Minho and foods

Ah so I should preface this by saying I feel a little weird about getting involved in this but it's getting out of hand. So as a few of you may know a pretty epic twitter mess started a few days ago over the account called Minho and foods on twitter. I asked around because I was initially majorly confused about what was going on and hopefully we can try and lay down an explanation for why this got so crazy so quick.


A few weeks ago a fan started an account where they tweeted pictures comparing Minho to food. And it was cute. It really was. The photos of Minho being compared to a chocolate bar and oreos were super adorable and I'll admit to following the account. So when a big Minho fansite retweeted a request to help have the account banned I was a little confused.

I'm not saying it's right, but it's extremely common for Korean fans to rally together to have an account banned if they're doing things to damage SHINee's reputation. And a lot of the time it's a practice I wholly support, because usually it's done with good intentions.

And in this case I can see why K-fans are upset. The facebook side of the online Korean fan community is rather different from twitter, just as it is in English speaking online communities. There's actually a huge amount of disdain and anti sentiment for kpop idols and, by default, SHINee themselves on the facebook side of things. So when someone found the Minho and foods twitter account and screenshot all of the tweets and uploaded them on a facebook designed to post humorous content, it was bad news for Minho and SHAWols. Because 308 shares, 17,029 likes and 1,314 comments later (at the time of writing) this post has gotten a lot of attention. It's gaining speed and spreading as I type. And it's not necessarily nice attention. It's opened a forum for anti's and people who don't have any respect or affection for SHINee to attack and slander Minho. And while this is 1000% not the original twitter owners fault nor intention, I'm sure, it's what's brought the K-fandoms wraith down on her. 

Because honestly, while the cookie and sweet comparisons between Minho and food were really really cute, it's the comparison of Minho to a chewed piece of gum and a pig that's getting all the attention. Even the comparison of Minho's armpits to coconuts isn't all that flattering. The facebook account that posted the photos wrote:

어느 아이돌 팬의 트위터.jpg

아 진짜 개웃곀ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

An Idol fan's twitter
ah this is freaking funny lolololololololol

And in the comments sections a lot of Korean fans questioned whether the Minho and foods account was really owned by a fan and not an anti-fan. Because this kind of comparison can be seen as insulting and not funny. Really really insulting. My students at school go around calling each other a pig and it's honestly very mean and cruel of them. It comes down to a difference in what people find funny and what they find offensive and a huge variety of cultural contexts, I'm sure. It's even a common argument that crops up in a given country's comedy scene. What crosses the line between funny and offensive? Unfortunately a lot of Koreans in the comment section, chose to read the intended humor very offensively. And if you think about it, who particularly wants to be compared to a pig or a chewed piece of gum?  

That said, I had a discussion a long time ago with a friend about the Korean fandom's impulse to shoot first and ask questions later. Unfortunately, just like the English speaking online community, the Korean speaking community have people with fiery tempers and too fast a trigger reflex. Some tend to respond emotionally and where I know I prefer that someone hand me a logical argument over an emotional rant, unfortunately a few Korean fans chose to resort to badly written English threats and swears to convey their message. What someone should have done was calmly approach the girl who owns the twitter and explain why they're so upset. Before starting attempts to have her blocked. And by involving Minho fansites, who have literally thousand of followers who religiously follow 'fansite onni's' every command, this has become unnecessarily big. And the reason that is, is because amongst the Korean fandom at the moment, there's now some doubt cropping up over whether Minho and foods account is run by an anti-fan. In the comments on the original Korean language facebook post, like I said, everyone is convinced that the person who posted the comparisons must be an anti and not a fan. And what do we do to anti-fans in fandom? We become a little childishly mean and borderline crazy in our defense of SHINee. 

The mentality that the Korean fans have is that the Minho and foods account has essentially become a weapon that anti's can use against SHINee, regardless of whether it has good intentions. I see a lot of English speaking fans defending the Minho foods account by saying that antis are going to find ways to hate regardless and you're right, but I think maybe if we can limit the material we hand to them it might be best. Also, in this case, it's not antis deliberately twisting the purpose of Minho and foods, it's a bunch of ignorant morons on facebook reading the intended message incorrectly. I say this in the nicest way possible, because I really don't have any resentment for the Minho and foods girl, but the comparison between Minho and chewed gum and a pig isn't funny on any level to Korean fans. It's very hurtful. Even I feel a little upset by it. This is a cultural gap that we as fans of  a Korean group need to deal with in small ways every day of our fandom life. There's a cultural gap between what is humorous to Korean fans and English speaking fans and even just a plain old gap in opinion. Because I know a lot of people will disagree with me about how offensive this is. Furthermore this material has been taken off twitter in it's original English speaking context and put on a Korean facebook page, where the Korean general public are now slandering Minho. And it hurts right? Doesn't it really fucking hurt us as fans to see people slandering and mocking SHINee and especially Minho, who is nothing but lovely and kind always? So I think it was wrong of the K fans and everyone who followed their lead in slandering and swearing at Minho and foods and I wish someone had taken the time to explain to her the context for why they were so angry. Because they had every right to be upset, they just perhaps chose the wrong way to go about resolving the situation.

Basically SOME Korean fans were absolute jerks about this whole thing. But there were certainly just as many English speaking fans who were being jerks about it too. Moral of the story is don't be a jerk. If you have a problem with someone or even if the K fans have a problem with someone and you happen to agree with them, don't swear and lash out. Because no ones going to be inclined to agree with you if you throw out death threats and don't give reasons. I saw a lot of English tweets saying some pretty horrible things to Minho and foods, so I-fans are guilty as well. I can't do much about the Korean speaking fandom, but I can say something to English speakers.

Minho and foods got a lot of unnecessary abuse from people and a lot of it is because the general conception among the K-public is that Minho and food is an anti-fan. But I'd ask whoever is responsible for the account, not for the sake of Korean fans, but for the sake of Minho and SHINee, be very careful about what you post. I can't make you delete the account and I'd be a self righteous asshole if I asked you to, but at least consider erasing the content that's causing so much distress. Because seeing random assholes amongst the Korean public, who have no idea what a lovely, beautiful person Minho is, laughing and shaming him by comparing him to a pig and chewed gum is a pretty horrible feeling. Which is why SOME of the k fandom lashed out like they did. 

As for everyone else, unfortunately all we can do is not engage in fandom warfare. Even if you see someone saying something horribly ignorant, please ignore it. Ignore the K-fans AND the I-fans that succumb to childishness and please let's not let this become another stain on the relationship between SHAWols. If you feel like you have to do something, it's entirely up to you whether you wish to report Minho and foods as a spam account; it really comes down to how you feel personally about this whole thing.