KAI, JENNIE DATING?! [KNETZ REACTION] (early access)

I've heard conflicted reactions from the public. Following the news, the overall sentiment in regards to Jennie dating didn't seem too severe and was quite lukewarm. Some of the top comments wished for her happiness. Of course, there are going to be haters and critics of her actions but it feels like the impact that the news will have won't be as severe among the KR general public. Her KR fansites still remain intact and she's remained a pretty low profile other than wishing Jisoo a Happy Birthday the other day. I'd love to know if you're seeing the same sentiment from the KR k-pop general public. Do you think this will hurt Jennie or BLACKPINK from continuing their mainstream success in Korea?

I think this was like a good first draft. I do believe like your podcast more context would be better. Like when you talked about why some Koreans did side with Cube about the Edawn and Hyuna situation. Even though we may say Asian culture breeds this kind of behavior. There is not 1 culuture that has attack celebrities privacy. For example Rihanna domestic assault everyone had opinions. Or even Khloe Kardashians business about Tristan Thompson cheating. In the end my opinion is these people are still human. We all deserve privacy and no matter how i support a person they owe me nothing. I pay them to continue to make content that i enjoy. I can keep going but didnt want to make this any longer.

Francesca Bentancourt

Excellent points, Frank. I do think there is a unique cultural aspect to these kind of scandals/breaking contracts. If this happened in the US, Jennie could have easily sued her way out of it, as you said, precisely because it violates individual rights without regard to illegal activity.

Heather Fosth

There are contracts in the "West"/everywhere that have morality clauses. Which in principle aren't that much different. They are less invasive but it is the same principal idea of the company looking to protect its' image. One could use these as an analogy. In the US the most evident examples of this are athletes and some in the entertainment field that have been fired based on this clause. Usually it revolves around some actual illegal activity. Although recently sports organizations have sometimes terminated contracts before any illegal results have been confirmed by the justice system. Which is a significant change in attitude. They sometimes agree to a "buy-out" the contract BUT let the law-suits begin!

Frank Ansak

In terms of an in-depth look on this - one that could help “translate” the Korean Netizens response to an international community - is that there seems to be two main issues at play. One is privacy and the other is what I’ll call obligation. The two are tied but I’ll start with obligation because I think it’s closer to the root of the problem. Korean culture, along with other Asian cultures, have a value for obligation that Westerners traditionally don’t have. Several of the comments mention that BP only debuted 3 years ago. One comment specifically mentions the investment that YG made in Jennie’s career as a reprimand for Jennie supposedly breaking her contract. In Asian culture (and I am speaking generally) when older people invest in the success of younger people, younger people have an obligation to repay that investment by following through on their commitments and the path of “success” that was laid out for them. Westerners don’t really have an equivalent for this. We tend to think that an individual’s rights have the highest priority. The right of an individual to act in a way that he or she deems best supersedes the claims of family, community or corporate expectation. The movie “Rich, Young Asians” is an excellent example of this. As a Westerner, I think that a contract which requires a person to sign away their right to a personal life is an unethical and illegal contract. However, that perspective comes out of my own cultural context. This issue of obligation is related to privacy because when people justify the invasion of privacy, it is on the basis that these idols knew what they were signing up for. Thus, they have an obligation to submit to potentially uncomfortable scrutiny. That said, contrasting Korea’s larger disapproval of surveillance with the tactics of Dispatch would be an interesting and meaningful discussion.

Heather Fosth

Are these Idol mature enough at ages 12/13/14 (when many sign contracts) to realize they're signing their romantic & personal lives away? For an experienced adult (contractor) to DICTATE their every move for the next YEARS through 20's for some, is complete BS. There are too many thoughts around this? Overall, I'm pissed at reading some people's comments about this WOMAN and MAN. Some people/fans think they should dictate thier lives. #Puppeteers

ᴮᴱWhere there is hope, there are trials #Sea ⁷

Here's my take -- and I don't know how typical I am because DKDK is the only k-pop related content I consume besides actual k-pop and some label-created content (MVs, concert videos), mostly because every fandom is a cesspit and I have better things to do. So I don't know the context for any of this -- I don't know who Dispatch is, I don't know what they did, I don't know what the Blue House petition is and I don't know who the commenters are. (Obviously by now I have mostly figured it all out by context, but for me a little explainer at the beginning would have been useful.) And as Rafranz said, we come to you for context and commentary. TBQH I probably wouldn't read the comments on this post if it were on public YouTube because international fans are no more insightful than Korean fans. In summary, it is desperately hard to find intelligent discourse about kpop, and I should probably just pony up for a Chatroom membership. 😭

Amy Brown

I think the disclaimer might should have been first thing and VERY PROMINENT. Otherwise the format reminds me of those dramachannels that do the slideshows that I was talking about before. Seems kind of lazy/low hanging fruit-ish.

Lauren Freeman

I’ll be back! Just leave me a trail of crumbs to get back :)

Rafranz Davis

Yes good idea Rafranz. Totally agree we should speak in depth about the issues of Dispatch and dating bans. I guess this vid made out of my free time served a good purpose for insight after all! Thanks for your feedback. Hope you join the new group chat soon!

DKDKTV

I want to add something here since I’m not in the chat. I think that this video is beneath the quality of what you should be sharing. These comments have already been translated and tweeted countless times through the knetizens twitter account, pann and others. What’s missing here is why is matters or if it even does. Why does Dispatch get away with surveillance when your country is so against it? These two aren’t even from the same company and the fact that there’s a ban at all is insane for these grown adults. How does this compare to Edawn & Hyuna? Does it at all? How are women in the industry impacted over men? This video made me angry to see such idiotic responses regarding real human relationships and there in lies one of many things screwed about the Kpop industry...fans and their odd need to idolize to the point of denying basic needs. I think you can do so much more than this. That’s my opinion.

Rafranz Davis

Korea needs to grow up.

Rafranz Davis