[ALLKPOP] “f(x)’s Krystal comes under fire for her rude attitude once again”

(image source: Google images)

Hoo geez, this is a hard one. Honestly, if I didn’t get a request, I wouldn’t have bothered to make a post on this issue. I’ll explain myself later.

f(x)’s Krystal is currently a hot topic among netizens for supposedly acting rude towards her ice-skating coach (Lee Donghoon) on SBS’s “Kiss & Cry”. According to Allkpop,

[…] viewers noticed an air of tension […] Like any trainer would, Lee attempted to teach Krystal from the basics, step by step. However, Krystal proved to be a bit of a difficult student, “He only teaches me the basics, and basics are no fun.”

With a sigh, Lee remarked, “It was difficult to train her because she refused to learn the basics. She would just stand there, and even when I told her to skate, she wouldn’t.”

Some viewers felt that Krystal’s poor attitude escalated when she bluntly stated, “He’s a poor instructor because he’s only used to singles. It’s really frustrating.” Lee is also seven years her senior, but Krystal didn’t hesitate to glare at him whenever their opinions clashed.

(source: Allkpop)

The article also provided a video, posted under the cut (with subs).

As usual, I scrolled down to the comments thread, from which I managed to identify 4 major opinion groups*, as well as sub groups:

1. People who believe she wasn’t being rude, and was innocently playing around with her sunbae.
2. People who believe she was indeed being rude, and deserves to be reprimanded.
3. People who think she indeed came off as rude, but was at least “being real”.
4. People who think that this blame game is unwarranted because they believe respect has nothing to do with age and is simply “earned”, regardless of who you are in society.

*This categorization of mine does not obviously cater to every singly opinion floating out there, but it’s what I was able to identify right off the bat. 

Groups within these groups are:

1. International fans who do not know Korean and relied on the subtitles of the video
2. Korean fans and/or international fans who are fluent in Korean and did not need to depend on the subtitles
3. Fans in general simply relied on Allkpop’s words without watching the video.

And all of them have different judgments of Krystal, whether their her fans or f(x) fans or not, which obviously affects their perception of her. 

With that said, there is no clear-cut right or wrong answer here, just opinions —opinions influenced by each opinion-holder’s social beliefs, interpretation of the translations, and pre-judgment of Krystal. 

And now, I’ll share mine. To me her words came off as insensitive, perhaps even rude… at the very least, they’re things I personally wouldn’t say if I was her. But even so, I’m afraid I cannot confidently call Krystal out for it due to the following reasons:  

1. Allkpop is currently the only source that has provided me with this issue. I was not able to find any other English kpop-news portal with their own interpretation of the situation. I’m especially critical with Allkpop’s understanding of things like this, because there seems to be some ‘subjective’ phrases in the writing, such as “Krystal didn’t hesitate to glare at him”*; and failure to place the qualifier “rude” in quotation marks. That’s all nitty-gritty journalism stuff, but it’s nevertheless important because readers are so vulnerable to unconsciously adapting the hidden bias behind supposedly ‘objective’ reporting, leaving them unable to not only discern facts from opinions, but to basically think for themselves. But I can’t blame Allkpop completely — we’re assured that they’re translating directly from the original source Naver. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a possibility their translations are inaccurate.
   
   *How is one sure she didn’t “hesitate” to glare at him? How is one sure she was even glaring? Or how is one sure of the context or intentions behind that glare?
    
