Idols think twice about their every move during election season

K-pop

Published: 15 Mar. 2022, 15:56 Updated: 15 Mar. 2022, 17:47

Idols think twice about their every move during election season

Karina and Winter of girl group aespa dressed in achromatic colors from head to toe and didn't show their hands in photos posted on their social media accounts — a measure to avoid any colors or hand gestures that may have political meaning. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Korea's 20th presidential election came to an end last week after intense competition. From early voting on March 4 and 5 to election day on March 9, it was an anxiety-inducing week for not only Korean politics but also K-pop idols who had to think twice about their hand gestures and even the color of emojis they posted.

In the days following early voting and election day, many K-pop idol stars uploaded photos of themselves on social media after casting their votes, as many celebrities do to encourage voter turnout.

Celebrities encouraging people to vote is not controversial, but it becomes a different story if any small detail in such photos is perceived to hint at the star's political stance. Korea's highly divided politics means even allegedly showing support for one candidate or party can lead to backlash from fervent supporters of the other side.

Candidate Yoon Suk-yeol won Korea's 20th presidential election by a slim margin. [JOONGANG ILBO, NATIONAL ELECTION COMMISSION]

For that reason, many K-pop stars were seen doing their best to avoid anything that could be interpreted as a political statement. They were cautious not to use the color blue or red — whether it be an article of clothing or an emoji — as blue represents the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and red represents the main opposition People Power Party (PPP). Similar colors such as light blue or pink were also avoided.

On the first day of early voting, Dayoung of girl group WJSN turned on the black-and-white filter during a livestream session after some fans poked fun at her pink shirt. No one seriously suggested it was a political statement, but Dayoung conducted the rest of the livestream with the filter on. Go Won of girl group Loona, after casting her early vote, messaged fans on fan community app Fab telling them to "Have a nice day" with white heart emojis. When one fan noticed and asked if she chose "colorless" hearts because of the election, she replied, "Ha ha ha, wow, how did you know?"

Dayoung of girl group WJSN turned on the black-and-white filter during a livestream session after some fans poked fun at her pink shirt. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Go Won of girl group Loona, after casting her early vote, messaged fans on fan community app Fab telling them to "Have a nice day" with white heart emojis to avoid using any political party's symbol color. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Kihyun of boy band Monsta X messaged fans on fan community app Universe that he likes the color green recently, then immediately added, "Does the color green have something to do with politics? I'm being careful. I broke out in a cold sweat for a moment."

Colors weren't the only thing stars were cautious about. K-pop idols were careful not to do anything associated with the number 1 or 2, because presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung of the DP and Yoon Suk-yeol of the PPP were respectively designated as candidate 1 and 2. In particular, hand gestures such as a thumbs up or the peace sign were avoided.

Yoon Jae-hyuk of boy band Treasure was caught on camera initially making a peace sign, they hurriedly switching to a thumbs up before finally settling with a simple clenched fist. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Yoon Jae-hyuk of boy band Treasure was caught on camera initially making a peace sign, they hurriedly switching to a thumbs up before finally settling with a simple clenched fist. His eyes were shaking throughout the short clip, which Korean netizens described as "funny yet sad."

Some idol group members were seen physically stopping each other from making hand gestures, and many held back from lifting their hands at all. Karina and Winter of girl group aespa and Joohoney of Monsta X dressed in achromatic colors from head to toe and didn't show their hands in photos posted on their social media accounts.

Joohoney of Monsta X dressed in achromatic colors and didn't show his hands in photos posted on his social media account. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

K-pop idols tend to stay out of politics, but the extra caution observed during this election may have had something to do with the backlash Heechul of Super Junior faced. The boy band member was seen casting his early vote wearing a pink mask, red slippers and making the peace sign.

Many accused him of expressing support for the PPP candidate Yoon with his red clothing and hand gesture. Some expressed disdain toward the general idea of K-pop idols being "political," even subtly, while others defended Heechul, saying that everyone is entitled to freedom of expression.

Koreans celebrities receiving criticism for allegedly making an indirect political statement is nothing new. In the past, stars have been criticized for the color of their hats, clothes and even nail polish on election days. Those controversies usually involved comedians, actors and non-idol singers, but last week's election was different.

