greenteamango · @greenteamango
26th Jan 2016 from TwitLonger
2016-01-26
I wanted to write this because I know international fans have felt "out of the loop" regarding some "drama" and the popular Irene fansite, Be My Brownie. As someone who is personally annoyed by how international fans are misinterpreting the situation, I wanted to try to lay down the information for everyone to read.
1. This is an issue which personally makes me very angry. If you read this, know that I do have an opinion and a stance on the issue. This is not an "unbiased" piece. There is no one who has been seeing all of this play out that is "unbiased".
This is very long. There is a lot to go through. I will try to do it in a Q&A format.
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Q: I heard Be My Brownie is suing "haters". Is it true?
A: Yes, Be My Brownie has been asking for people to send her evidence and has threatened to sue. She has apparently gotten the police involved and people have begun to receive messages via KakaoTalk.
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Q: Who are the "haters"?
A: Mostly Korean Red Velvet fans
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Q: OMG why would people hate on Be My Brownie?
A: Be My Brownie is not innocent in any manner.
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Q: I read something about a "DC Gallery". What is "DC Gallery"?
A: DC Gallery is a website that anyone can post on. It receives a lot of spam and has no real methods of filter. While it's not exactly a realiable source for anything, because it's so accessible, fanaccounts, updates, etc., often get posted to DC Gallery. A lot of trash also gets posted to DC Gallery. The website DC Gallery is not a new one and has been and still is a part of many fandoms.
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Q: So what's the problem?
A: Recently, separate (individual) DC Galleries have been created for members, versus the original DC Gallery which is for the entire group. There is an issue with the Irene DC Gallery which many fans have taken a stance against, including another familiar name - Red Velvet KHJ.
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Q: What's wrong with Irene's DC Gallery?
A: I will repeat this again: anyone can post there. DC Gallery is not foreign to liars, perverts, anti fans, and similar types. The problem with Irene's DC Gallery is that it's a disgusting mess. There are many screenshots of people posting images and gifs with dirty captions (EX: "Irene when she saw my d*ck"). It is not a good place. Anyone can go there INCLUDING new people who might have an interest in Irene. If they go to this DC Gallery and see these kinds of posts, would they want to join the fandom? Would they want to become Irene's fan?
Irene's DC Gall is a disgusting place which has the potential to greatly harm Irene's image to the general public, who do not know better.
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Q: Oh no... What does this have to do with Be My Brownie?
A: Be My Brownie has explicitly stated that, despite all the fans bringing up these facts, her images ARE allowed to be posted on Irene's DC Gallery, because she has "looked through it" and it is full of "Irene's fans". Many Korean fans were objecting to this.
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Q: So what? They are her pictures.
A: Yes. They're her pictures - technically, if she wants to allow it, that's her call. However, you have to step back a little bit and look at the bigger picture. You might have noticed that other Irene fansites have immediately put up notices NOT allowing their images to be shared on Irene's DC Gall. It is their way of trying to protect Irene. How come Be My Brownie cannot see this the same way? By stating many times that she sees nothing wrong with Irene's DC Gall and allows her photos to be posted there (but they can NOT be posted to the group's DC Gall) then she is enabling these people and giving them the means to hurt Irene's image. By doing this, she has garnered a lot of attention and hate on not only this call, but also her previous actions.
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Q: But, I mean... Even if she says her photos aren't allowed, she can't stop them, right?
A: It's about the effort. If she 1) refuses to see how this DC Gall and its members are harming Irene's image and 2) is "helping" them by endorsing them, then she might as well be directly hurting Irene's image herself. In fact, she already is and has hurt Irene's image in Korean fans' minds in the past.
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Q: What does this have to do with Red Velvet KHJ closing?
A: The Irene DC Gallery members basically said, "Well, if these fansites aren't letting us use their photos, then we will just use Red Velvet KHJ's videos to make our gifs instead." Red Velvet KHJ has already been under a lot of stress and has considered closing multiple times (and did go on a break in the past), but this was the "final straw". Red Velvet KHJ did not want to help these people and immediately deleted his/her twitter account and started unlisting his/her videos. Without the links, the members of the DC Gallery cannot find the content to make their gifs with ill-intent.
