JYP Entertainment recently collaborated with Republic Records to debut an international girl group named VCHA from the survival show “A2K”. At the end of the show, many netizens were happy to see a lineup full of members from different races and cultures. In particular, members Savanna and Camila are of Black and Latina descents, respectively.
However, fans’ excitement dwindled after seeing these 2 members ended up being “whitewashed” by JYP.
To specify, JYP recently released teaser images for VCHA’s 1st single, “Girls of the Year”. However, in their images, Savanna and Camila looked noticeably paler, and their hair was straightened, erasing the natural curly texture signature for their ethnicities,
As a result, many have criticized JYP for forcing the girl to conform to Korean beauty standards by “whitewashing” them.
A fan even shared a side-by-side comparison of Savanna and Camila during “A2K” and in the new teaser, revealing remarkable differences.
It seems that the K-pop industry still has a long way to go when it comes to embracing diversity and letting go of toxic beauty standards.
Source: Krb
