SM Entertainment is under the rock after K-Pop band Aespa’s fans accused the agency of mistreating the leader of Aespa, Karina.
After their debut in November 2020, Aespa has become one of the most exciting groups in South Korea. This band has also achieved global fame. But with fame and popularity come controversies. This time Karina, the leader of the band is involved with the controversy with SM Entertainment.
Who Is Karina?
Yu Ji-Min who is also famous with the stage name Karina is the leader and main dancer of the band Aespa.
At the time of the band’s debut, many people thought that Karina was the ‘company baby’ and that she was favored over the other members of the band. The other members of the band are Giselle, Ning Ning, and Winter. But after the latest drama, people’s perspectives about Karina have changed.
Why Have People Started Accusing SM Entertainment?
On December 8th, many fans reported that several photos of Karina were deleted from the official account of the band on Instagram. This led to many people blaming SM Entertainment for treating Karina badly.
Other than this, many other factors were also pointed out. Many fans pointed out that since the debut of the group, there were fewer photos released of Karina on social media compared to the other band members.
Karina has only 52 pictures of her whereas the rest of the members have more. Many other fans also noticed that this was not the only time she wasn’t given equal attention.
Winter, Ningning, and Giselle were also featured on Aespa’s Weibo account in June and July. Sadly, Karina’s photos were overseen by the company. Only after fans started trending hashtags and wrote emails to the company, SM Entertainment put photos of Karina.
Even on Karina’s birthday, there were no special videos released. Though special birthday videos were released for other members of the band.
It was also seen that on Giselle’s birthday a polaroid photo was uploaded by SM Entertainment, but Karina was cropped out of the photo. The photo showed only Giselle, Ning Ning, and Winter and a bit of Karina’s arm. This photo caused a lot of outrage amongst the fans. Fans also pointed out that Karina was given the least number of lines in the breakthrough album of the band.
SM Entertainment Accused Of More Accusations
SM Entertainment was also accused of dressing Karina in outfits that did not allow a lot of movement. This was a big thing as Karina was the band’s lead dancer.
In November Karina had her first solo activity. In that, she made a vlog series titled ‘Travel Diary: Soul: Seoul, in which she promoted Seoul. Although it was Karina’s first solo tour, SM Entertainment advertised it barely.
Because of all these situations, many people have shown disappointment towards SM Entertainment. Fans also said that their behavior was disastrous for the company only as Karina was the leader of the band. SM Entertainment is risking permanently upsetting Karina’s significant fan base if they don’t push her into the spotlight and treat her equally.