Pros & Cons of the Shipping Culture in K-Pop | Most popular Ships
Pros & Cons of the Shipping Culture in K-Pop
AUTHOR : SREEJITA KARMAKAR
Introduction
Korean pop or (hereinafter referred to as) K-pop is becoming one of the most talked-about things in the world right now. With the scene of music constantly shifting and adapting to new listeners and music lovers, K-pop is now a passion breathed in by its fans like oxygen. As it usually happens, with the popularity of the genre and the music, the popularity of the artists creating that music gets an instant boost. The K-pop artists are not only popular for their stupendous talent in writing songs, producing their own music, singing, rapping, and dancing; they are also popular for their ships with their fellow K-pop artists in the industry.
People have a hint of what shipping two famous personalities is like. It is like you wish the two people, ‘X’ and ‘Y’, to have a relationship because you think they are compatible with each other. Fans usually ship their favourite artists from time to time as they fancy. And sometimes it is just a cute, supportive kind of admiration towards the artists in question, but sometimes things tend to get out of hand. And most of the time things get controversial.
In K-pop, the scene is quite similar. K-pop fans are die-hard lovers of their idols and many of the times they pair an idol with another idol to weave a world about their relationship. These ships are obviously aided by the idols in question, interacting with each other on stage or in award functions or reality television shows and such. Nothing about their personal preferences is known in most cases and nothing about their lives is openly shown on television. We only see the image of a person we think we know on the screen and we find them being kind to each other and think it’s an instant match – let it be romantic or just like a deep friendship. But hey, things are not like K-dramas in real life, are they?
The Most Popular Ships in K-pop
There are different types of ships in K-pop. Some ships are purely heart-warming because the artists involved are best friends and/or members of the same group. Like in the case of the members of BLACKPINK, who are shipped with each other in turns: Rosé being shipped with Lisa, or Lisa being shipped with Jisoo, and so on. Lee Know and Han of Stray Kids, also known by their ship name “Minsung” is the most popular ship in the group. Kai of EXO is shipped with Jennie of BLACKPINK a lot because of their history of having dated each other back in early 2019 and they haven’t gotten back together since they broke up. But their fans and shippers still adore their previous chemistry. Of course, V and Jimin of BTS are shipped for their unbreakable bond of true friendship. They even sing the song “Friends” together as a duo, which further proves the point. The BTS members are often shipped with each other for their brotherly bond. And BTS members V and Jungkook are often individually shipped with Lisa of BLACKPINK, which are two other famous ships of K-pop. Jungkook is also shipped with IU (K-pop soloist) because Jungkook once mentioned her as his ideal type.
These were some of the most popular ships in K-pop. There are way too many other ships in K-pop and some of those ships sail and some sink – pun intended. But the ones that get toxic are the real threats.
Pros & Cons of the Shipping Culture in K-pop
There are no such pros of the shipping culture in K-pop. But some fans are artistically inclined and hence they create lifelike artwork or fanarts of the idols they ship and some fans who are very talented writers, have been writing magnificent fan-fictions about their favourite artists for a long time. This thing is prevalent not only in K-pop but also in the Western music industry. As long as the muses of these fanarts or fan-fictions are not hurt in any way, the shipping culture is seen as harmless.
Cons are way too many when it comes to the shipping culture in the South Korean entertainment industry. Talking about the same fanarts and fan-fictions, some fans may go too overboard with their creations, and that is when things get personal and offensive, and rightly so. Sometimes fans start to obsess over ships so much that what they write or create can cause a lot of unwanted uncomfortable scenarios among the idols concerned. Of course, the idols won’t openly acknowledge their dislikes because of obvious reasons but they sometimes get mentally stressed out seeing things take off in distressful directions.
Why do Ships Start?
This can be answered differently because the answers vary from person to person, but there may be a proper reason. For instance, skinship in the South Korean entertainment industry is seen as a common gesture of friendship. Idols have been seen hugging and even kissing each other on several occasions.
Before clearing the air on this, one thing should be made clear that even if the K-pop idols are each others’ rivals in the industry, they are still friends with each other. Some of them have been friends since their childhood, while some became friends in their trainee days and have stuck together through the hard years of training to become K-pop idols. They have seen the true struggle together. Even though some have ended up debuting in different groups, their friendship is still strong. That being said, kissing or hugging each other to show their admiration or to congratulate each other on their successes is nothing wrong. Some idols even playfully kiss each other on camera and that is okay as long as the idols involved are okay with it. But again, some people put the stamp of ships on such idols and things go downhill.
Some companies frame contracts with their idols, where they clearly state that dating is not allowed while they work under the agency for the certain period mentioned. This is so disturbing, considering the fact that Western artists also date people they like and their fans are completely okay with that, as they should be. And this no-dating policy in K-pop is almost always owing to the same “fans” who like to ship artists without consent. As it is, K-pop idols are put through rigorous routines and they barely get time to sleep properly, let alone date people. And that is also because, in South Korea, LGBTQ+ is still not seen as freely as it should be. But things are changing slowly for the good, and some K-pop artists have also embraced this topic in their music videos.
How to Control Shipping Idols?
It is simple, we have to look at idols as human beings with their likes and dislikes, their own minds and hearts. One cannot force their will on others, people can have their own will, including internationally famous K-pop artists. People who call themselves “fans” of such idols, must learn to respect the decisions and privacy of their idols. Creating fanarts and fan-fictions is not wrong, as it is also a method of showing your love and appreciation towards your favourite artist but such creations should either be kept to the creators themselves or be shared with the public in such a way that they respect the idols and their privacy. Disclaimer should be mentioned at the beginning of fan-fictions or for fanarts that claim the creations to be completely imaginary and not related to the idols in real life. Anything vulgar should be sued by the companies under which the idols work.
Mental health is a very important topic that should be acknowledged at all levels.
Until news of relationships between idols is officially announced by their companies and by declarations on social media by trustworthy South Korean websites with the permission of the companies concerned, one should not believe any rumours about idols dating each other. This causes unnecessary fuss about the idols involved and is misleading. In apps like V LIVE, Weverse, etc., while one idol goes live or comes online, fans should not mention other idols in unacceptable ways.
Conclusion
We all are allowed to have our own opinions, but as sensible people, we should also know what and how much to share, so that others are not getting hurt or involved in any wrong way. We are all human beings with emotions and feelings at the end of the day.
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