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Here's why Knetz are reacting to K-pop idols posting blue or red colors amid election week

Fans are trying to defend K-pop idols who are being slammed as misogynists for wearing red during South Korea's presidential election week

Since March 9, which was the day of the presidential election in South Korea, K-pop idols are under fire for posting anything with the colors red and blue, holding up a peace sign, or using the number 2. Fans, as well as antis, branded Seventeen’s Mingyu and Cravity’s Allen as misogynists for wearing red, and Super Junior’s Heechul was criticized for holding a peace sign. SF9’s Dawon and Cravity’s Minhee were slammed for mentioning '2’, while Monsta X’s Minhyuk was called indecisive for posting both blue and red color-related posts. 

While there were 14 candidates in the election, the top two popular ones -- Liberal and Conservative parties -- were represented by numbers 1 and 2, and colors blue and red, respectively. With South Korea still being behind when it comes to women’s rights, both parties are deemed misogynist with a majority of Korean men labeling feminism as misandry. However, the Conservative party, represented by the number 2 and the color red, is more rigid, with their presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol going as far as to propagate anti-feminism in his campaign speech and promising to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality.

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Red and 2 stands for the Conservative party

On March 10, it was announced that the Conservative party had won and Yoon Suk-yeol will become the next president of South Korea. Knetizens started speculating that idols who had posted certain colors may have hinted at who they had voted for. NCT’s Sungchan was praised as he wore blue to the election polls as Knetizens believed he had supported the lesser ‘misogynist’ Liberal party.

Korean fans felt bad for SF9’s Dawon as he had used his real name, Lee Sanghyuk for his UNIVERSE username for a long time. But this week, netizens assumed he was supporting Yoon Suk-yeol, candidate #2, by keeping his username 2Sanghyuk. But he had just wanted to be clever and had used 2 as it is pronounced as ‘Lee’ in Korean. However, he ended up changing it. On the other hand, fans hoped netizens wouldn’t be harsh on Cravity’s Allen for wearing red since he is Taiwanese-American with red being his representative color in the group.

However, for the rest of the Korean idols like Seventeen’s Mingyu and Monsta X’s Minhyuk, fandoms are torn as some ask netizens to keep politics separate, while others think experienced Korean-nationality idols should have been careful and not have used the two colors anyway. Mingyu has now deleted the photo and Minhyuk has taken down the post where he used a red heart. Netizens are also attacking Jeon Somi, EXID's Hani, Girls' Generation's Taeyeon and TWICE's Nayeon for posting red-related posts claiming that they voted for the Conservative party. Meanwhile, Wonder Girls' Yeeun is being terrorized by several male netizens after she openly shared that she voted for the Liberal party.

 

'It's so weird'

SF9 fans were angry that Dawon was being bashed for using his real name, “F*k that election. Because of that you dare to hurt other feelings?? He can't even use his real name. Y'all human or what? I doubt y'all are.”

An NCTzen tweeted, “No one can guarantee whether a celebrity who wear a certain color will vote for 1, 2, 3, or even other candidates. After all I never see Sungchan wear smth beside black and blue 😭 So I hope people can separate fangirling stuff with politic.”

A Cravity fans feel that this is just an opportunity for trolls to hate on idols, “Nonfans saying hes getting his ass beat up by koreans but i dont see any.”

A Seventeen fan added, “Not to be that person, but M1ngyu getting cancelled for wearing red after election really bothers me bc that picture couldve been from any other time and he just posted it. Yall seem to forget idols have busy lives and aren’t even allowed to talk about their political views.”

A Monsta X fan added, “It’s so weird bc minhyuk uses red/blue hearts all the time on insta twt and fc i genuinely do not understand the hate.”

'Irresponsible'

However, one fan felt, “Stop babying mingyu. he's an adult, knows his impact and knows the importance of this election. When idols are very conscious to not show hearts, you can't say that talking about his very red post is a stretch. Even if it was a coincidence, it was EXTREMELY irresponsible of him. Impact > intention.”

Another fan shared, “Idols just need to refrain from posting anything on election day and avoid red and blue hearts completely. 💀 people will overanalyze.”

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