So I saw the thread on Netizenbuzz about G-Dragon's hat with the word "cunt" on it.
This picture is actually several months old, and I've seen it before, so I have no idea why it's being brought up in Korean media right now all of a sudden. It's a fucking stupid photo, G-Dragon looks like a tool (when does he not, let's be honest here folks, sure he's creative and talented but he's such a weedy looking dude and without his involvement in k-pop nobody would look at the guy twice except to sweep a driveway or something), but it's also done fairly tongue-in-cheek. I bet you have gone into a store, seen a fucking stupid hat that you wouldn't wear in a million years, and tried it on while someone took a dumbass photo of you - that's obviously what this is.
Of course, Korean netizens are crying about it like it's their business and they are OH SO SRS as per:
1. [+107, -14] Can he please check the words on his clothing before he wears them? I can't even imagine how tough his fangirls have it
2. [+108, -10] GD, please think before you wear things. How many times have you been on the chopping block for things like this?
And western netizens are no better, here's part of the wonderful chat I had with the good people who comment on Netizenbuzz, where everyone strains themselves to be as much like Korean netizens as possible in the hope that one day their dreams will come true and they'll wake up Korean:
The video I linked, I recommend you all watch it, educational purposes y'all:
And you've got NO IDEA how much it pains me to link a video of The Young Turks because I really don't like them AT ALL, I really don't like the guy, but the girl is saying stuff that many of my less-uptight female friends have also said, so I thought it was a good example. It saves me from having to type out all that shit about how opinions on the word aren't universal among females like you would think and some see it as an empowering word and blah fuckin' blah... Anyway... the conversation continues:
And that right there sums up the netizen hive-mind the world over.
Something that I didn't add to my argument, because whenever I mention to strangers online that I'm a music industry professional and therefore I actually have somewhat of an informed opinion about music industry matters, they act like I just told them to eat their own shit in a bucket: I like G-Dragon's hat not because I like G-Dragon (I don't mind the odd BigBang song but I'm not about to drop to my knees and suck the guy off) but because I have actually created clothes like what he's wearing, for the express purpose of offending as many people as possible. For publicity. Yes, it fucking worked.
Presenting some of my old band's merchandise, modelled by the lovely Danni Du Bois:
Okay, so the hair and the gun is in the way of the text, but the t-shirt says "PROBLEM, CUNT?" and my old punk band made these shirts and we would sell them at shows. Both men and women bought them. One guy even got himself beaten up when he went around town with one of our shirts on, drunkenly yelling "Problem, cunt?" at people - which is kind of funny actually. He came back to us after with the shirt ripped and blood all over it and we gave him another one. We also sold other items of clothing with the same slogan, and had a few different designs.
Obviously I don't need to explain my position on this any further. Stephen Fry sums it up nicely, saving me even more typing:
As for the Korean idols who wear supposedly offensive slogans in English, which happens quite a lot it seems, I have no idea how clued in their wardrobe departments are about the swearing and what it means, I would assume maybe some of them know, and the bigger labels all have English-speaking staff, so I'm sure it's not just all slipping through the net out of ignorance, but I don't care really. I laugh when I see idols wearing supposedly offensive shit, I think it's great, especially as the music is so sweet and syrupy. I dig the juxtaposition of those elements.
Like I care if others can't deal with it, in Korea or elsewhere. Maybe one day they'll get off their computers and go out into the real world and someone will call them a cunt and their head will spin around and they'll shoot green bile from their face like Linda Blair in The Exorcist.
I hope someone takes a selca.