On May 17, fans got furious after OH MY GIRL allegedly fat-shamed their senior idol, Super Junior's Shindong, and at the same time, for showing racist gestures.
The controversy started during the broadcast of the SBS KPOP's YouTube show, "Shindong Gayo," wherein the Super Junior member is the MC. Premiering on May 16, OH MY GIRL had their comeback interview along with the male idol, and they also participated in various activities as the episode's special guests.
However, as they were having fun, netizens noticed the problematic behaviors that OH MY GIRL portrayed in the episode.
from them but this new situation with seunghee mocking mexicans and playing up on mexican stereotypes shows that they haven’t learned or reflected on their past behavior. this really hurts me because i’m mexican and it upsets me that seunghee thinks of us in that way :/ — j ^__- ☆ (@wjsnv) May 16, 2020
In the broadcast, Seunghee imitated a CF. However, she used derogatory slang to describe Mexicans, which is said to be extremely offensive as she was doing the task.
I'm mexican and I've been staning OH MY GIRL for a long time, what seunghee did was very offensive and disrespectful, us mexicans being stereotyped is not a new thing we go through racism every single day! I'm so dissapointed. — mariana⁷⟭⟬ (@yutalionct) May 17, 2020
Upon seeing the video clip, fans and netizens that are Mexicans, have been censuring the K-pop star for being disrespectful, claiming that she's a racist or stereotyping people of the other culture. As many netizens were hurt due to the female idol's gestures, the clip was re-edited, and the scene where she used derogatory gestures and words was deleted.
hopefully seunghee and the rest of oh my girl will apologize cause it’s something that really made me feel a little bit :// as a mexican pic.twitter.com/LK4HnYOv7N — cerise (@serenityflavor) May 17, 2020
In addition to this, SBS KPOP's YouTube Channel also released their statement, saying, "But we've got to know this video can be hurtful towards some people, especially to international fans and to 'Miracles' (fandom name of OH MY GIRL). Seunghee's CF imitation will be cut in this video. She has never intended any kind of racism," apologizing as well for fans who were disappointed due to idol's act.
However, this is not the only thing that didn't sit well with fans. In the same episode, Hyojung allegedly fat-shamed Super Junior's Shindong, which is not only the host of the show but also their senior idol.
oh my girl were playing charades on shindong gayo and one of the words was shindong- some people thought it was funny and some took it’s extremely offensive pic.twitter.com/TsjK1TNPiM — arin’s babie (@nozssen) May 17, 2020
In the video, the group was playing a game where they have to guess words. Hyojung then started dancing to Suju's Dance, "Sorry, Sorry," and her fellow members immediately guessed it. The next word is "SHINDONG," and assuming that the male idol is present, the best way to describe the word is to point Shindong. However, in the video, she used a gesture using her hands, which is offensive, pertaining to a person who has a large physique.
The male idol, nevertheless, started laughing, as well as the rest of the members. And apparently, it became a joke between the male idol and OH MY GIRL.
ok hi i know i’m a small account but i really really want to talk about oh my girl’s current situation, i hope people who see this thread will take their time to look through it and understand it from my perspective and my friend, who is Indian — namika¹²⁷↺ HAPPY JIU DAY (@vibeyibo) May 17, 2020
ELFs were upset about what the members did to their senior K-pop star, considering his history of getting criticisms due to his weight.
Due to these, fans are demanding an apology from OH MY GIRL, not only to Shindong but as well as to the Latinos and Mexicans that were offended to the "racist" act that Seunghee did.
