than an animal while you lost your respect and dignity. We are human beings who fight for gender equality. This war may end soon but it is not too late to change method. It is time to stop cursing each other.

Furthermore hatred to hatred never works.They use an words that is unnecessary violent. There is a way to give someone awareness by violence. However, nobody could say that it is right. It may seem effective at that moment but it is never good in the long terms. The words that both the male and female communities use are hate-based. No matter how it intended to be , it makes people uncomfortable. If their word get famous, people will use violent word without a conscious. Word affects personality. Korean internet culture will be more violent. Furthermore it might affect real life In sociolinguistics point. Their intent is covering by violence. Nobody will use these words for the gender equality. Furthermore, it may affect teenagers who use internet a lot and affected by it a lot. They will use these words for fun. There will be no gender equality, there will be only hatred left.

It’s not a discussion, It is a gossip fight. There are a lot of people who fighting for gender equality in the world. They bring up great sources how women were discriminated in the past. So, it moves people's mind by details. However, the Korean internet war for gender equality has turned into a gossip fight. The most of comments or opinions are simply objecting male community’s childish mockery.Of course, there is few people who have a great sources to stand feminism. However, it seems like users of megalia are complimenting them but not to encourage them. Discussion or debate could make positive result but this war turning into gossip fight. It is sad because it may end up by short cut. Just like a gossip.

We should consider that it is not about war, it is about an enlightenment. Enlightenment is never easy. However war doesn’t make an enlightenment. Enlightenment comes from education. As an adult, we should stop gossip or swear each other. We need to give them a great example and teach them about what is the real gender equality for next generations. We should stop this violent war and think about what is important for a gender equality. It could be huge step for equality or it could be history of online nightmare.

WORD INFO :

MEGALIA : In 2015, when the mers virus hit Korea. ‘Mers gallery’ created in DC inside community. DC inside has gallery for lots of different subjects. So, users can discuss about subjects. Gallery means intenet board in DC inside. However, Mers gallery wasn’t about a virus. Female users came to gallery and started raise their voice towards to “Female hatred”. There was few female based on-line community in Korean but they weren't outspoken as mers gallery. Mers gallery attacked male based community at the same time female haters in real life. They were on point and violent, Just like other male based communities. DC inside watched this on-line war for a moment and they banned both female,male hatred words. Users of mers gallery couldn’t  stand the ban. So they decided to create their own community.