The Anti-Fan
It’s time to talk about a very important type of person in K-Pop: the anti-fan.
Anti-fans exist in many areas of popular culture, not simply in K-Pop alone. It’s actually a term that comes out of audience media research. According to its definition on Urban Dictionary, an anti-fan (or an anti) is “A person who is not a fan of something, but can’t help but be drawn to the subject. One who hates a band, form of music, movie, or movie series, politician, political party, car, TV series etc. so much that he/she likes to hate it. An anti-fan is very knowledgeable about the subject they love to diss.”
The general anti will put a large amount of time and energy into voicing their opinions through comics, blogs, videos, and so on. Anti-fans of a certain subject will often gather together on the Internet, through blogs and forums, or through intentionally created sites, in order to share their thoughts with one another.
Specifically, antis are a very large and very vocal part of the digital population of K-Pop. One K-Pop blog defines the K-Pop anti this way: “An anti-fan is a person who ‘hates’ a particular celebrity or icon. Anti-fanclubs, also known as virtual communities of disregard, hate listings and diss-share sites are groupings of such anti-fans.”
K-Pop antis have been around as long as K-Pop itself. According to one article, the first Internet anti-site was devoted to H.O.T, and a huge street fight, specifically involving hair pulling, happened between H.O.T. and Sechs Kies fans during the 1990s.
Antis associated with K-Pop can fall into two general categories: antis of K-Pop in general, and antis of specific K-Pop idols.
Antis of K-Pop in general will usually dislike the music, the industry, the fans, or the phenomenon of Hallyu. Here are some examples:
- A Japanese protest against Hallyu mentioned K-Pop, Korean films, and Korean dramas in their protests: “Let’s get rid of the Cockroaches SNSD, KARA, and DBSK. Do you think ‘Winter Sonata’ is fun? Choi Ji Woo is a thirty year old ajumma. Does it make sense that an ajumma is wearing a school uniform?”
- As for K-Pop in general, one description from an anti page on Facebook states that K-Pop has “overrated, meaningless, plastics(mostly), gay looking/feminine male artistes.” Antis reflected this in some of their posts: “As long as you can dance, have pretty face & slutty attitude then you become a star” and “Such cheap songs, slutty skanks and jerks, boring dance, stupid lyrics.”
- A commenter on an anti page on Facebook stated reasons for disliking the fans as a list: “How do you spot a K-Pop fan? 1. Someone who is under 17 2. High levels of immaturity 3. Looks hideous 4. Very very BAD in English 5. Literally Asian(because the annoying ones come from this part of the world)6. Knows NOTHING about Korea”
- Finally, antis of the industry will target K-Pop idols in general. Take this parody of a commercial advertisement one anti posted:
“[K-pop i-doll]
Manufactured toy dolls from the largest plastic doll factory in Asia.
100% genuine plastic.
Disposable. Not environmentally friendly, though.
Features : It has the ability to dance like a puppet. It is able to produce auto-tune singing, in Korean language. It can be undressed and its outfits can be changed, gayish outfits available for $10 per piece. Get your K-pop i-doll from the nearest toy store, NOW! Get a K-pop i-doll for only $100 with a FREE gay toy outfit.”
As for antis of specific K-Pop idols, every group has antis. There are no artists that can avoid having antis. Consider the Facebook anti page for SS501’s Kim Kyu Jong, called We Very Hate Kim Kyu Jong: there are comments saying that they hate him, while others say they hate Triple S, and others say they hate all of SS501, and some say they hate all of K-pop.
Antis of one group may be devoted fans of another. For example, in one story, Wonderfuls and VIPs collaborated to reserve tickets to TVXQ’s 3rd Asian TOUR concert. The purpose of reserving the tickets was two-fold: first, that meant that Cassiopeia members wouldn’t be able to purchase tickets; second, TVXQ would have to perform to a nearly empty audience on the day of the concert, since the groups were not planning on actually purchasing the tickets. SNSD as a whole experienced this during the 2008 Dream Concert, when non-SNSD fans gave them the ‘silent treatment’ when they approached the stage. All other fans turned off their glow sticks and remained silent during their performance.
Anti confrontations with specific idols usually take one of two forms: Psychological and Physical.
