the popbaseification of kim mingyu.
on the boundary line between being a celebrity and being a human being.
The more I learn about the kpop idol industry, the more I realize that it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. It’s more than just a job — it’s a lifestyle, with constant work and promotions and events and cameras even during their “off” times. Idols seem to let their fans into every aspect of their life to the point that fans feel close to them — like they really know them.
Kim Mingyu of SEVENTEEN is a good example of this. He has risen to the top as one of the most popular members of the group. Of all the members of the group, he has the most Instagram followers, his photocards are among the most expensive, and an infamous “boyfriend” selfie of him recently broke kpop Twitter. He’s so popular that nearly every time new footage or a new photo of him gets released, the Twitter account PopBase posts about it, using outlandish adjectives every time that leave the replies full of jokes about a thesaurus and screenshots of the definition. (One fan event even went so far as to decorate the space with photos of him and the corresponding word PopBase used to describe it, which I just loved.) This brings him so much attention from non-kpop fans who follow that account, which leads to more popularity for Mingyu, which spirals the cycle even further. (SEVENTEEN performed at Glastonbury Festival last week and, in the days after, he was the #1 most followed male kpop idol on Instagram.)
But where is the boundary line between being an idol and being an actual human being with feelings and struggles?
There’s been so much discourse online about how the relationships between certain idols and their fans far surpass being parasocial. To borrow a word from Hank Green, it’s almost “sarapocial,” where idols feel the same way about their fans as the fans do about the idol.
Take JungKook from BTS, for example. Any fan of BTS (called “Army”) will tell you that the times when he livestreamed random moments of his life on Weverse last year made them feel like they were let into his life far more than ever before. Some said that they almost felt as if they had a genuine friendship with him. Which is just insane to think of because, hello, it’s JungKook, whose lead single last year topped the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard Global 200, and Billboard Global (excluding US) charts simultaneously.
But it’s hard to explain to anybody who isn’t a fan of BTS, and it sounds like a cop out, but… those who get it, get it. Someone calculated the time he spent “with” fans during the hours he went live in 2023, and it totaled over thirty-four hours. (I totaled it — it was me.) That’s just an insane amount of time to be spending with someone, let alone a celebrity as famous as JungKook. But fans were let into his life to an insane degree. Some even joked that they’d seen his kitchen more than they’d seen their family that year. (Also me.)
It feels crazy to say that fans almost feel like he’s their close personal friend, but after spending that much time with him — watching him do karaoke in his living room, fold his laundry, vacuuming, working out, cooking, etc etc etc — how can you not?
To non-fans, it may seem insane for kpop fans to feel protective of their favorites (their “biases”), but it’s totally understandable in that fandom’s subculture. After all, they spent thirty-four hours in JungKook’s apartment last year. Who wouldn’t feel close and thus protective of him?
Which brings us back to Mingyu. Mingyu, who is constantly rushed at airports. Mingyu, whose photos will make even non-kpop fans do a double take. Mingyu, whose fans have a whole inside joke about him involving adjectives and PopBase.
Mingyu, who is still a real person whose fans describe him as kind, smart, and genuine. Mingyu, who still has struggles. Mingyu, who routinely cooks for his friends, no matter where they are. Mingyu, who gets shy when too much attention is on him. Mingyu, who blow-dries his friends’ hair and holds them when they cry and encourages them in the gym.
Mingyu, who has watched his friends go through so much and helped them through it all. He has such a big heart and so much love to share with his friends. He’s the tallest of the members of SEVENTEEN and among the more muscular “gym bro” members, yet he’d rather scream and run than kill a bug. Of course fans would feel protective of him.
Because of how endeared fans feel towards him, replies to PopBase’s tweets about him are full of “Get out of our house!” and “This is family business” and “omfg you don’t even know him stop looking at him!!!”
And they’re not alone. Although this “personal” connection seems the most extreme in kpop, that’s not where it stops.
Taylor Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, recently spoke up about how invasive it felt when the world found out about their breakup, saying he’d only had a few days to process before the entire world was weighing in. Regardless of what you thought about their breakup, one can sympathize with Joe, who was once adored by millions of swifties around the globe and now faces their vitriol. (Even as a fierce swiftie of over a decade myself, I empathize with the rough situation Joe has found himself in and admire how he’s carried himself.)
But where is the line between stepping up and defending Taylor’s honor and letting Joe… be a flawed human, but a human nonetheless? Why do we stand up for this larger than life character that is Taylor Swift, insisting that we know what went down between them?
Because fans feel a sense of almost entitlement to her in how close they feel with her. They’ve watched her grow up and suffer through the pain of losing her masters and post chai sugar cookie recipes on Tumblr — of course they’d defend her when she breaks up with the man they all thought she’d be with forever.
Taylor Swift and Kim Mingyu are alike in this respect — they both have millions of fans who adore them and will line up to defend them at a moment’s notice. But how much of this adoration is just that… adoration? Do we really know Taylor or Mingyu? Or do we just think that we do?
The duality of celebrity is evidenced in moments like this — when fans think they know their idol’s heart of heart and yet, in reality, know very little about the person they’re idolizing.
During the American leg of the Eras Tour, some swifties grew irritated that Taylor’s popularity grew exponentially overnight, and with good cause. After all, they were starting to see people who had once made fun of them for singing “22” and “You Belong With Me” now post pictures of them posing in feather boas in front of the multicolored collage on Taylor’s stage. These fans aren’t protective of Taylor because they want to stick it to the man who broke up with her — they’re protective of her because they’ve been with her through thick and thin as she’s given them courage to face their tumultuous high school years, college romances, or whatever it may be.
There’s something to be said for fans with pure motives, and it’s understandable why swifties would be hesitant to this new change of her rising fame.
Does the general population like Taylor for her lyricism, or because the Eras Tour changed concert culture and shaped the summer of 2023? Do PopBase’s followers like Mingyu because he’s hot, or because he loves his friends so fiercely that it borders on intimidating?
Only fans can know their true motives, which is probably for the best. And casual stanning is a thing, after all. One can be a casual fan of Taylor’s music, just like one can appreciate Mingyu’s abs when they appear in PopBase’s Tweets.
Actually, please don’t appreciate them. Stay out of our house; this is family business.