Last week, a famous 2nd generation K-pop idol, Choi Jirin, often known by her nickname “Sulli” of the “f(x)” group, committed suicide at her house by hanging herself on the chandelier after a long time of suffering from depression. It was a shocking incident for the whole K-pop industry, which is evident that all other idols’ activities got frozen last week. The negative public sentiment is believed to be the main cause of her death, considering that she often has to deal with a lot of abusive language online coming from haters and non-fans who disagree with her lifestyle. Although Sulli turned 25 years old this year already, people still expect her to behave like a cute little doll knowing nothing, which used to be her image while she was still part of her group, f(x). In the recent TV show called Night of Hate Comment which Sulli joined as a host, she expressed that she got upset by the way people taught her how to live her life. She said that she felt annoyed when people only think of her as an unintelligent girl who did not attend university due to her busy schedule as an idol. Sulli said that she indeed did go to university, yet she hid that fact from the public so she can be treated like an ordinary student. After Sulli died, her old university friends, as well as her company – SM entertainment, have confirmed that they tried to protect Sulli while she studied university from the scrutiny of the press so that she could enjoy her university life.
However, with a fixed perception in mind of her as a beautiful but untalented person, most people often intepreted what she posted on social media as toxic and stupid, criticising her for those photos that are believed to be “out of her character” as a beautiful, innocent girl. On her Instagram, Sulli usually uploaded photos of herself wearing no bra. K-netizens strongly bashed her for doing so, saying that she was desperate for attention and in case she is sexually assaulted then that totally her fault for being braless. Despite her confession on the show about how she felt and how she dealth with all the random hate from K-netizens, people showed little empathy for her. It was not until she died that the whole society started grieving for her, re-evaluating their ethics and moral conduct in online communication. Only when she already died that people started remembering how a nice person she was, and she did nothing wrong and probably even promoted feminism by posting braless photos, empowering other Korean girls who are supposed to behave like traditional women in a strongly gender discriminating society like South Korea.
In order to understand the hate Sulli received and how she dealt with, I tried to put myself in her shoes by reading translated threads that criticised her braless photos. I was surprised by the abusive language and hate Sulli receives in the comment section. From the translated comments, I found out that beauty is something very important to a K-pop idol, which Olivia also points out in her understanding of K-pop idols. As Sulli fortunately fits in that “national” beauty of South Korea, she is pressured to behave like the “imagined” person the public generates from her looks. South Korean people in particular and Asians in general seem to frequently take the external beauty as the inner ones, which represent the mind and soul of people. Sulli’s face is often likened to fresh fruit, specifically the peach, as her smile always looks so bright and innocent. IU, another famous singer in the K-pop industry, once even composed a song called “Peach” and said that the whole song is about the beauty of Sulli. As Sulli was framed as an innocent child, she was forced by the public to maintain her image, despite that she needs not to be the role model of anyone considering that she left f(x) – stopped being an idol – and began having a “rebellious” time by dating someone. When the dating news was confirmed, the public reacted quite negatively to the relationship, saying that she was too young and naive to have a boyfriend although she was 19 years old.
The public, especially K-netizens, acts as if they can become the judge to sentence the life of K-pop idols. While Sulli’s death is a prime case how negative public sentiment could drive idols to death, many other idols and idols-to-be, namely trainees, face the same risks of depression and suicidal actions. Recently, Taeyeon of the once famous national girl group Girl’s Generation (SNSD), shared that she is coping with depression. Taeyeon is one of the female idols that receives massive hate from the public for ridiculous reasons, in which one refers to the fact that she comes from one of the most popular girl groups (more fans more anti-fans), and the second relates to her dating a member of the top boy group EXO. These cases reveal that the public seems to be harsher on female artists, especially with dating news, compared to male artists. When scandals or negative sentiment arises, very often a large number of fans of female idols will leave the fandom rather than defend their idols like how they fight for male idols. This is because fangirls are more loyal and dedicated than fanboys. While fangirls often follow male idols, paying more attention to the talent of idols, fanboys who idolise female artists only embrace the well-curated image companies built for their female idols. Such tendencies show how much gender discrimination the South Korean society has towards women, leading to the mental abuse of idols in the K-pop industry.