just-1-brain

[just-1-brain]

My Thoughts About the Comments that I Saw on the Beginning of the Year

I know that the b*ll* accussations toward Mingyu ended a long time ago (which I hope that for most CARATs that experience is now nothing than just a bad memory), and it’s not my intention bring that topic back but I wanted to express my opinions about those comments that people were making during that painful period…

• “This is why we should never trust in any idol since we don’t know how are they behind cameras…”

Honestly I feel it and see it like people think that the only persons who will dissapoint you will be celebrities when actually that level of dissapointment can make it EVERYONE, a celebrity that you admire or a lovely one that you have much appreciation and trust toward him/her; so I see very unfair just label the idols and celebrities as the only people who will hurt you or disappoint you.

• “Idols just shows what they want us to see on them…”

I also don’t think that it’s too different when you meet someone face-to-face/as a person; since we always show what we want to show to people; either if you want to show and prove to people that you are humble, that you have talent, that you are generous, loyal, honest, funny, etc.

Or when you have a crush on someone ¿You don’t fix your hair, clothes or you put a little of makeup or in the case of men, shave yourself a little bit for “show” a good image or impression in front of that person? And if you’re someone who wouldn’t do that and show yourself just the way you are then it’s the same, you want to “show” your true self whether it’s your intention or not.

Know someone face-to-face it’s like the camera that we only see on idols when they are on a TV show or in a live video, that maybe in that moment he or she is showing what he/she want you to see on him/her; the things is believe that they have a good side, that they are good people and showing good actions from the heart ♥️, and not showing that with the purpose for hide the bad things or for being justified when you do something bad…

[just-1-brain]

Wonwoo’s “Curry Song” situation...

This is a post where I’m going to give my point of view in a neutral mode about a situation that happened long time ago...

• Explanation

Let’s start from the beginning, SVT is a K-pop boy band of South Korea who is one of the most popular and respected boy groups of the industry; the boys have their own segments called “Going SVT” since 2017, which started as Vlogs and behind the scenes of MVs and fanmeetings of the boys for then turn them into funny segments were the staff put them funny challenges and funny situations.

But Monday, July 13 of 2020 was the beginning of the following controversy when “Going SVT” aired, the segment of this time was called “Ad-lib: Seventeen’s Got Talent”, which was a parody of America’s Got Talent and the members (excluding Seungkwan, S. Coups and Jeonghan) had to show an ability depending on the role that they picked randomly, the situation was that if some member laughed the low frequency massage was going to be active (normally those things are attached on the arm but in this segment the low frequency massages were in their shoulders).

When it was Wonwoo’s turn his role was being “Painless Guy”, a man with the ability of endure hits like a rock, and he wrote jokingly that one of his specialties was “singing while looking around Seoul” and that he can do higher notes better, but of course that when the members asked him which song he prepared for show his ability he said “Curry” by Norazo (which you can imagine, it was the beginning of the controversy); even if he sang two words of the song (Because one of the members Hoshi was pulling his sideburns for test him), the people still pointed out the situation.

The reason why that song was and it’s still such a big deal is because that song was considered r*cist since it was very stereotypical and offensive toward Indian culture on every aspect, from the MV, from the dance, from the clothes and from the lyrics.

And because of that, many Indian fans felt disappointed and sad that someone like Wonwoo chose a song that mocks their culture; which some people, especially haters, didn’t think twice and go bashing and insult him saying that he was insensitive toward Indian culture and other cruel things by him choosing the song.

Now, something that I wanted to do is give my point of view of this situation being neutral (meaning that not insult him but also not being biased) also I’ll not difame Wonwoo or the members no matter what because I’m not like that so the fans don’t have to be worry...

• The Wrong Ways that Some Fans Defended Wonwoo

Now, some fans tried to find justice with their own hands to defend Wonwoo and make understand the people that it wasn’t his intention, but if course there were ways that wasn’t the correct ones, that their intentions were in a good place but the path for nail that was not the right ones.

Let’s start with the haters, now, some haters are like vultures flying over the members (maybe even over the fans too) for seeing a false step and taking that false step on their favor to put them in a bad light; people generalize that their reason for hate is the same when actually the accurate reason is unknown since most of the haters have different reasons for hate someone, we can’t assure that the reason is the same; some of them will hate them by a personal reason (Ex: because of them my certain group couldn’t won the prize/wasn’t invited to the program, because of their popularity the group that I was rooting for disbanded, etc.), some of them even just share their opinion no matter how hurtful or negative is (Ex: Hoshi is so ugly, this member doesn’t do a difference on the group, etc.), some of them will just write horrible things just for reveal the worst in one, and some of them just like to share deep information that they know (no matter if it’s positive or negative for their image). Yes, they’re starting a turf war writing offensive things toward the members, but if you continue the war with another offensive responses (Ex: “Attention seeker!”, “Get a life!”, “you’re so deaf or blind if you think that they’re music, dance or visuals are bad or horrible”, “you seriously need help”, “you’re so dumb”, etc.), it’s better leave and let that hater’s insult the first and the last comment.