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Q: Okay... but is that enough for her to get all of this hate?
A: Yes and no. The "haters" reactions have not been good. I do not support some of the ways Korean fans have been reacting to Be My Brownie, but I also do not support the blind way international fans are letting Be My Brownie act as the victim. This is only the latest thing Be My Brownie has done, and not the first.
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Q: What else has Be My Brownie done?
A: International fans might know about this one best - "Seulrene's Mating Video". Last year, Be My Brownie tweeted something on her fansite account that probably was not meant for that account. She immediately got flack for it - how can a fansite with over 40,000 followers tweet something like that? It still gets brought up a lot now.
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Q: What's wrong with that...
A: We have to break it down a little more. You cannot think about this title with the mind of an international fan, because it's not like that. Place yourself in a Korean's shoes instead. You live in a country which is still extremely homophobic. This incredibly popular fansite of an idol that you adore has just tweeted something that reflects EXTREMELY poorly on Irene's fans. Furthermore, the word choice - "mating". The Korean for it is the literal term for animals fucking.
A fansite with 40,000 followers has just referred to two members of the group that you support as two animals fucking.
It is not a joke. In that time that it was up, countless people grabbed screenshots. How could she so carelessly do that? Did she not have Irene (and Seulgi's) reputations in mind? Nevermind if you want to tweet that on your personal account, but what are you doing using your fansite account for it?
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Q: But it was a mistake?
A: Yes. It was a mistake and she deleted it. She did not, however, apologise. In fact, she said that it was the Korean fans who were acting in the wrong. Be My Brownie has showcased her stubborn, self-righteous personality multiple times. In this case, she could have apologised easily and said she would reflect. Instead, she antagonized and provoked Irene fans further with her words.
I have never explained this situation to international fans because international fans are much more casual and carefree about these jokes. However, if you are looking into a group and thinking you will become their fan, and you find one of the most popular fansites has tweeted, "A & B's mating video", wouldn't you stop and think, 'What the fuck? What kind of fandom is this? The other fans endorse this? The other fans think this is okay? What kind of idols have these kind of fans?'
You have to think about it in this mindset. This was not just a simple thing.
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Q: Hmm... It was still just a mistake...
A: There is another thing Be My Brownie has recently done that reflected poorly on Red Velvet and Red Velvet's fans. In December, an account popped up out of nowhere claiming that Be My Brownie had used that person's photos in Be My Brownie's 2016 calendar. The account stated that they used to be friends - that the person had willingly taken the photos for Be My Brownie at the time - but that they did not end their friendship on a good note and that Be My Brownie was supposed to delete the photos and ESPECIALLY not use them in an item such as a calendar which is used for profit.
The account did not ask for money - only asked for an apology and proof that Be My Brownie deleted the photos. They also said that Be My Brownie had been ignoring their messages for a long time regarding this issue, and then took it public through the account. If the account did not receive contact, they would begin posting all of the photos that they took for Be My Brownie, a list which included many events in 2015.
Be My Brownie responded in an extremely aggressive manner. She said many things like, "This person just wants the money", "Stay away from Red Velvet", and (in reply to a screenshot of their conversation) "Why don't you post my messages too, so people can see (that I'm such a kind person)" and many other statements, all of which were very provoking.
The account ended up actually posting a zip file of photos they had taken from an event - clearly the same photos Be My Brownie had used. The Korean fandom went into uproar for an unexpected reason: the photos were not edited or cropped in any manner. The zip file contained ALL photos taken from that event, regardless if it was poorly timed, if a member of Red Velvet was making a bad face, if the angle was bad or the lighting was bad. The zip file had no consideration for the other members of Red Velvet. Suddenly, the issue regarding only Be My Brownie became bad for all the members of Red Velvet. The photos could be used by antis against Red Velvet. Why couldn't Be My Brownie have just apologised? Why didn't Be My Brownie have any consideration for the members of Red Velvet regarding this issue? Why was Be My Brownie using these photos in the first place? All of these questions and no apology from Be My Brownie or official statement about the calendars. The account stopped and did not post anything else, I believe from the influence of the Korean fans and not because of Be My Brownie.
