NewJeans uploaded a dancing video on their official TikTok account ‘newjeans_official’ on July 26th.
In the video, member Min-ji is wearing a crop tee with the phrase “PIMP IS Yours”, which sparked controversy. “PIMP” is a noun that means “prostitution”
NewJeans Min-ji, who wore the outfit with the controversial phrase, was born in 2004 and she is only 18 years old this year. After the video was released, many netizens on online communities criticized the agency for dressing Minji, who is not only a minor but also a woman, in the outfit with an inappropriate phrase.
Later, a netizen, who claimed themselves as a director of the clothing brand named PIMP that produced that crop top, posted a comment regarding the controversial phrase, saying “Expressing great cultural value, ‘pimp’ is a word originated from a slang that has been used since the 70s and 80s until now in the U.S with a similar meaning to ‘glamorous decoration’.”
However, netizens continued to criticize, saying “Even if it means ‘decoration’, it feels cheap. The crop tee looks weird when being worn by a minor”, “Saying that a word that is explained clearly in the dictionary a slang is the way to solve this?”, “It was the foreigners who started this controversy”, etc.
In addition, the clothing brand reportedly posted a statement on Twitter apologizing to girl group NewJeans, fans, and the stylists, saying “We are seriously considering changing the brand name due to this incident.”
NewJeans’s agency and CEO Min Hee-jin have not released any position yet.
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