The people who was defending Wonwoo also said that he just sang two lines of the song which was “shanti shanti”, but unfortunately for the fans/defenders, the haters can easily contradict that excuse; the fans have a disadvantage here, and it’s that every hater can go to the video and see and analyze the clip by themselves, and the fans knows exactly that in the segment, he couldn’t end singing the chorus of the song by the pain of the sideburns that Hoshi was making him pass. Meaning that in the end, if Wonwoo would manage the pain of the sideburns, he would even sing the WHOLE chorus.

Another point that some fans made to defend him toward the people who were criticizing him was telling that he was not the only idol who sang that song (I didn’t saw a lot which is good), that also “Oh My Girl!”, A.C.E and the members Suyeon and Elly of “Weki Meki” also sang that song and sang the whole chorus or even the whole song. But fans did not a bad move or a good move by using that excuse, that was a DIRTY MOVE; see, the last thing you have to do in a situation like this is drag other people to a problem you’re trying to fix and make understand the people who are misunderstanding the situation; I understand that the intention was for compare the gravity of it, saying that Wonwoo just sang two words meanwhile other groups/idols sang the entire song for then say why he’s the one who’s getting bashed when other groups did it worse and their impact wasn’t that strong compared to Wonwoo’s. This is a situation where it has to be just the fandom and group, I know that it pisses of that the people just point to Wonwoo but no one else outside of it have to be in the discussion, and if the haters bring those groups to the situation, well, their fandom, the persons who know their group better than anyone, will try to explain them their reasons as we are doing with Wonwoo.

Another point that some fans did wrong was saying that Wonwoo didn’t have to apologize because it was an accident; Now, I’m also one of the fans who believes that it was an accident but… Let’s make this situation, you’re in a hurry with a coffee cup in hand, and by the lack of attention you drop your coffee cup into someone who is a stranger, of course that some people in a situation like that apologize immediately; but here’s the thing, you’re apologizing not because you did it unintentionally, you’re apologizing because you made someone pass a bitter and disgusting moment by a mistake that you made. It’s the same with Wonwoo, that maybe he sang the song with no intention of offend anybody but his mistake made the fans (especially the Indian CARATs) passed for a bitter moment and felt offended by the song, especially heard it from someone like Wonwoo.

• The Ways that the Fans Could Defended Wonwoo Correctly

If I have to give appaluse for is to the fans who decided to immediately email PLEDIS (SVT’s company) about that the song was wrong and request them to remove the clip from the episode for not cause more harm to Wonwoo (that in the light of this day the reason why the direction staff or PLEDIS never removed that clip is not known).

But let’s just say that PLEDIS doesn’t do anything for clear the situation and you’re forced to clear a possible misunderstanding by yourself, what would you do for clear it?

Now, this is the part where I should go to the clip and analyze the details of it and see if he really did something wrong on a reasonable mode, also do the same with the same MV and lyrics of the “Curry song” for see why the song is r*cist, since most people stop analyze when they see that something or someone is r*cist but never thinks why is r*cist; also do the same with the comments who are not insulting him but thinking that he knew what he was doing and that he sang it on purpose, and search comments of people from India and see ¿why the song it’s offensive? Since I’m not someone who is an expert about Indian culture I have to search why it’s offensive toward Indian culture. When I have to do that, I have to put aside my favoritism and think and analyze it with logic but also not forgetting the good things that Wonwoo had made on the past.

Let’s start with the people who were saying that the lyrics were perfectly in Korean so he should know what the song was saying; okay, that’s a valid point but believe it or not, there’s enough objective logic here to contradict that comment, and it was that if people read the lyrics in a detailed way, the song is not informative meaning it’s a song that just throws random words in hindi and random places of India as it were nothing (one of the factors that makes this song r*cist). The song it’s not telling that “Namaste” is a spiritual greeting or that “Taj Mahal” is a really important place of India (mentioning that is one of the 7 wonders of this world) or that “shanti” is a word that is used by Hindu prayers for peace; meaning that if it was true that Wonwoo didn’t knew ANYTHING about the true beautiful image of the Indian culture, not even from movies aside from this song and he didn’t thought in search the meanings (probably thinking that it were simple words in Hindi and the idea that it was words with deeper meanings never crossed on to his mind), this means that he didn’t knew that “Namaste” or “Shanti” were important words of India; if the song had lines clearly doing direct insults to the hindi words, their cultural costumes or the Taj Mahal then that comment would had been valid but it’s not; yes, the song is wrong and offensive but not because they’re doing direct insults, it’s wrong because it’s very stereotypical and (without intention as the original singers stated on their apology letter) mocking toward the Indian culture. It’s written in Wonwoo’s native language (Korean) but that song it’s not informing him that those words or places are important on the Indian culture and made him misunderstand them as simple words in Hindi. So using the excuse that the lyrics are in Korean and that he had to know that the song was wrong from the beginning using the song as a base for notice that is kind unfair.

