How Min Hee Jin is being a double-edged sword for New Jeans, fans are concerned about the pedophilia and malicious comments
The “Min Hee Jin Magic” proves its worth as New Jeans go viral. However, this might be a double-edged sword for them.
2022 was the year of New Jeans. The rookie girl group is complimented for both their star quality as well as performances. The magic of Min Hee Jin, the CEO of New Jeans’ agency, is working well as the girls received their first payment in 2 months after their debut.
Min Hee Jin was originally an art director from SM. Her hands extended in various fields, including music and idol image making. In fact, many idols have gained public recognition through Min Hee Jin, such as SM’s SHINee, f(x), and Red Velvet.
Min Hee Jin later moved to HYBE to create an idol group of her own color. She created the agency ADOR under HYBE, and that’s how New Jeans was born.
New Jeans was extraordinary from the start as they have been doing extremely well and have only greeted the public with the best results. New Jeans use their freshness as a weapon. But aside from their lovely charms, the girls also depict a narrative that only a group with an average age of 16.4 can produce. Their unique music and charms have met the needs of the public.
However, the more popular they are, the more diverse the public’s reaction is. Criticism is unavoidable, and it even got excessive. However, there is a reason for such excessive criticism. This is the point where the conflict between Min Hee Jin’s beliefs and some listeners’ interest occur.
Right from their debut, New Jeans was embroiled in a “lolita controversy.” As Min Hee Jin’s aesthetic is the girlishness of young girls, if excessive, it is likely to be recognized as “pedophilia.”
The controersy actually broke out after the song “Cookie” by New Jeans was released. Many believed there was a sexual innuendo hidden in the lyrics sung by these underage girls. In addition, mature clothes that do not fit the member’s age in the “Attention” music video were also a problem.
Popularity and criticism regarding New Jeans are accompanying each other. But fans are ever more worrisome as the girls are still very young. In the music video for their new song “OMG,” there is a scene where member Min Ji seems to be warning the “malicious comments.” The scene was discussed between the music video director and ADOR before being used. The agency explained that it was an open ending, but there are many listeners who are uncomfortable as they deem it unnecessary to put the members at the forefront of malicious comments like that.
“For me, Min Hee Jin’s girl group New Jeans is a group that is inspired by f(x)’s nostalgia. I guess it’s because they have Min Hee Jin’s aesthetic.” This is what A, a fan of f(x) said. f(x) is also a girl group that was mentioned in Min Hee Jin’s “pedophilia controversy.”
With masterpieces such as “Pink Tape” and “4 Walls,” f(x) are always mentioned as the representative of Min Hee Jin’s color. Nevertheless, throughout their K-Pop career, they were not free from the “malicious comments” related to “underage sexualization.”
It has been proven that Min Hee Jin’s aesthetic works wonder on the public audience. However, there are times when her vibe is a “double-edged sword.” It is high time Min should be more flexible to deal with malicious comments.
Source: Tenasia
