When “What is your unpopular opinion about K-Pop?” was posted on the Internet community board Quora, odds are that no one expected someone, anyone, to come through with a response solely about Oli London. But, that’s exactly what happened, and it is a very intriguing read.
The K-Pop fan begins her post with a caveat of sorts, asking that others try to understand where she’s coming from.
Because this is controversial and I don’t want hate, I’m gonna ask you please don’t comment unless you’ve read the whole answer and heard all of my points. I don’t want people coming at me and telling my why I’m wrong until they’ve listened to what I have to say in its entirety. Also, if you disagree with my opinions, please don’t be rude about it. You can share your views, obviously, but if you’re rude I won’t hesitate to delete your comment. Thank you.
—Aubrey, K-Pop fan
They also went on to acknowledge that their answer wasn’t specifically related to K-Pop, but essentially K-Pop adjacent. Are you ready for their “unpopular opinion”…?
Alrighty. Here’s a very unpopular opinion: Oli London is a good guy
—Aubrey, K-Pop fan
Oli, who has undergone over $150,000 worth of surgeries in six years, often receives criticism from both K-Pop fans and non-K-Pop fans alike over his obsession with BTS‘s Jimin. Oli is such a fan, that he even married a cardboard cutout of Jimin in Las Vegas! His unconventional lifestyle has led to malicious rumors being spread about him, as well as being sent hate messages. The respondent outlines four of the big rumors/reasons that many in the K-Pop fan community don’t like him (commentary in parenthesis below is her own):
- He’s an obsessive BTS fan
- He doesn’t follow BTS’s “love yourself” message
- He’s Islamophobic (which isn’t true by the way)
- He’s racist (which also isn’t true)
The K-Pop fan, Aubrey, begins to break down why she believes each reason is untrue. Starting with the first point, she says:
OK, let’s start with the first thing, that he’s an obsessive BTS fan. Sure, he is. Some people call him a sasaeng, which is not actually true. The definition of a sasaeng fan is “an obsessive fan who stalks, or engages in other behaviour constituting an invasion of the privacy of a Korean idol or other public figure.” Oli London doesn’t do that. The only things he’s done where he tried to meet Jimin were go so some locations in Korea that Jimin supposedly went to a lot. And millions of fans have done that.
He’s not one of the fans who’s gotten Jimin’s phone number and tried to hunt him down. He hasn’t ever tried to grab Jimin or any of the other BTS members, because he’s never met them. He’s tried to meet them by going to locations they like. He didn’t do anything else to ensure that they met, he just went to some locations and hoped that he might see them. And he didn’t. Big deal. So many BTS fans have tried that.
—Aubrey, K-Pop fan
She also tactfully points out that while people are quick to criticize Oli for modifying his appearance through plastic surgery, getting BTS-related tattoos is also an expensive and permanent decision. And, while she understands that plastic surgery and tattoos are not the same things, “they are both irreversible and expensive.”
And even more so, they’re both thing that people can decide to do with their own body, that don’t hurt anyone. What he does with his body is his choice. If he wants to try to make himself look like Jimin, that’s his own choice, and it’s not my place, your place, or anyone else’s place to tell him that he can’t.
—Aubrey, K-pop fan
Moving on to the second point, she says that she’s heard fellow K-Pop fans say that Oli can’t be a BTS fan because he doesn’t follow their message of loving yourself. However he feels about himself, she points out that people around the world haven’t hesitated to mock and bully him, calling him ugly and disgusting.
Now imaging millions of people telling you that, telling you that you’re ugly and disgusting, before they even know the first thing about you. It’s literally just bullying guys. You’re essentially telling him that he’s worth less as a person because of his body, and because of what he chose to do with it. And that’s just cruel.
—Aubrey, K-Pop fan
The bullying in itself becomes a problem because it doesn’t follow BTS’s overall message of positivity and kindness.
Moving on to accusations that Oli is Islamophobic, she says, “The definition of Islamophobia is ‘dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force.’” While she couldn’t find the specific source of the accusations against Oli, she believes it began when he made an offhanded comment about hijabs.
I can’t find the specific comment that made people think he was Islamophobic, but I think it was something along the lines of hijabs are restrictive, or sexist or something? I don’t really know.