2. I’ve never watched this show before, and I haven’t even seen the entire episode. That therefore makes me unaware of the whole picture regarding the dynamics between Krystal and Donghoon. As a matter of fact, no one will be able to know for sure what the relationship exactly is between the two by simply watching them through the television screen. Remember, what goes on backstage when the cameras are off is an entirely different world, and we shouldn’t take everything we see on television as true. Moreover, the scenes are not continuous scenes — they’re cuts and snippets, meaning that what we see can totally be out of context. This basically means that though I can say that I think Krystal was acting rude towards Donghoon, it simply is rude in my own eyes because how Donghoon interprets it himself is affected by the relationship dynamics between him and Krystal. And knowing this, I therefore can’t bring myself to assert with conviction that she was indeed disrespectful. Because the flip-side can also be ‘true’ — that she was just being a harmlessly mischievous maknae and playfully giving her coach a hard time. Opinions are not facts — they are just opinions.
3. How is one sure this show is definitely not scripted? Maybe these scenes are exaggerations of what impressions the writers want the audience to extract from the relationship between Krystal and Donghoon.
4. I do not know Korean, nor am I a South Korean, which immediately puts me at a disadvantage. I personally am really finicky about subtitles (or maybe I’m just stubborn), and it irks me to have to keep passively relying on them. Hence the only things I can extract judgment from is Krystal’s tone, her facial expressions, and her gestures towards her coach, which again, can be totally misleading without knowing for sure the history between her and Donghoon, let alone the language and the connotations of her words.
5. I also am not an avid follower of Krystal or f(x) (I like their songs though), so I don’t know her well enough to declare that she is a rude person. I do have pre-judgments, but those are from reading about past rumors of her being supposedly disrespectful in another show (which is another issue, therefore another opinion). And, well, I guess there’s this too. Then again, pre-judgments are simply pre-judgments, not facts.

So again, yes, I can see how she comes off as impolite, but because of the reasons listed above (especially reasons 2 and 3), I’m wary of my own speculations. I can basically say “yeah, she’s rude, because others say so,” which, well, isn’t the greatest way to back up your arguments. Which is why I wouldn’t have typed up this post if I wasn’t asked to. I have opinions I am confident in stating, and I have opinions that I am not so confident in stating. This opinion is one of the latter.

(But hey, I guess those reasons I stated does in fact count as an opinion, right? Lol ok, enough about that.)

On a side note, we also have to think about how we are interpreting her actions — in the context of South Korean society, or in the context of the society we (the opinion-holder) grew up in? In Korean society, I can definitely understand how this can come off as rude. Any act of disobedience or contention against anyone older, no matter who they are, is greatly frowned upon, due to strong emphasis on social hierarchy. Nevertheless, this remains subject to the individuals too, right? Though society may say one thing, what takes place on personal levels may illustrate otherwise. On the other hand, in the context of say, Western society, Krystal’s actions would probably not have caused such a huge fuss. Even though there is an element of ‘respecting your elders’, the more widespread belief is that respect is something that is earned, regardless of age. In general, Western society is more lax when it comes to age-related hierarchical relations. At least, that’s what I believe. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)

It’s important to think about your position as an observer of such events, especially when it’s the media.

And specifically to the anon who requested this post: Therein lies a huge difference between calling out Leeteuk and calling out Krystal for their words, at least in my eyes. Both cases are incomparable. I was criticizing Leeteuk for being sexist, not rude per se.  I’m also assuming you’re also the same anon who suggested I’m “sexist against men”. You may criticize me for being relatively ‘lax’ with Krystal’s case, therefore providing you with more ammunition against my intentions. But doing so would be illogical, because being sexist and being simply rude are two completely different things, not to mention they have different sets of social implications, and therefore should be viewed at with different criteria. Moreover, impolite behavior has nothing to do with the idol’s sex. Sexism, on the other hand, has everything to do with it. Please understand that I would have said the exact same things if it was a male in Krystal’s position. Likewise, if Krystal, for instance, made a racist or homophobic remark, then I would’ve definitely been more ‘harsh’, because such things discriminate against an entire population of people. Krystal’s supposedly “rude behavior” was directed towards one person, and in the context of a direct relationship with that person, details of which I’m uncertain of. Of course, I don’t condone impoliteness, but I’m not even sure myself if she was being truly impolite. If I was sure she had malicious intentions behind that behavior, I would’ve been more confident in reprimanding her. 

I hope this helps clarify my stance to you, and please don’t hesitate to shoot me any more questions or concerns if anything still remains unclear to you. And yes, I’m still waiting for the proof I requested from your first ask. Thanks.