AITA? — Netizen Who "Shot Down" Brother's K-Pop Dream Gains Attention

A netizen is gaining attention for their post on the Reddit community r/AmItheAsshole. They asked others if they are in the wrong for dashing their brother’s K-Pop dreams by saying he “doesn’t fit the K-Pop beauty standards.”

My little brother is 12 and recently he saw this video that was an audition casting for the big K-Pop company HYBE, which has groups such as BTS and all. He immediately jumped to tell our mom about it, saying he wants to be part of a K-Pop group and live in Korea, he specifically idolizes the group Riize, which is an SM boy group. The thing is, he’s not Korean and doesn’t fit the K-Pop beauty standards. I know how toxic the K-Pop industry is, seeing as I’m a K-Pop fan myself and think it’s a silly idea. He has next to no chance of getting accepted and I told him that. He kept watching a lot of videos on how to get accepted and such and kept asking me if he fit the beauty standard and if he had certain features (he doesn’t) and I told him he doesn’t have the appearance to be a K-Pop idol. He took offense to that. I told him if he wanted to be famous so bad he could be a normal singer.

— After-Significance29

maxresdefault — RIIZE | SM Entertainment

I Want To Be A K-Pop Idol_ Can Intensive Bootcamps In South Korea Help_ - Part 2 _ Talking Point 4-17 screenshot — Students in a K-Pop inspired bootcamp | *CNA Insider/YouTube*

The comments were divided, with some saying they were at fault and other’s agreeing with them.

At Fault

First up, a few netizens did not like how the original poster dashed on their brother’s dreams. They commented that because it was unrealistic to achieve anyway, there was no harm in allowing him to dream.

Comment
byu/After-Significance29 from discussion
inAmItheAsshole

Not At Fault

On the other hand, most comments seemed to point to the original poster being “Not the A*shole.” They brought up the fact that precisely because K-Pop is known to be a harsh industry, they would not encourage anyone to join.

The K-Pop industry is horrible. If you aren’t constantly forced to diet till you physically anorexic, you can’t even date publicly because you basically become a product your company wants to sell by feeding this parasocial relationship with your fans.

— @backtobak