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Q: ...
A: Here is where I rant. I don't have a "Q" to make up for this section. If you like Be My Brownie's photos, that's on you. If you want to buy Be My Brownie's products, that's your money. However, as a human being, I cannot support Be My Brownie. She has repeatedly shown that she has some kind of "God" complex. She believes she can never do wrong - she never apologises, she never has fault, and the problem always lies with someone else and not with herself. She doesn't CARE about Irene's reputation. She doesn't CARE about Irene's fans. She cares about herself and about Irene.
It is not illegal to tweet your own perverted thoughts. But, if she had any consideration for Irene, wouldn't she at least apologise? It's so easy to apologise on the internet. Why couldn't she do it?
It is not illegal to have someone else take photos for you. I don't care about that - it is common practice. If you cannot attend an event, ask a friend to take photos instead. It IS bad to use photos that you were asked to delete to make a profit for yourself. It's not illegal, but would you do it? She could have easily apologised AGAIN, or asked to take the conversation offline, or realized the threat that this account was posing to not only herself, but Irene and the other members of Red Velvet who would be exposed in photos, but instead she only cared about herself. She only believed herself to be in the right and provoked the account to the point where other Korean fans had to ask the account to stop.
It's not illegal to allow your photos to be posted anywhere. But why can't she see that if NO ONE ELSE is allowing it, there might be a problem? If these kinds of terrible, disgusting things are getting written about Irene, why won't she put her foot down and help try to keep herself out of the mess? The perverts on DC Gall feel encouraged because they have such a big fansite that is "supporting" them. Why is she doing that? She spends more time tweeting about how she is the victim, "Please think about my life instead of Irene's for once," instead of trying to get past her own stubbornness and see there is SOMETHING WRONG and she can EASILY FIX IT.
She is apparently pressing charges against her haters. To a certain degree - ok. Why not? I don't endorse bullying by any means, and some Korean fans did go in very seriously with the threats and comments. However, not only can you receive a call from the police if you threatened her, but also if you said "If you RT 'BMB' then I wil block you".
Excuse me, what the fuck? Who does she think she is? She has also tweeted things to this extent:
-Don't bother DMing me apologies
-Don't bother going on private/locking your account
-I already have your information ^^
-You can hand-write your apology to me
> Your apology was not specific enough. Write it again
And she is RTing all of these apologies. One apology straight up read, "I'm sorry for saying that I will block someone if I see your photo on my timeline". Is this not a ridiculous thing?
It's up to you what you want to do with this information. If you say, "They're just photos - it doesn't have anything to do with me" then that's fine. If you say, "I still want this item, I will stay pay for it" then that's fine. It's all on you - I just wanted you all to be as informed as I am.
Here is what you can do:
-IGNORE IT
-UNFOLLOW
-DO NOT RT
-BLOCK
-MUTE
I am NOT encouraging you to harass ANYONE. I am NOT encouraging you to try to talk to Be My Brownie. I am NOT encouraging you to try to tell her not to let her photos be posted on DC Gall.
You are not involved in this. As an international fan, the only role you can play in this is whether you want to give her your money, your support, your time. In the end, it's up to you.
As for me, the answer is simple: Be My Brownie is fucking crazy. She's a bully who wears the skin of the victim. She thinks she is amazing, never wrong. She has not a single ounce of humbleness in her. She wants to play god with all of our lives and uses her power to do so. I did not write about it here, but there are screenshots from her personal accounts which are hardly any different from what they write about Irene on DC Gallery. This is not the kind of person I want anywhere near Irene. This is not the kind of person I support. Many Korean fans are leaving the fandom - Korean fans who have been supporting and protecting Red Velvet endlessly since the beginning.
I can look past the "suing" she wants to do. I cannot look past the fact that she STILL refuses to acknowledge she has done anything wrong and STILL will not apologised. She STILL is playing the "victim" and is now using her power to ruin other people, even though who were making HARMLESS statements.
Don't suck up to fansites just because you think they're angels. There are humans running these sites. These kinds of things can easily blow up in our faces. Just this time one year ago, "jinnabit" sulli94net was selling her 2015 Sulli calendar, and now look at how things have changed. Food for thought.