Psychological confrontations are mostly verbal, and usually occur on forums. Consider this video of Taeyeon reading comments on the radio show Chin Chin‘s forum during one show. The forum was meant to allow fans to interact with the hosts in real-time during shows. At 0:09 you see her face fall because she’s reading the comments left by antis.
Former Super Junior member Hangeng experienced three psychological confrontations: he was verbally harassed during a fan meeting on February 2009, and antis sent letters to SM Entertainment claiming that he was involved in trading amphetamine needles. The third confrontation is possibly the most psychologically harmful: he was sent a box that had packets of blood, a knife, and a picture of himself that had been stabbed.
Physical confrontations are often aimed at physically harming the targeted idol or fan group. Baby V.O.X.’s Kan Mi Youn had an experience in 1999 when she received fan mail with razors in them, specifically sent so that she would cut her hand on them. In November of 2008, a female anti threw her purse at TVXQ’s Changmin while walking through Kimpo Airport. TVXQ’s Yunho had to be hospitalized in 2006 for drinking a soda that had been injected with glue. Poisoned beverages have been used before: in 2000 g.o.d. member Yoon Gye-Sang was almost poisoned by a drink laced with bleach. It was Yoon’s mother, and not Yoon himself, who was hospitalized for drinking it.
Newer groups are just as likely to face confrontations from antis as veteran groups. During their appearance on Taxi, 4minute revealed that antis have sent them very aggressive messages, one specifically saying that they need to get plastic surgery. This is not their first encounter with antis, though. In 2009 their van was broken into and items were stolen, although it’s possible that this was done by an ordinary thief instead of an anti.
Two groups currently have the most vocal antis: SNSD and Super Junior. SNSD’s antis are the most vocal, and have even given themselves a unique name: STAND, “Stand Till All Nine Disappear.” An international STAND forum calls themselves “civil antis” and writes messages to SONEs who come onto the site and comment in defense of SNSD. The most recent message to the SONEs on the forum says “This is our turf and no one’s gonna agree with you. Don’t come here with an agenda to change our minds. Each one has their own reasons of being a civil anti.”
However, K-Pop idols can use antis to their advantage as measures for improving their skills and personalities. Antis main dislikes about K-Pop in general are insincere personalities, shallow songs, manufactured personalities, and being unoriginal. In specific response to the girl groups, they also dislike idols that are marketed in an exclusively sexual way, as parodied by a Japanese manga that featured a less-than-clothed KARA. While these characteristics are hurtful, they can be used by any idol as a checklist for improvement.
At her debut, many B2UTYs were antis of G.Na because of her video I’ll Back Off So You Can Live Better, which featured DooJoon.
With her recent comeback and her music video Black & White, those same antis turned around and supported her. An unnamed representative from Cube Entertainment commented that when she first debuted, she was “a little arrogant and haggard in appearance” and since then has changed to appeal to her anti fans.
Super Junior’s Leeteuk says that he often goes on anti-fan sites in order to see what could be improved about Super Junior as a whole, showing them where their weaker areas are. During their promotions for Sorry Sorry in 2009, he was actually troubled by a lack of comments from antis:
“It seemed that the power of the Super Junior group itself had diminished, so I was very troubled that this album will not meet the expectations and will need a lot of work or not.”
Overcoming their weaker spots, he says, makes them put in extra effort, which then makes success more fulfilling for the members. When Super Junior’s Explorers of the Human Body came out, many antis were impressed with the show. Leeteuk revealed that one anti in particular actually left a message of support for them:
“We would always defame and abuse each other, but Super Junior still displays a deep friendship. This image really changed our thoughts of them.”
A comment from Aya_Sama in a forum on 6Theory about the worst fan fights in K-Pop says it the best: “if were talking about internet fights…everyone vs everyone then.” Antis are as much a part of K-Pop as regular fans are, and everyone is going to fight at some point.
Video Credits: jennytae9@YouTube, gnaoffiial@YouTube, gnaofficial@YouTube
Credits: Allkpop.com, We Very Hate Kim Kyu Jong, Soompi.com, Asianfanatics.net, 6theory Forums, Fanpop.com, Kimchilicious, Urban Dictionary, Wikipedia, Ask a Korean, Allkpop.com, Sapphire Pearls, Asianfanatics.net, STAND International Forum, Naver, 6theory Forums, Hellokpop.com, i am super anti-kpop i really hate it like hell, anti k-pop ®
Photo Credits: Intrinsic Strategy, Kimchilicious
