the STAND agenda

STAND

Strong 'Til All Nine Disappear

STAND has been up and running as a forum officially for a little under a month at time of print. We have been asked many questions about running a forum solely dedicated to the disbandment of a group, the questions are valid and our reasons are plentiful. Although we reserve the right to express our opinion and are not obligated to answer those questions, we have chosen to.

Some of the main reasons are as follows...

STAND chooses to look for the peaceful disbandment of SNSD and does not support any immoral and indecent actions. We are a new breed of anti-fan. The Civil anti-fan.

Gone are the reasons of old, and the stereotypical characteristics of an anti-fan. Most of us on the Admin panel have never previously dreamed of being anti-fans and have in fact looked down upon them in the past. That is because those antis have indeed been of the variety that are immoral and indecent. We were inspired by the fans present at the Dream Concert, Cartel. Initially choosing to boycott a group in a peaceful manner as opposed to a violent and more physically harmful means.

An image laced with indecency and deceit

One of the first reasons that can put you off such a group like SNSD, is their image. Before you even look in to them in depth you find something deceiving and obscene. One must look at SNSD objectively (unlike the way their fans do) to notice it. SNSD are quite plainly put, marketed to young girls and 14-18 year old boys. There is no doubt they have odd stragglers from other demographics, but on paper that is who they are meant for. On the surface they are cute, bubbly and clean-cut, yet once you look deeper you see, everything from their dance moves, facial expressions and their outfits are chock full of sexual connotations. The lollipops, the bending over dance moves, the high kicks, the childish behavior, their debut with their midriff tops and mini-skirts, they all scream sex. It's utterly abhorrent. Don’t get us wrong we know that image has been used before, Morning Musume are an example from neighbouring Japan. But you need to know that this is Conservative South Korea, this music industry is also an escape of some international fans from their own sex-obsessed music culture. SNSDs entrance in to the industry has also opened the paedophilia market and older men are perving openly to these so-called "innocent" girls. The image also, characterizes them as representatives of their Generation. "Sonyeo" is a term for a young unmarried woman, a role model for the younger generations. What kind of society needs a role model that characterizes women as only sex objects?

The backing of SM Entertainment

Honestly speaking, if this group had debuted under any other label, they would have withered and disappeared long ago. The simple fact that SME is debuting them almost guarantees them a certain level of success. SME has for years provided the Music Industry of successful entertainers, and is a heavyweight amongst the industry, holding the largest share in the market. A trend setter almost, strategically finding different ways to gain more income and attention, basically if anyone looks to profit from the industry they must take a leaf out of Lee SooMans book. They found a niche market for a fan base that they could exploit as they have with the "Sonyeo" fan base (many of their other stars are followed by these "Sonyeo"), and they don’t seem to care less the effect it has on the younger generation. Simply put, these girls are being exploited in to objectification in every meaning of the word. The image of "cute but provocative" is quite disgusting when you think of it as an example to young children. And its even more disgusting that SME is backing it, as these younger generations do not know any better and SME are well known and respected. Thus these young children will eat what they are fed.

Barring the image that they have no control over, the members themselves do nothing to redeem themselves

Being so-called "puppets" as most Popular Culture Artists are, one can usually sympathize when the artist, their personality, aura, natural charm can outweigh the negativity of their image. And then they can gain more fans that learn to respect them, but that is not a possibility with these girls. International fans sometimes cannot get their head around the "respect" issues, you need to look back in to the past, in to a conservative culture that every nation has had at one point or is still following. It is a serious matter even in the language itself. When your engrossed in a certain pop culture it is always wise to look in to the society and its traditional culture as it holds meaning in everything that you are entertained with. Especially South Korea, humility, respect, modesty is a major factor in any traditional or modern household. The language itself has levels of respect to certain people. So, when these girls who are self-proclaimed representatives of the 'Girls Generation' do not adhere to tradition, it is an enormous problem. The older generation (excluding the dirty old men) have been outraged and insulted that these young girls are not respectful and are meant to be examples of the younger generations and role models to them. Also their actions are immature and negative, they’ve been known to swear on air and to insult popular celebrities openly, those of which are their seniors (sunbaes). Those who denounce it are obviously ignorant and disrespectful themselves to not even take the culture in to consideration, and their interest in the industry is only on a shallow basis. Also, a bad message is being sent to the younger generation when nearly every member had to go under the knife in order to be "acceptable" enough to enter Show Business. It is bad enough with all the other celebrities, but these people who are representatives of the young demographic are sending and further cementing the idea that you do not need talent, but only good looks ascertained through operations to get far in life and be successful. No offence to those that think that they are talented, but in a professional point of view, these girls have nothing exceptional to add to the music industry. At least other SM artists have substantial talent to back them up besides looks.

