Some fans’ recent obsession with ”mature” concepts is kinda creepy

These past few years i’ve noticed people have “rediscovered” 2nd gen and i think part of it (other than the fact that the music is really good) stems from people who are bothered by companies debuting groups full of kids. That isn’t new obviously but people are probably only realizing now how young some of these new idols are because they were used to seeing idols way older than them. And I’ve seen a concerning amount of people saying that they want adults back in kpop because they want to see mature/sexy concepts make a comeback. Which is a pretty stupid statement considering the fact that there were definitely minors in some of those groups and half of the members could barely be considered adults. Some of these people are ardently against the sexualization of minors but the very second that they become legal they don’t seem to be bothered that the company is making that idol do a mature concept when their birthday was a week ago. They’ll claim “they’re a grown adult they should be able to do that” “they’re almost 18 they’re not 5”. They’ll make themselves sound like literal creeps while trying to defend the choices of their companies who are trying to appeal to creeps. I wasn’t around in 2nd and 3rd gen but i definitely remember the backlash surrounding Adult ceremony and how creepy it was. When i see people hoping an idol will do a more mature concept the minute they turn 18,i definitely think of that.

Also i just don’t get the obsession with “they’re an adult so they have to do a sexy concept” or complaining that a concept is “too childish” for an idol that’s like 22 or something. Like have we considered that not everyone wants to do a mature concept just because they’re an adult. I remember multiple idols from that era opened up about how they never even wanted to do that and were forced to anyways. Whenever anything happens it’s the company’s doing but when it comes to an idol it’s somehow entirely out of their own will.

Tbh this might just be a Tiktok kpop thing cuz that’s where I interact with kpop content the most but I swear I lose braincells every single time I see another post romanticizing that era while ignoring how traumatizing and predatory it was for some of these idols.