Aisling

Are we........are we back? >.>

I can't post receipts right now, but the way he acts around Jungwoo seems less than heterosexual to me.

with Heechul and Gunhee, they may see each other more than we think, but don't post as much to social media. If they did get together when we think, then they've been together for years. They probably wouldn't feel the need to flaunt their relationship publicly as much anymore. Doesn't mean they don't see each other.

Uh...I would not put them in the same category. And for the record, I didn't post those gifs to ~prove their relationship~. I posted them because Jungkook did something that was pretty not-straight (as he's done with basically all the members at some point).

There was a screenshot of what looks like an interaction between Troye and Jackson on Twitter, but they were just fans posing as the two. I don't know why people do that tbh. On a related note, a fan photoshopped BTS onto a Met Gala background yesterday, and legit news sites were using it as if it were real. Sigh.

Just want to say that in the last picture with Troye/Jackson, if you look at their handles, neither of them are their real accounts (sadly).

I didn't say anything about nipping. I was just posting a version without filter, since the other one was creating some debate.

Sorry to bring this up again, but here's a new version from a video with a filter/editing (not about shipping, etc etc): (X) Honestly, imagine showing this to 2014 Jungkook. He's really surpassed all our gay expectations.

Edit: apparently someone edited it because the fandom is full of demons. Anyway the rest of the post stands. Also, because this keeps coming up, I think it's natural for people in this thread to be wary of anything posted about popular ships because we're used to seeing them talked about in a shipping context--by straight fans too. But in many cases, it's not about the ship but how the person's actions possibly reflects their identity as an individual. For example, when Taehyung danced with Jimin: It's not about Vmin being real (and I don't think anyone thought that). What Taehyung did was just....not something a straight guy would probably do. I think as long as we keep it focused on the individual, and reserve relationship speculations for situations with extraordinary receipts, then hopefully we can avoid the drama of shipping.

On a separate note, Holland continues to deliver relatable content: Click here to view the Tweet

Several of the members have said this explicitly though. Like Suga saying, "There's nothing wrong [with being gay]. Everyone is equal." The fact that they express love and admiration for so many LGBT artists, and have already worked with a few, also kind of speaks for itself. I agree though that the approach that has worked in the west may not be right for SK. In the US, for example, there's more of an expectation for celebrities to use their platform to speak to important issues, whereas in Korea, many people seem to think it's not a celebrity's place to express a controversial opinion (especially as an idol, since their fans are younger). I think it will take threading the needle where it's framed in a more positive way, rather than just criticizing society. BTS especially is in such a strange position where they became famous with a lot of songs that did criticize society, but now they have this responsibility of being cultural representatives to the world. I'm sure many people would hate to see Korea come off badly to the rest of the world, even if they know the criticism is true.

When I saw it last night, I assumed Jungkook was just whispering to Jimin because why the fuck would he bite/suck on his ear in that moment or ever, but like, this is very clear: Click here to view the Tweet what, with all due respect sir, the fuck Edit: I guess saying this about 50 times already isn't enough, but standard disclaimer: this isn't about shipping, and I don't ship anyone in BTS.

Every day, I become less convinced of Changkyun's heterosexuality:

This was posted in the lesbian thread, but I thought I'd post it here too since we've talked about Neon Milk, the Korean queer/drag collective channel on youtube. Some of them were featured in Jiyoon's (formerly of 4minute) MV:

I can't really imagine anyone in BTS just randomly coming out to a western celebrity at an award show. If anything remotely like the above did happen, it was probably someone making an assumption. not that they would be wrong, but still

Bless you Also, on a related note, I just want to remind everyone that this was their reaction to Heize kissing Bolbbalgan4:

In case anyone is interested in BTS's full reaction to Halsey's very gay performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzBNDTz7lVk Tae's reaction at the end was interesting. Edit: If anyone can tell me what I need to do to embed a youtube video these days, I'll give you my firstborn.

Namjoon said something similar about Jimin and Jungkook recently: Click here to view the Tweet I don't think it's really a big deal though. It's just a reference to the popularity of matching couple items.

Vice published a really nice article about Holland and queer representation in kpop.

^Great analysis as always from burntgucci, but also, there's an active discord?

Not a big deal (and ignore the captions), but this was quite a reaction lol: (X)

I think another thing that makes topics like these difficult is that there's inherently a huge difference between the intentions of a company and how LGBTQ fans interact with content, as well as between the way cishet and LGBTQ fans interact with it. We know that most gay fanservice isn't really done for gay/bi people. For some gay/bi fans, knowing the original intent is enough to turn them off of it completely, but others still enjoy it for what it is. Same with gender non-conformity. I don't think either is wrong, as long as we don't fall into praising the company for being progressive. Anything progressive either comes from the idols themselves or the way we interact with it as fans (for example, LGBTQ BTS fans loving Yoongi's female persona Yoonji, and not treating her like a joke).

Some of their videos have English subs now (if you were looking for subs in English). Here's one of their Q&As:

This is getting off topic so I apologize, but I think there's a difference between a girl crush concept (wearing suits, doing stronger choreography, rapping, acting cool and confident, etc.) and girlxgirl fanservice (two--usually femininely presenting--girls groping each other, almost kissing, etc.). I agree that the latter is definitely made for the male gaze, but the former would be an idol like Moonbyul, who has mostly female fans.

I don't think there's any need to get upset about each other's opinions here, since we're all being respectful. Different people are going to perceive things differently, and that's cool.