favoritism in kpop is fair

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[midnightmoka]

Okay but Haram ate. Her stage presence 🤍✨
Edit: why in the world are you kids talking about Liz? I know that she's an issue right now but not everything is about her.

[fish-tastes-eww]

I've never thought about it that way, but you're right. Every member should get their time to shine, but if you bring more to the group you should be given more attention.

[mjdm]

While I agree with you in theory, in reality WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES!! You have to remember that we only see what goes on when the cameras are rolling, we don’t see how many auditions or modeling gigs they’re trying to book or how many vocal/dance lessons these idols are putting themselves thru, not to mention the content they might be trying to produce but are rejected by their managers. To say that some idols work harder than others is a GRAVE overestimation of how much we’re actually exposed to as fans. It’s just like how in the dance industry it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you’re not under an agency you’re not going to find out about auditions. You could be the most talented dancer but you won’t be able to get your face out there unless an agency books you.

[onceinamillion]

But I believe this also creates a lot of tension among the group members which is sad....we know abt Miss A. Suzy was THE IT girl at the time so with this logic, you could say it was fair that JYP was giving a lot of attention to her and she shined the most as she brought in the most fans and money. But her members have come out and talked abt how it affected them which kinda led to their disbandment. Ig it is fair in a way but it's also really unfortunate

[LaurenPebble]

I think it’s fair for members that bring more to the table to get more attention from the company, as long as the company isn’t denying the other members opportunities; like say if one member wants to go on a particular show but they don’t let that member do the show, but if the popular member wants to do the same show then they’re allowed to. Or if the popular member is popular because of their vocals/dance/stage presence/etc. the other members aren’t discouraged from practicing and improving their own skills.

[CR-ugbe]

First thing in my mind when I watched the video was the Miss A situation. It isn't Suzy's fault that she is so beautiful that she received so many CF offers and job bookings with her taking any opportunity given to her. She made Miss A more known, being more popular than Miss A itself, even if all the members are extremely talented in their own right.

[sapphia]

One time, wonyoung said that she was the one who learned the dances the fastest. People were straight up hating saying she was being bossy and all. See the members who are said to favoured like karina, jennie, mia, heejin, wonyoung, etc contribute a lot to the group by bringing in brand deals, being centers, etc. To think they are hated for that solo reason boils me

[kirampd]

I disagree. Only promoting your most popular members from the get go is like putting all your eggs in one basket. Someone who is popular in one era could quickly lose popularity in the next one. Over popularity and hype also can have a negative backfire effect on that member and the group as a whole. Anything could happen from a nasty rumour to the popular member moving on solo to a different company leaving the group in dust.

It's best to work on giving each member a chance to shine and raise the group's brand reputation as a whole.

[tyongsbith]

The issue with unfairness comes when companies discriminate against their idols for something like ethnicity, for example SM not promoting Chinese/Japanese idols even when they’re the member of the group that brings in the most fans, revenue, public attention, etc

Not to mention the fact that it’s so common for one of the most talented members of the group (especially vocally) to get zero lines, like yeah maybe they’re not the most popular member but if they’re the one they can do the best job then they deserve a chance to do it

[weejuevah]

I fully agree with you. Demanding equal treatment when not every member contributes equally isn’t about fairness. It’s about stans who can’t accept that their bias may not contribute as much as some of the other members.

By the way, I see that you’re getting into these loops lol and I can’t deny that I also think that they’re fun

[lavistelle]

I don't think this reasoning always works. Many times the company starts favoring an idol since debut and the idol gets pushed so much that obviously they become the most well known and popular, but that's super unfair. Karina and Winter were pushed since the beginning, especially Karina, and they became the most popular. Would have been the same without the favoritism? Maybe, but who knows.
Also it gives less chances for the less popular/less talented members to become more popular. Why have a group if you only care about 1 member?
Not to mention how favoritism can create tension inside the group. These people are young and have to live together. Often they all work hard and then their company just focuses on one or two members. It can breed resentement, idols are humans after all.