Heechul of Super Junior was accused of supporting candidate Yoon after the boy band member was seen casting his early vote wearing a pink mask, red slippers and making the peace sign. [ILGAN SPORTS]

"K-pop idols are strongly expected to be non-political beings," said Lee Gyu-tag, a professor of pop music and media studies at George Mason University Korea.

"Koreans don't care as much when rappers, rock singers or independent musicians reveal their political opinions. But idols are expected to have the virtue of being pure and detached from worldly issues. Idols have been increasingly vocal about general social issues like the environment or racism. But mentioning something that is directly a point of contention in domestic politics is still frowned upon."

But the public reaction was not this intense even during the previous 2017 presidential election, which took place after President Park Geun-hye was impeached following a major corruption scandal and huge wave of candlelight protests. Why were so many K-pop idols embroiled in controversy this time around?

Members of boy band Treasure clench their fists to pose during Korea's 2022 presidential election season. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

"The previous presidential election happened after an impeachment, so there was this sort of perception on who's 'good' and 'bad,'" Prof. Lee said. "As a result, President Moon Jae-in won by a sizeable margin. Things don't get as heated when one side receives significantly more support. A similar case was the 2020 legislative election, in which the DP took 180 National Assembly seats [out of 300]."

President Moon received 41.08 percent votes in 2017 while the runner-up received 24.03 percent. This year, the winning candidate Yoon earned 48.56 percent of votes and the runner-up Lee earned 47.83 percent. The margin was so slim that there were more invalid ballots (307,542) than the difference in votes for Yoon and Lee (247,077). In fact, this year's presidential election was dubbed the "unlikeable election" because both of the top two candidates had their fair share of controversies.

"This time, the country was divided almost exactly in half," continued Prof. Lee. "No candidate was seen as clearly good or bad. The intense competition and lack of anything resembling a consensus led the public to become especially heated, to the point of condemning people for wearing blue or red. This election also involved heated arguments about gender issues, so who you voted for basically implied what you think about gender [equality]. Idols wouldn't want to touch on such sensitive topic. They don't have much to gain by revealing their opinions."

Hani of girl group EXID's now-deleted Instagram post after she cast her vote [SCREEN CAPTURE]

But that didn't stop people from reading into minor details. Singer Jeon Somi faced criticism for posting an Instagram story with a red background to announce that she voted. She later explained that the color was from her hand covering the camera lens. Hani, or Ahn Hee-yeon, of girl group EXID was lambasted by some after she wrote on Instagram "It was really difficult this time," because "this time" sounds the same as "No. 2" in Korean. Ahn eventually deleted the post.

As idols strived to remain politically neutral, a photo of rapper Defconn at the polls wearing a jacket with five different colors went viral. Although he is not a K-pop idol, his "safe choice" of clothing captured the cautious atmosphere among Korean celebrities.

"People were very emotionally invested because this election was so overheated, as seen by the slim margin," said pop culture critic Jeong Deok-hyun. "Many people took out their emotions on celebrities, which happens a lot when it comes to other social issues simply because stars are visible to the public."

As idols strived to remain politically neutral, a photo of rapper Defconn at the polls wearing a jacket with five different colors went viral. Although he is not a K-pop idol, his "safe choice" of clothing captured the cautious atmosphere among Korean celebrities. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Another notable phenomenon seen during this election was that young fans of K-pop idols, including those under the voting age of 18, were a large part of political debates online. Teens have been viewed as indifferent to politics, but that no longer seems to be the case. Many posts on social media threads and online communities popular among younger generations speculated about idols' political stances, which led to heated arguments.

"Young Koreans, including teens, who are the main fan base of K-pop idols, have become increasingly interested in politics," Jeong said. "They also vocalize their strong opinions, although they aren't old enough to vote. Meanwhile, idols in similar age ranges still don't talk about politics, so fans turn to speculating online."

Lee and Jeong warned against reading too much into supposed political clues from idols, but said this sentiment will likely continue into the local and by-elections set for June 1.

"Even if an idol openly expresses their political opinions, it's immature to condemn that," said Jeong. "They have the right to express their opinions like any voter does.

"But if we're seeing teenagers argue about who idols voted for, it shows how serious the divide is. As of now, we're not really seeing a solution for it, and we'll probably see this phenomenon again in June."

BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]