BLACKSWAN's Youngheun speaks up about ageism in the K-Pop industry

[My Everything]

In a recent interview with Edaily, BLACKSWAN's leader Youngheunspoke up about ageism in the K-Pop industry.

Youngheun, who is turning 26 this month, revealed there's a stigma her group wants to break. 

She said: "When you're in your 20s, you get negative comments about being too old for a girl group. BLACKSWAN is a team of mostly mid-20s except for Leia. I want to be successful, so the industry doesn't force people to give up their dreams due to age."

Source

[Mrs. Morale]

Yes! People should achieve their dream irrespective of their ages!

She's beautiful btw

[hynapia]

The worst is that even i-fans have adopted that mindset of calling everyone older than 22 a "hag". I get that kpop is mostly targeted to teens and rookie groups are supposed to give a "fresh" image but still, people in their 20s are still fairly young to debut.

[Shinki]

2 minutes ago, hynapia said:

The worst is that even i-fans have adopted that mindset of calling everyone older than 22 a "hag". I get that kpop is mostly targeted to teens and rookie groups are supposed to give a "fresh" image but still, people in their 20s are still fairly young to debut.

most kpop fans nowadays are edgy gen-z so there's nothing we can do

[PockyAddict1989]

11 minutes ago, hynapia said:

The worst is that even i-fans have adopted that mindset of calling everyone older than 22 a "hag". I get that kpop is mostly targeted to teens and rookie groups are supposed to give a "fresh" image but still, people in their 20s are still fairly young to debut.

And it's the supposed "woke" ones saying that garbage too.

[hynapia]

17 minutes ago, Shinki said:

most kpop fans nowadays are edgy gen-z so there's nothing we can do

 

8 minutes ago, PockyAddict1989 said:

And it's the supposed "woke" ones saying that garbage too.

Yeah, and it's not even towards the idols but towards the fans too. I've legit seen people in stan twitter putting stuff in their bio or cards like "if you're older than 22 don't follow me" or saying that being into kpop where you're over early 20s is "embarassing". That's why I never say I'm in my mid 20s unless they ask me directly or something.

It's funny because sometimes I've seen this shit even from people in their late teens and it's not like they're THAT much younger than people in their early-mid 20s.

Edited November 8, 2020 by hynapia

[hynapia]

All of this reminds me to this group that debuted this year where most of them are in their late 20s (because they already enlisted a few years ago) and people constantly make "hag" memes about them, when one of them is actually only 23.

 

[AchariPickle]

bruh kpop stans act as if people in there 30s are some ancient being and this goes for both i-fans and k-fans, well at least from what I've observed.

Anyways she looks beautiful and wish her success 

[Drama Drama Drama]

For that reason it's good to see things like Refund Girls in Korea or Jiejies in China having success because singer idol life is not over post 30s. Women are amazing and graceful in all ages. And women like Hyori, Uhm Junghwa or Ning Jing (Jiejies center) are crossing 40s/50s and they are damn powerful.

[hynapia]

57 minutes ago, AchariPickle said:

bruh kpop stans act as if people in there 30s are some ancient being and this goes for both i-fans and k-fans, well at least from what I've observed.

Anyways she looks beautiful and wish her success 

that's the thing, it's not even just people in their 30s. They call anyone over 22-23 hag, sometimes even earlier because I remember in X1 they called the hyung line the "hags" and some of them were literally 20. I get that many kpop fans are in their early and mid teens but that was literally ridiculous. Even when I was 14-15 I didn't find people in their 20s old at all.

With people in their 30s is even way worse tho. SuJu and SNSD are constantly bashed for their age and saying they should go to a retirement home when most of them are in their early-mid 30s. I get that can be kinda old from a teen's pov but it's not like they're actually ancient.

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by hynapia

[AchariPickle]

28 minutes ago, hynapia said:

that's the thing, it's not even just people in their 30s. They call anyone over 22-23 hag, sometimes even earlier because I remember in X1 they called the hyung line the "hags" and some of them were literally 20. I get that many kpop fans are in their early and mid teens but that was literally ridiculous. Even when I was 14-15 I didn't find people in their 20s old at all.

With people in their 30s is even way worse tho. SuJu and SNSD are constantly bashed for their age and saying they should go to a retirement home when most of them are in their early-mid 30s. I get that can be kinda old from a teen's pov but it's not like they're actually ancient.

 

true and bruh even if they are in their early teens or whatever, still calling people in their 20s hags??? they lack common sense lmao

I really hope this ageism will lessen in kpop, i mean artists in their 30s in western music are literally in their prime or just getting started 

[sakurahanabira]

Ashley, BM, and KARD talked about this exact same issue in one of their GET REAL podcasts. Really recommend giving it a listen. 

Edited November 8, 2020 by melancholic autumn

[Corysilk]

Its weird because in the West even groups marketed towards teens had old people in them.  For example the girls in the pussycat dolls were like 30 minus the black latina, and the backstreet boys/n-sync all had members that looked like they could be uncles. 

[Elscian]

26 is so young tho rip

 

[starsocks]

I really hope things work out for them this time  

[Nev Schulman]

Kahi & BEG members are examples that it can be possible. Go get it girl 

[EXOSUS]

Because late 20s is a little too old to be a puppet for your company and a shiny toy for teenagers.

Taeyeon, Hyuna, Sunmi and many more take less hate about their age because they have grown into solo artists.

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by EXOSUS

[hynapia]

8 hours ago, AchariPickle said:

true and bruh even if they are in their early teens or whatever, still calling people in their 20s hags??? they lack common sense lmao

I really hope this ageism will lessen in kpop, i mean artists in their 30s in western music are literally in their prime or just getting started 

Honestly same. It's weird how gen z teens call people over 20-25 old when they're gonna be there only in a few years? Like I said when I was 14-15 I didn't find people in their 20s old at all. Heck, I didn't even find my parents and people that age old and they were in their late 30s/early 40s.