Also I think there are different types of favoritism. Sometimes the most talented member or the center like Mia or Yeonjun or Jk get the most attention and it makes sense. They attract fans.
Even better when members like Soyeon who produces all the songs... of course she is going to give herself a lot of lines and screentime, she is the reason why Gidle still exists.
Then there are the companies who simply favors the visual or the popular member. It makes sense for the visual to have a lot of screentime in the mv, but why must they sing half the song if their voice sucks?
I think visuals and popular members should be favored in brand deals or screentime, but not center time in the choreo or lines, because it makes no sense.

Like, you were the one saying the winner of a survival show shouldn't be the center of the group if they suck (and I kinda of agree). But the center usually IS the most popular and the one who brings the most fans and so with this reasoning they should be getting much more attention than the other members. If they get more attention they probably end up with a lot of lines and center time. So the reasoning is flawed
Companies can't treat everyone equally, but they should treat idols fairly. Otherwise just take the two members you like and don't debut an entire group. There are many groups where everyone get to shine even if one member is pushed a little more, so there are no excuses for the most extreme forms of favoritism.

[ijustusethisaccounttocomme]

Honestly I disagree with this one. Firstly just because one member is more popular doesn't mean they put in more effort, often they are just the prettiest, have a likable personality or have a nice sounding (but not always well trained) voice.
I also don't think that practically there is one member who usually deserves more lines. How often do we see one member with the best dancing, stage presence, singing, rapping and popularity? Skills tend to be split up along the group (not always, but often) so it usually isn't actually 'fair' to give one member more spotlight is everything. Put the most popular member in the center sure, but they don't need the chorus lines, screentime, dance break and *everything* too.
Also, I just think it creates a negative feedback loop. One member is more popular, so they get more lines, so they become more popular, so they bring in more money, so they get more projects and go on more shows, so they are even more popular and bring in even more money. Meanwhile a member is less popular, they appear less, bring in less fans/ revenue, get features less etc.etc. Companies get to control which member brings the most money in by deciding who to give the most opportunities to and with the right promotion pretty much any idol could be popular.
I agree that putting in more work should be rewarded, but I just don't think it's as simple as one idol *choosing* to do more. I think they are often just given more opportunities and so are seen to be doing more. These idols don't choose to go on shows, do photoshoots etc themselves, their agencies book these roles for them.
Now, if these is an extremely unskilled member, I do think they should get less lines, but being featured in MVs, going on shows etc can all still be done. The company can give them training rather than leaving them in the dust.


This isn't my best writing /argument but I'm not about to write my dissertation in a youtube short comment section lmao. Hopefully at least one of my points makes sense - it may be hypothetically fair in theory but in practice I just don't think it actually is.

[winter_gaeul_fan]

Haram slayed that pink hair, she slayed this era!

[angelakiprevski]

This is true but another thing that I often wonder is how talented are certain idols, since their pushed into certain "roles". As in, some singers are regulated to pre-chorus or they only sing higher sections but then we find out they can actually belt or their lower registry is well-developed? I think favoritsm is usually fair, but companies should give idols platforms to express their own talents outside of their roles groups (idk if i explained myself well but yeah)

[sarendipity]

I think it really depends on what each member brings. For example, in TXT (I know that is a smaller group so it’s harder to single out one or two members because that’s like a big part of the group) but like Yeonjun and Soobin are the most popular members in TXT (and with YJ it’s easy to see how he’s pushed compared to other members) but Taehyun and Huening Kai (typically the least popular members), arguably are the stronger vocalists and really end up carrying some of the songs. And Beomgyu is probably one of the more outgoing members in variety shows and is often as the center because of his visuals. Again, it’s a lot harder to determine with a smaller group with TXT where each member does bring a unique feature to the group and it’s not as easy just to fill in someone else.

I guess another “flaw” in the logic is that if you push an already popular member to be more popular and gain more exposure, and don’t provide little to any exposure to the less popular members… then what’s the point of having the less popular member in the group in the first place if you (as a company) aren’t going to waste resources to make them more popular? At that point, you’re just hoping that they become more popular for some arbitrary reason, because like I pointed out with TXT, being the best vocalist doesn’t automatically translate to being the most popular. This isn’t to say that UNpopular members should be like artificially inflated but more to say that what an idol “deserves” or what “fairness” entails would seem a bit more nuanced than just looking at who is more popular

[roshaanifroze]

