Ok it's good the i-side is finally waking up to the hate train gw has been on the receiving end of since bp but also im already tired of the way they're talking about it oml. And yeah this strawberry controversy is clearly absurd and naturally would generate reactionary discourse from normal people but its also just one particularly petty example of the kind of cruel contrivances regularly made against him and i kinda cant stand the idea of it being the representative incident in the inevitable pity narratives being crafted 😵‍💫 (this is me naively assuming anyone will still care next week... ). Like yes this incident is emblematic of both the ultimately meaningless criticism he faces and also the kind idols in general receive, but in being both it deemphasizes the targeted nature of it like this simply would not be such a big issue for just any idol and if this were a one-off thing i personally would just laugh and move on but it's not bc people have been on his ass for his appearance weight personality etc and its not random like it may appear 😮‍💨. and now this may just be a me thing but i just hate these pity narratives man they skeeve me out like i understand why they exist and why fans push them, it's usually out of genuine sympathy or a shallow sense of righteousness and he's also young which is worth calling attention to, but i cant help but see them as condescending and opportunistic in nature bc they always morph into some generic and safe social justice thing and reduce the person to a helpless pathetic child when in gw's case hes very much not that and his honest emotions and reflections actually reaffirm this ugh but yeah ik im asking for too much from kpop fans here.