New Starship Entertainment girl group IVE quickly cemented themselves to watch out for after making waves with their debut earlier in the month. Yet, the group is under fire after three of its members have been accused of mocking the desi culture in a recent video.
On December 11, the group uploaded some behind-the-scenes clips from the music video shoot of their debut track, “ELEVEN.” For most of it, fans couldn’t get enough of watching the chemistry between the members on the set of their first ever single as a new group.
In the latter half of the video, fans quickly noticed something that some have deemed offensive. During one of the scenes, member Yujin put her hand under Rei‘s chin, and Rei started moving her head along to the captions, which read, “Dduru dduru ddu,” before they both started laughing.
Rei then puts her own hand under Wonyoung‘s chin, and she then copies the actions done by Rei earlier in the video. The three members are then seen doing the actions together with the same rhythm and amused looks on their faces.
When the video was shared, this clip quickly went viral on Twitter and TikTok. Netizens shared their thoughts on what happened. For many South Asians, this music with the “dduru” comes from popular songs in the film industry and is extremely popular.
However, the head movement used by the members is called “attami” and is normally used in traditional Indian dances. These dances are learned by people from a very young age and take years of hard work and dedication to master.
Netizens shared their thoughts on the nature of the video. While some didn’t see any issues with the moves, many Desi netizens shared that their moves seemed to mock the culture as it was doing actions seen as “stereotypical.”
Yet, while others may have voiced that the members would not have done it to harm others intentionally, they shared that they need to be educated by those around them.
Considering that the group has only just debuted, netizens are worried that this lack of awareness might damage their careers and also lead to more mistakes.
Neither the members nor Starship Entertainment has released a statement.
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