As for western music, I remember an artist (I think it was Pink?) that actually talked about ageism too, and said that it was hard to find success past 35, especially for pop women, and that all the trendy artists like Ariana, Billie Eilish, etc were mostly in their 10s-20s. But yeah, at least is a bit better than in kpop where even mid 20s is seen as too old to debut.

[Jikrytae]

The fact that someone in their 20s has to say this is beyond pathetic. Someday these bratty teenagers are going to realize how short life actually is. 

[AchariPickle]

52 minutes ago, hynapia said:

Honestly same. It's weird how gen z teens call people over 20-25 old when they're gonna be there only in a few years? Like I said when I was 14-15 I didn't find people in their 20s old at all. Heck, I didn't even find my parents and people that age old and they were in their late 30s/early 40s.

As for western music, I remember an artist (I think it was Pink?) that actually talked about ageism too, and said that it was hard to find success past 35, especially for pop women, and that all the trendy artists like Ariana, Billie Eilish, etc were mostly in their 10s-20s. But yeah, at least is a bit better than in kpop where even mid 20s is seen as too old to debut.

i feel ya bro

and I agree ageism is usually a bigger issue for females than males in whatever industry i've looked into so far but yeah western music is a bit more lax in this area 

[hynapia]

2 hours ago, AchariPickle said:

i feel ya bro

and I agree ageism is usually a bigger issue for females than males in whatever industry i've looked into so far but yeah western music is a bit more lax in this area 

the worst is that this mentality is so ingrained in kpop stan twitter than you end up feeling super old sometimes. For example in my case, majority of my mutuals in stan twitter are people under 20-22 so I feel like a grandma despite being only in my mid 20s, but seeing all these teens calling "hags" to anyone over early 20s makes you feel like you don't belong there. Especially if you stan new gen groups (because at least 2nd gen stans are usually in their mid-late 20s or older).

I'd say that kpop males have it way worse than western pop males, because for example groups like DBSK or Suju are constantly called old hags and grandpas and people say they should've retired already but in western pop there's several male artists well over 30-35 still pulling hits. And women just have it worse both in kpop and western pop because of the shitty mentality that a woman is "past her prime" after her 20s. Just see how T. Swift is barely 31 and she's not nearly as trendy as a few years ago.

[RiseLikeACrowTit]

Exctly, you can stil shine and still the spotlight at 40+

[AchariPickle]

4 hours ago, hynapia said:

the worst is that this mentality is so ingrained in kpop stan twitter than you end up feeling super old sometimes. For example in my case, majority of my mutuals in stan twitter are people under 20-22 so I feel like a grandma despite being only in my mid 20s, but seeing all these teens calling "hags" to anyone over early 20s makes you feel like you don't belong there. Especially if you stan new gen groups (because at least 2nd gen stans are usually in their mid-late 20s or older).

I'd say that kpop males have it way worse than western pop males, because for example groups like DBSK or Suju are constantly called old hags and grandpas and people say they should've retired already but in western pop there's several male artists well over 30-35 still pulling hits. And women just have it worse both in kpop and western pop because of the shitty mentality that a woman is "past her prime" after her 20s. Just see how T. Swift is barely 31 and she's not nearly as trendy as a few years ago.

bro don't let those people get to you and yeah males really have it bad in kpop in comparison to western music. I mean when suju colored their hair for their recent comeback, i remember seeing a lot of age related comment it just had me baffled lmao. Also the other thing is I've seen people do the same thing but than have the expectation for idols not to do that, because they are "idols", they have idols on this freaking pedestal. Most of the "controversies" in kpop won't even be controversies if people started treating idols like freaking humans lmao

[hynapia]

1 hour ago, AchariPickle said:

bro don't let those people get to you and yeah males really have it bad in kpop in comparison to western music. I mean when suju colored their hair for their recent comeback, i remember seeing a lot of age related comment it just had me baffled lmao. Also the other thing is I've seen people do the same thing but than have the expectation for idols not to do that, because they are "idols", they have idols on this freaking pedestal. Most of the "controversies" in kpop won't even be controversies if people started treating idols like freaking humans lmao

I didn't see that because I don't follow Suju but yeah, I always see people dragging them for their age and constantly saying they should retire/disband or go to a "nursery home" when majority of them aren't even 35 yet. Curiously, I don't see Irene, Taeyeon or even BoA getting so many ageist comments in comparison to them, which it's curious because women usually face more ageism everywhere. I guess it's because Suju has a track record of problematic behavior but in any case they should drag them for that, not always because of their age.

Also yeah, these "woke" people literally find everything problematic. One thing is calling out things like racism, homophobia, sexism etc and another making a fuss for any little mistake.

[AchariPickle]

8 minutes ago, hynapia said:

I didn't see that because I don't follow Suju but yeah, I always see people dragging them for their age and constantly saying they should retire/disband or go to a "nursery home" when majority of them aren't even 35 yet. Curiously, I don't see Irene, Taeyeon or even BoA getting so many ageist comments in comparison to them, which it's curious because women usually face more ageism everywhere. I guess it's because Suju has a track record of problematic behavior but in any case they should drag them for that, not always because of their age.

Also yeah, these "woke" people literally find everything problematic. One thing is calling out things like racism, homophobia, sexism etc and another making a fuss for any little mistake.

true true bro

you know sometimes you hear some people regarded old so many times that it makes you wonder how old they look and i just watched suju's recent mv and they don't look old at all just their age lmao, also i did see some comments abt taeyeon being too old but that was when she was dating baekhyun and stuff

Damn i wonder how g-dragon will be perceived age wise when he has his comeback