Fans angered after Shindong's remark on Taemin, "It's hard to tell if he's a guy or a girl"

[My Everything]

Fans and netizens alike praised the idol singer for his unique visuals and complete image change. Many were impressed by how much Taemin had matured as his maturity reflected in his music and the music video.

On May 22nd, Super Junior's Shindong decided to react to Taemin's music video for 'Advice' which brought about a backlash from Taemin's fans. Like any other reaction video, Shindong sat down and gave his opinionated remarks while watching the video.

As soon as the video started, Shindong gave a reaction of being impressed by Taemin's dancing. He said, "Every time I see Taemin's dance, it's just very...it feels like it's fast-forwarded. Oh this MV is amazing."

Throughout the video, Shindong didn't hold back his praise. However, some fans took issue with one remark by Shindong. In the middle of the reaction video, Shindong said, "He's got this pretty visual so even when he is with female dancers, he goes nicely with them" and praised Taemin's advantages of having an androgynous look. 

He continued to say, "It's hard to tell if he's a guy or a girl..." which is the sentence that backfired on Shindong despite him saying it as praise and compliment. Quickly, many Taemin fans took to social media to criticize Shindong as they said his remarks were unnecessary. There were some even taking out their anger against Shindong and saying profanities against him.

However, some netizens criticized that some of these fans who are slandering Shindong are irrational and pointed out that it is not the first time Taemin was told he looked androgynous.

Source

[Mom]

I’m inclined to defend Taemin on things like this out of habit, no matter the context.
 

First of all, I don’t think Taemin gives a shit anymore. I’m old enough to remember the hair-extensions of little itty-bitty Taemin. 
 

Taemin, I believe, has already admitted that he’s gone through that phase where he let bullshit like this bother him. He’s doing it now because he wants to — all that Taeman shit was nonsense to begin with.
 

Second of all though, I think “shut the fuck up” should suffice for Shindong. If Taemin wanted to wear a dress, I’d be supportive of it — much less long hair. 
 

Just fuck Shindong in general.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Mom

[skullkid]

non issue 

[Ghosty]

tbh... this video has been released for a week already and i think shawols would've talked about it once it came out. but i think this is mainly brought up by other kpop fans, considering shindong's comments about enhypen's jungwon is brought up alongside as well. 

[JNT-LEGGO]

Because of the fucked up things Shindong has said in the past, I think some people are just kinda predetermined to not like whatever he has to say.

He didn’t really say it in a derogatory way and it’s something that even Shawols have jokingly said about Taemin, who does the androgyny thing on purpose, he knows what he’s doing.

Edited May 28, 2021 by JNT-LEGGO

[Member]

I don't know if this changes anything but what he said was more like "[he's pretty] to the extent where you can't tell if he's a girl or a guy." The official subs are a bit crass compared to how he actually said it imo. Plus, I think that was exactly taemin's intention. Like the user above said, he's been embracing his androgynous looks and doing it on purpose in recent years and he's a lot more confident and secure in himself now. 

But anyway, i've seen so many fans make the same comments/jokes about taemin when he reacted to advice with minho ("I thought minho was with a girl at first", "it looks like they're announcing that they're pregnant") so uhhhh i'm not sure where fans are drawing the line. 

[Isbell]

More like Taemin's fans, it seems more like kpop fans who never really liked shindong making it a big deal. 

[rananicolee]

52 minutes ago, fairykuku said:

I don't know if this changes anything but what he said was more like "[he's pretty] to the extent where you can't tell if he's a girl or a guy." The official subs are a bit crass compared to how he actually said it imo. Plus, I think that was exactly taemin's intention. Like the user above said, he's been embracing his androgynous looks and doing it on purpose in recent years and he's a lot more confident and secure in himself now. 

But anyway, i've seen so many fans make the same comments/jokes about taemin when he reacted to advice with minho ("I thought minho was with a girl at first", "it looks like they're announcing that they're pregnant") so uhhhh i'm not sure where fans are drawing the line. 

Yeah all of this. 

I hate to defend Shindong but I think it's a case of people looking for something to cancel him over again. He's very close with the Shinee members so I doubt he had ill intent. 

[schue]

From what I heard Taemin used to dislike when people misgender him in the past (when he was a teenager) but he's no longer insecure and doesnt care abt it anymore esp with the extensions for his latest cb which means he's more confident and no longer cared abt these types of comments nor would he take offense. I read interviews in recent years where he's more accepting, open-minded and embracing his androgynous looks. He's talked abt how there's nothing wrong with guys wearing make up if they want to, and stuff like gender identity, gender neutrality, etc. e.g. guys can wear girl's clothing and vice versa. He wore crop tops way before it became a trend in kpop. He's also openly said wanting to break gender norms and stereotypes through his releases since Move. So I don't see anything wrong with what Shindong said esp knowing that Taemin wouldn't take offense.

 

1 hour ago, Ghosty said:

tbh... this video has been released for a week already and i think shawols would've talked about it once it came out. but i think this is mainly brought up by other kpop fans, considering shindong's comments about enhypen's jungwon is brought up alongside as well. 

Yeah I think so too. I don't really hear shawols attacking Shindong for this otherwise this would've trended when it came out. Seems like a case where general Kpop fans want to drag Super Junior members like they always do and want to.

What I've been hearing is Shawols have been busy criticizing SM for leaving them hanging for past few days with no assurance abt whether Taemin is alive, okay or not after the sudden cancellation of his event with no explanation other than "sudden serious situation" statement afterwards hence making everyone panic and anxious for days. This is a more serious matter than Shindong's light-hearted joke. SM took long enough to finally put out a statement that he's okay but stating something along the lines due to mental and physical exhaustion. They have been overworking him like a robot and packed all these schedules just few days before enlistment which is fucked up and not to mention SM's pr was bad.

Edited May 29, 2021 by schue

[naomi24]

I've watched the video and I agree with the comments above that said they're just bandwagon hating him. I mean this was out a week ago and if shawols dislike it, we'd have seen it trending days ago. These haters clearly have too much time on their hands.

[seokii]

This feels like mediaplay or something lol, he's probably the thousandth person to say that about Taemin

[CandyCane23049]

47 minutes ago, seokii said:

This feels like mediaplay or something lol, he's probably the thousandth person to say that about Taemin

Nope just Kpop fans on Twitter blowing up things as usual and using out of context screencaps to bash an idol they don't like.