Kwon Eunbi’s Recent Stage Outfit Causes Concern, Netizens Divided Over The Issue

Soloist Kwon Eunbi’s recent stage outfit has become a debating topic among netizens.

The singer performed at the Korean National Police University Festival on Spetember 21 and her stage outfit consisted of a halter neck top, a short skirt, accompanied by a KNPU jacket and a police hat. Eunbi got rid of the hat and jacket later on during the performance.

Her outfit created some concern among fans, who demanded that Woollim Entertainment change her styling, in order to protect her better.

Eunbi’s popularity saw an undeniable explosion recently after her appearance at the 2023 Seoul Waterbomb Festival where she took her fans by surprise by appearing in a bikini top, a white skirt, and a white see-through shirt. The look, showing off a mature and sexy charm, immediately made her go viral, even making non-fans intrigued.

eunbi at waterbomb call that EUNDERWATER pic.twitter.com/3Lo3UfmNra

— min (@yenascape) June 23, 2023

The singer herself admitted that the reaction she got was completely unanticipated.

I never expected to get such a great reaction. Everybody was calling and texting me, the views on my close-up fancams went way up and “Underwater” slowly started to climb the charts. I put a lot of thought into how I could communicate with the audience and get them more excited since it was a festival for the general public.

— Kwon Eunbi

Eunbi’s subsequent appearances at other summer festivals got a lot of attention as well, boosting the talented singer’s popularity each time. Unfortunately, this popularity also brought in a rising wave of vulgar and inappropriate comments on her body, some even escalating to the point of sexual harassment. Eunbi’s agency had to issue a statement warning people that such comments can get them sued.

Recently, we have found several posts on online communities and social media pages that are defamatory, sexually vulgar and spread misinformation. We are aware of the inappropriate content of these posts and have collected evidence regarding this. We are releasing this statement after deciding that we are no longer able to stand idly by.

— Woollim Entertainment

Since the cases of sexually harassing comments came forward, some fans have been worried that the singer’s company is pushing her “sexy” image too much and putting her in danger in the process. A recent post on a popular online forum compiled some of these comments from fans, leading to a heated debate among netizens. Some felt that her recent outfit was nothing out of the ordinary, while other sympathized with the fans’ concerns.

• “There was no negative response here.”
• “Female idols wear clothes like that a lot. Since she has a glamorous body, she’s being criticized.”
• “I have to agree that it looks too erotic.”
• “But if you look at the number of retweets or whatever, I don’t think people agree all that much. Do people really believe this?”
• “She’s getting criticized because her body is good… She can wear whatever weird outfits she wants, it’s not like she’s a kid anymore, she’s approaching her 30s.”
• “They’re doing all that because her body is nice.”
• “But I also understand fans asking them to change the outfits, because of the sexual harassment.”

• “Um…it does look like the outfit isn’t suiting the location.”
• “That’s really quite low (neckline).”
• “She got positive responses because her Waterbomb outfit actually matched the event. But it seems like her company will keep dressing her that way. From a fan’s position, it’s obvious that they would be unsatisfied with the outfits that keeps bringing her sexual harassment.”
  — “Plus, if the revealing clothes were pretty, I wouldn’t have cared. But these are not even pretty. That’s why they’re being like that.”
• “I think fans are saying that even more because she has been facing a lot of sexual harassment. If the company could take care of the outfits along with the lawsuits…”
  — “As a fan of female idols, I truly understand these fans’ concerns.”
• “Eunbi is likeable, but I keep thinking if they could expose her body a little less. It’s annoying to keep seeing her get sexually harassed.”

While companies pushing idols to wear outfits they are uncomfortable with is not unheard of in K-Pop, there is no way for fans to verify if these choices are made by Eunbi herself either. If the latter is true, then is policing her outfit the right way to go about addressing the harassment she is facing? And if the former is true, how far can the fans interfere and ensure the idol’s safety?