Fans are, in general, the life blood of any artist. Without fans, there really is no success. We spend all of our time and money to support the people we look up to and idolize. But when it comes to idolizing these individuals, fans express their love and devotion in many different ways. But how far is too far?  To what extent do artists owe it to their fans?  When is fan culture considered extreme and unreasonable? 

When it comes to fandom, just like style, food and celebration, the expression varies all over the world. Just taking a look at Western-style fandom and Eastern-style fandom, a large scale of difference can be seen. In recent news, a member of Japan's biggest girl group AKB48, Minami Minegishi issued an apology video sporting a shaved head and asked for forgiveness from her fans and bosses. This was said to be done because she broke her company's contract rule of no dating in order to maintain that unattainable image. Now many speculate whether or not she did this of her own accord, or if she was made to do so by her company.  Shaving one's head is seen as an act of remorse in Japan, such things have been played out in history with samurais cutting off their ponytails in times of disgrace or remorse. Nowadays, this practice isn't common n modern Japan.  But not only being put through this ordeal, Minami Minegishi was also demoted back to trainee status even after being with AKB48 for over 8 years. When I heard about all of this, I was in complete shock, I can't bring myself to watch the video because I felt it to be personally degrading.   Fans' response to the issue is mixed. We got some saying "it's a culture thing." "she signed a contract.", while other said "we just don't get it."  While I do agree that to some extent, it may be a culture thing, it is something that is foreign to fans, especially those who oppose of such drastic measures.  But, the reason given that it is just a contract issue, I feel that excuse to be quite absurd.  We are talking about an artist who signed a contract when she was very young.  We certainly cannot be expected to be the same person we were when we were 13.  So, it doesn't feel right to argue that she knew what she was getting into. Not all kids will look deep into their contracts.  All they see is an opportunity to fulfill their dreams, and in some cases their parents' dream, so they grab it.

How much do these artists really owe to the fans?  Ever since being immersed in K-pop, I have really been turned off by a quite a bunch of fandoms, or more fairly, the behaviors of some very vocal fans in certain fandoms. It comes to a point where you see people almost risk being very delusional. Such fans vilify a lot of these artists based on ridiculous scandals and thoughts that these artists actually belong to them in some aspect.  Suicide petitions are made up, black oceaning of groups, crazy fan wars, the list goes on. This perhaps is surprising because, as someone from the US, we see our favorite celebrities date and marry and continue on with their careers.  In Hollywood, we find that there are actually no dating clauses and people are actually open to see their favorites date.  No lives are ruined with such revelations or scandals in Hollywood, maybe except for the artists' own as a product of their own silly dating choices (Rihanna, anyone?).  It is rather foolish to think that just because these Kpop idols are celebrities, that they won't be dating, partying, drinking it up, or sometimes even smoking.  The reality is that they are people too-- especially people with more money and resources and connections.  They want to experience lives normally and also seek companionship as any other human would.

Let's take the UK girl group, The Saturdays, as an example. They have been together for 5 years. Two of their members are married, one already has a child, the other with a baby on the way and two others have boyfriends. Yet, they still manage their careers and continue on as a group. No one claims that member Una destroyed their life because she got married and had a baby.  While a lot of fans may have been heartbroken, no one actually wrote a letter.  It's a different scenario in Kpop, wherein one fan did write such a letter after finding out that Kara's Hara and Beast's Junhyung were dating, stating how they could have come out about their relationship, how it was their fault that said fan couldn't concentrate on their studies. 

By no means is this to say that delusion doesn't exist in Western fandoms. With the recent news of a picture being leaked of Justine Bieber smoking weed, some of his fans actually resorted to cutting themselves to get him to stop smoking.  Hard core, much attached fans of Kpop also exists in the US.  There are Kpop fans in the US who think that these idols are absolute perfection and can't do anything wrong.

Having a lot of love and admiration for these people is certainly understandable, but my personal limit won't ever come to the point that I am cutting myself because of something bad that they did. Therefore, I can also never understand sneaking into a Kpop artist's dorm to watch them while they sleep, or becoming so heartbroken because they have a spouse. I think one thing that people fail to understand is that these artists are people too. They have lives outside of what they do and that a fan, on most occasions is just another face in a sea of other faces.

While our Kpop idols are grateful for our support of them, this doesn't give us a right to help dictate which paths in life they choose.  It may be okay to think that they are roles models so they need to maintain a certain image, but that still doesn't hold to the fact that they are human and want to experience life like we all do.  On the upside though, with the the outpouring of praise and well-wishes for the recent wedding of Wonder Girls leader Sunye makes it seem like things could be changing.  

Nonetheless, we can all use a friendly reminder that these artists are not ours to take home and control.  We may be able to take their product, music, goods home, but their personal lives and everything tied to that are still theirs, and not for our taking.

How about you, what kind of fan are you? 

Writer: Kayla J.