cityhunter83 wrote: i guess i have an odd view of idols. their public personas are like a product or more precisely a character from a novel. TOP is not Choi Seung Hyun. TOP is a character played by Choi Seung Hyun. like any other product i can go buy TOP socks and TOP posters and TOP cds and TOP is so hot and ohhhh i love me some TOP, but in my mind TOP and Choi Seung Hyun stay two seperate entities. you'd never walk up to daniel radcliff and seriously ask to see the scar, b/c you know they are two different people.
i think in korea (and in america to a lesser degree) this line is severly blurred if not completely freaking gone. the media and entertainment companies go to extraordinary lengths to make young girls feel as if they really know these people and they are actually close to them. this artificial relationship with the idols is the root of all these issues.
Your view is not odd, but rather a very sensible one. I think so too (actually I spend quite a lot of time, thinking what kind of people they really are and how they feel when all this hype is pressuring them). Probably it is something that you can differ only with enough life experience.
For young fan-girls it might be quite different. I remember that in Uni we've once review a study about a phenomenon of Beatlemania and how the idea of teenagers was created(regrettably I cannot recall the title or author, or maybe I'm just too lazy to look for it hard enough). Anyway this study presented an idea ( I hope I remember that correctly) that idols serve those young girls as a tool for development and releasing a premature sexual tension. They are too young to engage in real relationship(also their male peers are too immature at that time), so they are projecting their feelings on that far-away idol, presented as a "perfect boy" ( as Beatles once were) - who has nothing to do with real person, and all that somehow enables those girls to grow emotionally. Most of us probably went through this or probably are going through this right now (there are many young people here). I know I did. I was crazy for Backstreet Boys when I was a young teen, and my bias was - really ashamed about this confession - Nick Carter - I have no idea why, afterwards I was never fond of blonde guys (probably had too much of it), well except those dyed Asian, they always look so intriguing with fair hair.
Anyway, what seems to be normal for teen girls(I talking about fans, not those stalkers that should be dealt with properly), somehow seems to suck for the idols. Of course they are admired all around, but not for they real self, but that delusional "perfect boy" image, which is stuck in fans' heads. If they do something contradictory to that image, well we know what happens... Especially in Asian cultures when every public figure is considered a role model. They need to control themselves all the time. So I think it's really great if they can find someone who loves them truly to be in a relationship with. It must be really hard for them - with all the fans' hatred, spying media and demands from their companies.
I think I wanted to add something more, but forgot. Anyway, I hope at least half of it makes any sense ( I'm bored at work, I thought I'll write something, and I've answered about a dozen calls in the meantime) And sorry if I messed up with English.
I finally listened to Epik High's Fan, it is a really great song, maybe that inspired this too long post.
