Is a South Korean performer getting married or dating someone actually a scandal?
The question was among several thought-provoking issues raised in a discussion within the largest K-pop fan group on the news and social networking website Reddit on Friday.
It began as a laundry list of silly items that the mostly state-funded Korean news media had picked up on each that had prompted an avalanche of online speculation among fans and Hallyu writers alike.
Epik High's Tablo being accused of not actually graduating from Stanford University (his English professor wrote a letter confirming the rapper did indeed have his degree) and Brave Brothers allegedly knocking down a building he had bought to prove he was not, in fact, living in poor conditions, according to a 2014 report on the website Soompi, were among the silly scandals listed.
But for Reddit user Alleybetwixt, the most ridiculous thing is the way that popular artists have to hide their relationships from the public.
"Anything related to anyone dating or getting married, rumor or real, simply shouldn't be considered a scandal," wrote the K-pop fan.
"More importantly, it's not any of our business in the first place. Shady corporate business practices, lawsuits, blackmail, abuse, stalking, harassment, those are scandals and should be handled with the utmost scrutiny and attention. The media mostly adheres to the exact reverse of this, which is the dumbest [thing] of all."
A Reddit commenter using the name Verygreentea brought up the role of the online realm as adding often fuel to a fire that shouldn't have been there to begin with.
"The internet always has to make someone out to be a villain and make things seem bigger than it actually is," Verygreentea wrote.
While for a fan named Friedchocolatesoda, the silliness of all these so-called scandalous behavior is not confined to just romantic doings.
"Most K-pop 'scandals' are mind-blowingly dumb," wrote the Reddit user.
"K-pop 'fans' just want to be upset about something so they can talk shit about someone, to the point that they'll make stuff up and ignore all logic just to do it."
And though the 60 respondents among the more than 43,000 members of the subreddit had differences of opinion of which specific K-pop calamity had been the most overblown, they all seemed to agree with Korean music fan Tasoula's brief and poetic response to the question of which scandal was the stupidest.
"Every dating 'scandal,' dating shouldn't be a scandal," she wrote.