— Aubrey, K-Pop fan
She blames his thoughtlessness regarding the specific comment on a lack of knowledge rather than outright racism.
I honestly think he meant well with this comment, since he didn’t necessarily say anything hateful towards Islam. I think he was just being kind of clueless and insensitive, and didn’t realize that his comments would be offensive. As someone who isn’t Muslim, I wouldn’t have known that people would find that offensive. I personally wouldn’t have posted something like that without doing some research first, but just because he made a stupid mistake doesn’t mean that he believes that Muslims are inferior to other religions.
— Aubrey, K-Pop fan
As proof to backup her claim that he isn’t Islamophobic, she shared a screenshot of his Instastory wishing his Muslim friends and fans Eid Mubarak.
Finally, she addresses the claims that Oli is racist.
People think that he’s racist, usually people think that he’s racist against Koreans. Let’s look at the definition of the word racism: “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.”
— Aubrey, K-Pop fan
She admits that she finds some of the things he does culturally insensitive, including the generalizations he makes about Koreans, however, he doesn’t appear to have malicious intentions behind it, and rather, it comes from a place of ignorance.
Now, let’s make a new list, of some things that people like to ignore about Oli London:
- He is very involved with the BLM movement
- He’s also very involved with LGBTQ pride
- He’s never done anything harmful to anyone but himself, but has done a lot to try to help others
—Aubrey, K-Pop fan
She uses the fact that Oli was out protesting for the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and posted a series of pictures on his Instagram that included the following caption:
Black Lives Matter.
End racism now.
Demand justice for George Floyd and all other victims of racism.
In America now there has been no justice for all of the victims of racism and police brutality. There has been no justice. Instead the President is inciting the violence, causing division and has ordered police and military to use extreme force on protesters. Police are also beating and arresting journalists. People are angry. Instead of charging all the racist officers involved in the violent murder of black people, the President is adding fuel to the fire and is responsible for the unrest. People are angry. They need their voices heard and things must change.
To any police officer in America reading this…your duty is to Protect and to Serve. By shooting tear gas, beating protesters and using excessive force you are bringing disgrace to your badge and you should be charged with assault. Do not follow orders blindly. If something is morally wrong do not do it.
This is what happened with the rise of the Nazis in Germany. It is alarming to see the similarities now with Trump threatening martial law. The world looks on in horror but if we don’t use our voice now things will only get worse.Speak up now. Demand justice. End racism and oppression. Do not be silenced.
— Oli London
As for claims that he’s friends with racists, and thusly, complicit in racism, she addresses this as well:
Additionally, he just posted an hour ago on his Instagram that he broke off his friendship with Frenchy Morgan, a weeaboo who’s ALSO had a lot of plastic surgery. From what I can tell, they were pretty good friends, but he just completely ended their friendship after he called her out for being racist. He was given the choice between staying with one of his best friends or standing up for what’s right. He made the right decision, and chose that human rights are more important than staying friends with a racist bigot like Frenchy Morgan.
And before people start being like, “wHy WaS hE fRiEnDs WiTh HeR iN tHe FiRsT pLaCe?” I want you to think about this. Have you ever been friends with someone and then later realized they were toxic? I imagine most people have. When you first became friends, you didn’t know they were toxic. And then you were given the choice between staying with that friend, or finding a new group of friends. And that’s not always an easy choice. So respect that he made the right decision here.
— Aubrey, K-Pop fan
Aubrey wraps up her post by saying:
And just so you know, I’m not claiming that he’s a saint, or that he’s perfect. He’s done his fair share of things I don’t like, or things that just cross the line. Marrying a cardboard cutout of Jimin? That’s a bit superfluous. Filling your bathtub with noodles, bathing in it, and then allegedly eating them all? That’s f*cking disgusting. Claiming to be Korean? Well, he’s not, race isn’t a social construct, it’s genetics, so that’s just not true.
But that doesn’t mean he’s a bad person.
I don’t really know how much this answer will accomplish. I think people who already hate Oli London aren’t going to admit that they were wrong about some things just because they have new information. Usually, when people hate someone, that’s pretty set in stone. I just hope this answer was able to give them a little more information so that maybe they’ll consider giving him a little more leeway, and stop criticizing his every move.
— Aubrey, K-Pop fan
What do you think about this “unpopular” opinion?
Source: Koreaboo