This is half true and half not. It is veryyy rare in kpop for a main position to become the most famous member, it's 90% of the time a visual whose gaining the most attention. If it's all about visuals and brand deals than they should debut those idols as models not in a kpop group. Now there are multiple examples in kpop where favouritism to one member is so unfair to the other more talented members. We have dozens of examples but I'll list some of them
1. Exo is filled with enormously talented members like almost each one of them is really talented. But a company like sm who sucks at promoting it's idols still managed to promote kai way better than other exo members. Now no one can tell me that other exo members "didn't bring anything to the table". The only reason they favored kai was him getting popular for mainly his visuals. (No hate to kai i love him)
2. Although bighit never showed favouritism towards any member but if it were to than the most famous member is taehyung. Now you can't tell me that he brings the most to the "table" when namjoon, suga, jhope and jungkook literally exists. Now according to your theory it is justified for bighit to favor taehyung just because he brings in more fans because of his visuals (bitter truth) while rapline literally produces their music, writes lyrics, are immensely talented as well. This just doesn't make any sense.
3. According to your theory it's justified for jyp to favor hyunlix over the other members which he does just because they bring in more fans because of their visuals(ik they're very talented but people only care about the visuals) when 3racha are single handedly one of the most richly talented idols in the industry rn, seungmin is a great vocal and vital part of the group and lee know is a great dancer. This would be so unfair to all the other 6 members cause they are bringing in so much to the group music, work and talent wise but fall behind in visuals. Does it make sense??
4. Sm clearly favors winrina over ningning and giselle and no one can tell me that those two are not talented. Ningning literally carrys the group's vocals along with winter while giselle is one of the best female rappers to come out of sm. They are equally vital to the group but again "doesn't fulfill the visual standards" only. So how is this favouritism fair??
3. Dino, jun, woozi, scoups never experienced the same amount of promotion from the company while being one of the most vital members of the group especially dino, woozi and scoups cause they're literally the most contributing members. Then what makes them fall behind?? Visual standards ofcourse, so this favouritism is also invalid.
6. Okay i didn't wanna involve them here but it's literally not possible to understand this thing without ive. Now youre saying it is justified and fair to favor wonyoung who is a subvocal, sub rapper and probably a sub dancer over liz who is infact the main vocalist of the group. Your saying it's ok to give her more than the main dancer, main vocalist and main rapper just because she brings in more brand deals for "herself only" due to her visuals. I know wonyoung is a queen, young, rich and pretty but they should've debuted her as a model then. Cause tbh in terms of a kpop group, music and talent she brings in nothing except visuals. So how is this treatment and favoritism fair??
Not to mention all the above mentioned "favored" idols only bring in brand deals for themselves not the group and gain more and more solo stans mostly toxic. Cause hyunjin, yeonjun, karina, winter, wonyoung, taehyung, kai etc have literally one of the most toxic solo stans in kpop. They sure bring in people but they don't bring in "fans" for the whole group. So this opinion of yours is actually not valid

[LovelyKissess]

More opportunities is fair, but not attention. If opportunity is what you mean, then I agree. If not then, no
Everyone in the group should be treated equally, but not given equally. Especially in girl groups.
If one member is treated better than the others, they'll start to form hate towards that favorite member. We've heard about that plenty of times before
There's even non celebrity issues where siblings fight or kill each other over the lack of attention
If the world went by that logic... 🙄🤔

[Kohanetsu]

I agree half to it. While I do agree it’s more fair to distribute your resources to those that earn the most money/work the hardest, it’s hard to distinguish what comes first in the kpop industry: is the idol popular BECAUSE they receive more attention from the company (like do they get all the killing parts in a song? That’s up to the company to decide)? Or do they get more attention BECAUSE they are popular? I think it could also work negatively as a negative spiral. Most popular member gets prioritised while less popular members might get even less opportunities to show their talents/worth/climb up the priority ladder/become more popular.

[Ash-xtej]

This is exactly how feel about Astro. I’m not an actual fan but I did see a behind the scenes of one of their early mvs. Eunwoo was passed out on the couch and their leader explained that he was always so busy he barely gets any sleep. And that he appreciated how hard he worked for the group. Yes eunwoo is the most popular member. But the man works for it and his group appreciates it.

[ha._.bbangbby]

Equal ≠ Fair (at least not in every case)