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Hello ! Before we get started, I wanna make sure we all agree not to insult or send harmful comments to the idols we are going to discuss today. I also wanna remind you that this video is meant to be a critique on the behavior, not the people participating in this behavior. I believe that aggressively educating people on matters they didn't have the opportunity to learn growing up and demonizing their personality is counterproductive. If you disagree with anything I say or want to add more info I may have left out, you are more than welcome to let me know in the comments as long as it remains respectful. Now that the disclaimer is done, let's start. If you somehow haven't heard about the Sunoo situation, a lot of people have been complaining about the members teasing Sunoo on his weight and some go as far as accusing the other members of being bullies and fat-phobic. On the other side, some Engenes defends the members' behavior by saying "It's cultural" and/or "We don't know them, Sunoo is probably fine with it, he laughs at the jokes.". Which in all fairness is partly true. It is a norm in a lot of countries to be fat-phobic and make fun of overweight people, and South Korea is one of them. And we in fact don't know them personally, for all we know Sunoo could be totally fine with it, even if I personally doubt he is and I'll explain why later on. But does it make it okay for them to execute such behavior publicly considering they are Idols and have many young fans who look up to them? I don't think so. Let's say Sunoo isn't uncomfortable with the weight jokes and genuinely find them funny, they're not a casual group of friend navigating privately in high school, they are Idols. Their behavior on screen does not impact just the members but the audience as well. Sunoo doesn't even look overweight, some Engenes who are more visibly overweight than Sunoo and are struggling with their body image are likely to take these comments personally. I've already seen people mention this as the reason why they decided to unstan Enhypen, which is understandable. I can only imagine how hurtful it would be to see the person who's supposed to inspire you and help you feel better about yourself calling someone with a smaller figure than you "too fat" and making fun of them for it, especially for those struggling with body dysmorphia. . Side note, for the people who say that Sunoo is grown enough to speak about it with the boys if it bothered him and use the "it's normal because it's cultural" to excuse their behaviors at the same time; that's hypocritical. How would you expect someone who's surrounded only by people who normalize this behavior and see nothing wrong with it to find the courage to stand up for themselves? It doesn't make any sense. As for the "It's cultural" argument in itself, I agree that it explains why the members or even the management team don't have access to the information needed to be educated on fat-phobia from the get-go, however, people have been complaining about this for months, and as always, Belift or the members doesn't say or do anything. Belift has never addressed any controversies Enhypen went through, and some Engenes have mentioned that it appears that Belift doesn't even allow the members to apologize when a controversy happens. I know the discussion surrounding certain controversies is not as common in South Korea as it is in America or some western countries, but why include global voting in I-land, targeting an international audience instead of just a local one, to turn around and never educate your artists on topics that are perceived as offensive by the audience oversea. And then when fans try to educate them they're always ignored. It makes it look more like a choice than simple ignorance. In addition to that, I don't think that fat-phobia being a norm due to cultural reasons makes it less hurtful to people who are overweight and/or less dangerous for people with body dysmorphia. I highly doubt that people who are repeated victims of fat-phobic comments are as comfortable with it as the ones making those comments just because it's normalized. Speaking of which, let's go back to Sunoo. The "Sunoo needs to lose weight" joke is not new, it's been an ongoing joke amongst the members ever since their debut from what I recall. I think no one had a problem with it at the time because Sunoo always laughs it off and since he never seemed to change his eating habits because of it, we all assumed he didn't take the members' teasing seriously. It's also part of their group dynamic to often tease one another. I feel like the controversy really blew up when Sunoo refused to eat a slice of cake on one of their v-lives, which to a lot of viewers implied that Sunoo has gone under a diet in order to lose weight. And if it is the case, it is safe to assume that the jokes the members make on his weight hurt him. And it's also very likely that Sunoo see his weight as a sensitive topic. I know diet culture is common in the k-pop industry, and the fans themselves comment negatively on the chubbiest member's appearance, encouraging them to go on a diet to lose weight. So I wouldn't go as far as saying that the members are the sole reason why he allegedly started dieting, but it's common sense that the members making negative comments on his weight would play a role in encouraging him to do so. Some people were also feeling bitter about the members encouraging Sunoo to eat the cake after he refused, considering they have been making fun of him for being "overweight" for years. As much as I love the members and want to take in consideration their ages and the conditions they grew up in to give them room to grow, I can't deny that it's becoming more difficult to defend them and see their behavior as ignorance as the complaints and issue keep being ignored over and over again. Seeing other Idols around the same age and who were also raised in South Korea not condoning this behavior also makes it more difficult to keep defending them. In conclusion, Just like we can't be a 100% sure that Sunoo is hurt by the jokes, we can't be a 100% sure that Sunoo didn't already requested the boys to stop making fun of his weight a long time ago either. And that's the problem with the way Belift manages their controversies, it gives too much room for speculations and they never clear them. The one who's responsible for fixing this situation is Belift but at this point I'm losing hope. Because yes, Enhypen do owe a public apology to Sunoo if it did affected him, or they at least owe a public apology to the fans since they publicly body-shamed Sunoo and offended overweight Engenes in the process of doing so. And let's not forget that as Idols they have a responsibility to be good role models, whether you like it or not, it's part of their job. They are an example for a lot of young impressionable kids, they should do better.