They don’t know ‘bout us

So some of you still bring Jimin interview and they don’t know bout us again as if they asked you to coach their behaviors and teach them..

Jimin literally explains in the interview where the song came from:
“You shape us. You always treat us like we’re such amazing people. But because of that, we don’t have room for growth.”
He doesn’t mean **“**Please hold us accountable so we can become better people.”

He’s talking about what happens when you constantly treat someone as an amazing person**, a role model, a hero, someone who is supposed to embody certain values perfectly**.

Because once you’ve created that image, there’s no room for the actual human being underneath it. No room to make mistakes.
No room to have flaws. No room to have questionable judgment. No room to change your mind. No room to grow into a different version of yourself. No room to simply be imperfect.

He doesn’t want to be put on a pedestal. He says that the pedestal itself can become restrictive.

The more fans treat BTS as exceptionally good people who should represent certain ideals, the more difficult it becomes for them to exist as ordinary human beings who are still figuring themselves out.

“You said we changed? (We didn’t really changed) We feel the same. (the BTS you constructed in your heads was never the complete BTS in the first place)“

Think about how often “BTS changed” has been used whenever members do something that doesn’t fit the version of them fans became attached to.
Dating.
Smoking.
Getting tattoos.
Cursing.
Setting boundaries.
Being more openly adult.
Making choices fans don’t agree with.
now, listening to or attending a Chris Brown concert.

Fans can say I don’t agree with this, I’m disappointed, This changes how I feel about supporting them.
These are okay..If you think these disappointments give you authority to intervene with their personal choices, you are crossing a parasocial boundary.

Maybe we didn’t suddenly discover that BTS became worse people.
Maybe we discovered that the BTS we constructed in our heads was never the complete BTS in the first place.

Thsts why I think the concept of accountability can get distorted in fandom.
Of course public figures can be criticized. BTS aren’t above criticism.
But criticism and authority aren’t the same thing.
You can criticize someone’s decision without believing that you have a role in managing their personal development.

You can disagree with an adult without believing it’s your responsibility to guide, shape, humble, protect, fix or correct them.

Because that’s still a form of parasocial entitlement.
You consume someone’s music. You connect with their art. You support their career. You may genuinely care about them.
But that doesn’t mean you have a personal relationship with them, and it doesn’t give you ownership over who they should become.

You’re still treating them as people who belong to a particular moral image.

Get rid of this idea of BTS can do no wrong or
BTS must become the kind of people I believe they should be.

Neither one really allows them to simply be human.

I think “they don’t know bout us” asking us to understand the limits of what we actually know about them.

They don’t know us. And we don’t know them.
We know what they’ve chosen to show us.
We know their music, their interviews, their public words, their art and pieces of their lives.
But we don’t know everything about seven normal,ordinary human beings.

They said they’re seven human beings. Country men.
They are not seven perfect moral symbols.
Not seven characters whose development belongs to the fandom.
Not seven people who have to remain frozen in the version of themselves we first fell in love with.

Seven human beings who are allowed to be imperfect, make mistakes, disappoint us, grow and still be themselves.