Another point of that was that some people even said that “he should had known that the song and MV were stereotyping India, I mean, he just had to see it for realize that!”, but here’s the thing, for know if a song is stereotyping a culture you have to know first the REAL image and story of that culture for realize that, the question is: how he was going to notice that the song was stereotyping Indian culture when there’s a chance that he didn’t knew the real image of the Indian culture? And less if he didn’t had idea that the “Curry” song was a fake image of India? Doing the excuse that he has to recognize that by just seeing the MV seems really unfair, it’s like putting someone to play “find the differences of this two images” but that person can’t because he/she doesn’t have the other image for find them, and less if the image that they had was the edited one and worst thinking that it’s the real image.

I remember found few posts saying that “if they’re going to be famous internationally, they should learn first the cultures of the countries”, making people think that if they do that they will not have more mistakes about the differences of cultures and costumes of another country; I know that there’s chances of them not make mistakes related to the differences of the cultures and costumes, it’ll make them experts but never perfects. Meaning that even the most expert can do mistakes no matter how many knowledge he or she has, if I wanted the idols learn the cultures of a foreign country is for them see the unique and awesome beauty of every country that their fans live rather than for evade cultural problems.

Also that we have to realize that Wonwoo was between 13-14 years old when that song was created, I believe that’s the most ironic thing of all of this, when you see that someone on stage sings or a friend sings or hears a song less it crosses to your mind that is a song that is wrong.

• Conclusion

The lesson of this controversy is what the lack of information can play against us, also about what many misunderstandings can do if we don’t search the meanings deeply; the knowledge is a useful weapon for life that unfortunately Wonwoo didn’t had on that situation, but that maybe now he has thanks to the fans who instead of “cancel” him, explained him why the song was wrong and hope that he can acknowledge that.

Being smart and being someone who knows everything are two different things, and not everyone on this earth knows EVERYTHING and Wonwoo and the rest of the members are included; also us we know perfectly that also we don’t know everything either, we are Einsteins and experts in some areas but on other ones we are like babies starting to learn.

I also imagined knowing how caring S. Coups, Jeonghan and Seungkwan are with the members, in some way I was worried that they felt guilty on those times by pushing Wonwoo so far just for get a scream from him, imagining themselves that if they had never pushed Wonwoo that far, he would not have had to sing the song he chose and with that had a comfortable birthday Vlive (yeah, his birthday is July 17 and the controversy happened on July 13); it’s supposed that every birthday have to be better than the last one, it’s sad that his 24th birthday (25 on Korean age) didn’t happened like that, but as fans we have to move on and hope that his next birthdays will be a happy party. If I have to see this in a positive way, if he hadn’t made that mistake someone else would, and now some rookies or seniors can learn that the song was wrong and not make the same mistake thanks to Wonwoo’s experience.

For the CARATs (especially for some Indian CARATs) who were hurt by the controversy, have the freedom of feel what you have to feel about the situation; I never thought that the Indian CARATs were sensitive toward this situation, since I would had felt disappointed and offended too if there’s someone mocking and stereotyping my culture too. It’s true that Wonwoo still owes you an apology, I hope that if he do a apology letter, a apology video or shares that experience on a TV program in months or even years after the situation people can accept his apology and don’t think that he is too late for that.

And my personal opinion is that like many fans, I also believe that he didn’t sang it on purpose or without the intention of hurt someone; since seriously, ¿what benefit he was going to get if he really made those actions with the purpose of hurt Indian fans and show r*c*sm? You don’t think that seeing him sang those few lines calmly and with no fear was more evident that he didn’t knew that the song was offensive toward Indian culture? If he really is like that of course he would hide it from the public and not expose it just like that, knowing that his career as idol would end the next day.

And those haters who thrown hate toward Wonwoo telling him ignorant and also insensitive with the Indian culture, they weren’t realizing that they did the same with him; being ignorants about how actually Wonwoo is and being insensitives about how he was going to react watching those harsh comments, and MORE when his birthday was in the corner...