Is it just me, or is anyone creeped out by some of the stuff SHINee has been doing lately? pole dancing, that ↑ . *Shudders*
I know the pedo jokes are old, but I’m not joking this time. Some of this stuff is truly borderline inappropriate.
SHINee has always been marketed as young and innocent, and that’s fine. I thought the boys were charming and cute in their “Replay” days; like schoolboys with harmless crushes on their teachers or something. However nowadays, the innocence image is still there, yet it’s laced with like a forbidden sexual fantasy or something now. IDK, I’m uncomfortable even thinking about it.
It’s true that the boys aren’t that young, and as a boyband, they’re gonna be sexualized at some point. Tbh, I wouldn’t even be as bothered if it was just a straightforward take-off-your-shirt-thrust-your-hips thing (I’d squick me out, but I’d get over it). What really icks me is that SHINee is continually portrayed as young and innocent in a virginal way, yet objects of sexual fantasy.
So much crap is considered “not okay” in Korea, yet stuff like this is? Okay, you can argue that Korea has a different culture, and I can’t judge with my western bias. However, I really don’t know how many ways half dressed boys lying in an unmade bed can be interpreted.
I have no moral high horse to stand on, but I find all this a bit ethically questionable. Am I taking this too seriously? Maybe, but that doesn’t change how I feel. For once, fandom is truly srs bizness, and not in a good way.
Bottom line: I’m really disappointed in how SM is handling SHINee.
To see the rest of the photoshoot, go here.
