Non-Stop K-Pop: Picking apart the ‘pick-me’s’ 

It’s a well known fact that when a group or idol becomes famous, they fall victim to an abundance of unsolicited hate. This is especially true for all-women groups and idols — you know, the ones that starve themselves for weeks on end and are forced to wear uncomfortably skimpy outfits? These women and girls are the ones who are berated to the bitter end. Color me surprised. 

This specific topic of “pick-me” hate piqued my interest a year ago when a video IVE’s Jang Won-young’s ( 장원영) manner of eating a strawberry sparked controversy on social media. For non K-pop fans, “pick-me” hate may sound very confusing. In all honesty, I don’t think my explanation will really relieve you of that confusion but, regardless, I’ll do my best.

In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock (I hope it’s comfy), IVE, and more specifically Wonyoung, have dominated every aspect of K-pop since the group’s debut on December 1, 2021. To say the six girls were catapulted into stardom is an understatement. They’re now competing with girl groups that have been out for two or three times as long as they have. 

This explosion of popularity has less to do with raw talent and more to do with impressive marketing and previous popularity. Two of the IVE’s members, Wonyoung and Yujin (유진), are well-known members of the former group IZ*ONE, which disbanded in April 2021. IZ*ONE was composed of the winning girls of an idol competition show, Produce48, which ranked all competitors based on their talents and visuals. Unsurprisingly, Wonyoung was ranked first at the end of the show in October 2018. 

It’s important to explain the context behind the amount of sheer hatred this poor girl receives. It’s very much a case of “they hate us cause they ain’t us,” except she’s fourth generation K-pop’s “It girl,” and her haters are people who haven’t left their parents’ basement in three days. 

Now, back to the strawberry incident.

The event in question occurred on April 16, 2022, when MBC’s “The Manager” was released to the public eye. This segment was intended to give fans an inside look to the dorm life of IVE, their day-to-day habits and hobbies, etc. It very much gives invasive propaganda, but I digress. 

In the clip, Wonyoung picks up and eats a strawberry with — gasp — two hands and begins to nibble on the end of it. For some reason, this set the internet ablaze, and the accusations of her being a “pick-me” were impossible to stay away from. 

Tweets reposted by Kpopstarz.com in their article about the “issue” include, “Eating with both hands was a little too much,” with similar statements being sprinkled in with claims she was acting “too unnatural” because of the camera.

I don’t know about you, but I would probably not be acting “natural” if there was a camera in my home, but maybe that’s just me. 

To make matters worse, six months later, two members of the girl group ALICE mocked Wonyoung’s strawberry-eating in a vlog. Re-emphasizing the viral moment unnecessarily highlighted the event again and degraded the IVE member, who just turned 18 this past August. 

Other instances in which Wonyoung was attacked for being a “pick-me” include: when she threw the first pitch at a Doosan Bears baseball game, basically every time she’s ever eaten during a livestream, when she drank boba on an idol show and whenever she poses for the camera. Her existence really pisses people off for some reason. 

Unfortunately, Wonyoung is not the only victim in this series of gender-specific harassment. Shin Yu-na (신유나) from ITZY has also fallen into the hands of social media trolls who are convinced that she acts either for the male gaze or to prove to others that she’s just “quirky.” Similarly, Tsuki (츠키) from Billlie apparently also just gives off those vibes simply because of her unique facial expressions during her performances, which I actually adore. 

This is clearly blatant sexism. I just want to get that out of the way in case I haven’t made that abundantly evident already. This “pick-me” rhetoric just proves that no matter what you do or how you do it, if you are a female K-pop idol, chances are, you’re doing something wrong. Breathing? Probably doing it wrong. Same thing goes for posing for the camera. And don’t you dare eat that strawberry. You’ll likely do that wrong, too. 

Daphne Yaman is a sophomore writing about K-pop. Her column, “Non-Stop K-Pop” runs every other Wednesday. She is also an opinion editor at the Daily Trojan.