Switching of characteristics of fan and anti-fan.

We are speaking of fans in South Korea, and not international fans (even though sometimes it is relevant to them too). The characteristics that were mentioned before of anti-fans in the past, who still exist to this day, it seems that in SNSDs case the roles have switched. An example was the antics exhibited in the 2008 "Dream Concert", where after a silent demonstration held by "Cartel" towards SNSD, and most importantly SM Entertainment, resulted to physical abuse from SNSD fans towards TVXQ!, Super Junior and SS501 fans, who were said to have been leading the demonstration. For those of which that doubt that this has happened, I can only tell you from someone following the society itself (As mentioned previously if you are absorbed in a certain group or pop culture it is wise to follow its traditional culture and society. That allows you to truly appreciate it and fully experience it.), violence among the youth is a big issue today in South Korea. Especially among the young fanboys that unfortunately are following SNSD, it all goes back to their image, the "innocent" image turns these boys in to overly defensive maniacs, who would use violence in defence of them. That is the biggest problem, even if it didn’t happen it makes sense, and its scary how true to life it is. They are very much polluting the industry. That very Fan culture which we base as international fans all our love to and we owe half of our fandom to, without our Korean fan counterparts we can't get access to any of the things that entertain us. Those fans are being affected and their fandom is threatened. These SNSD fans have been known to openly provoke other fan clubs online, constantly starting "fan wars". They threaten stars and fans alike, and this can only be blamed on the very image that SNSD portray, they are violent, immoral, reckless, verbally and physically abusive. A very threat to the fandom itself. It also goes down to, "Like idol, Like fan", if their idol cant do something as simple and as second nature in their culture as respecting elders, there is no limit to what they are capable of.

In conclusion, our Agenda is

To play our part in supporting the National fans in their quest to regain a more peaceful fan culture. We owe them everything in terms of our own idols, their comfort in their fandom is our comfort. Our support in such a hard time as fans uniting for a cause that they truly believe in, can only be seen as priceless. SNSDs advantage is unfair to their own label mates, their disrespect is unrivalled and their fans' lack of morals is dangerous to those on the receiving end.

The fact that LSM is disregarding fans and their beliefs is despicable. The company has for years been mistreating fans and exploiting them and SNSD was the last straw. Their obvious 'paying off' and 'favoritism' is an insult to the industry. The simple fact that his niece is in the group and that she only trained for a year in the sole purpose of debuting with SNSD is proof in itself. SNSD are handed everything on a silver platter while everybody else had to work their way to the top, and also other artists under the label are disregarded and set aside for them.

The fact that they are setting a bad example. We are all for a more wholesome Kpop industry, the ones we experienced as youngsters, as are the National fans. Kpop is one of the few industries that still lay great value to tradition and preserving the innocence of children, and it is one of the reasons plenty of international fans have turned to Kpop. There are other groups and individuals that are more extreme but at least are not marketed to young children.

We as a united front represent those that seek peaceful means in disbanding SNSD and do not agree with using immoral language and or behavior towards any individual, let alone a public figure. We cater to all people that are anti-SNSD but lay strict rules against any immoral/unnecessary language and references to death or parenthood. Those are the reasons we despise the SNSD fans to begin with, why sink to their level? We want to represent a better industry, society and better breed of anti-fan. We strongly believe in our cause and will not step down until we achieve it, no matter what any say or however they try to convince us or force us to stop. We respect opinions and we understand that some will never understand why we are doing this, nevertheless no one has a right to tell us we are wrong. We invest as much time as we please, anti-fans are the opposite of fans, we both hold strong emotions towards particular artists. Saying we have no right to do this, only contradicts yourselves, your mere investment in typing those words tells us that we do, those that feel a threat to us will show us that by bashing us. We stay true to our word, and we will Stand Strong 'Til All Nine Disappear.