aespa is often referred to as “the future of SM Entertainment”, as the group is a central figure in the entertainment metaverse the agency has created. Throughout their career, the girl group has achieved various notable achievements, but they still suffer from mistreatment.
Recently, girl group aespa appeared on MBC’s show “Omnicious Interfering View” which shows the group’s schedules during their comebacks, their daily life, as well as the work of their managers. However, the show disrespected Chinese member Ningning and Korean-Japanese member Giselle (real name Uchinaga Eri).
In particular, “Omniscience Interfering View” subtitled Winter as the lead voice of aespa, when the role actually belongs to Ningning, which is either a gross lack of research or blatant discrimination. Additionally, footage from the show continued to show Giselle out of frame, leaving the MYs (aespa fandom) enraged and demanding that SM take action. Giselle was nearly invisible from the group footage.
aespa has already been mishandled by SM Entertainment. The agency sent them to a school festival without proper security. As a result, the group was harassed by the school students, who wrote vulgar words about the girls and even put pictures of aespa up for sale on social media.
Netizens also said that as soon as aespa debuted, malicious rumors about the members spread without SM’s intervention. They also complained about the continued media game by SM, which leads to aespa being hated and nicknamed “Karina and her friends” and “Failed copies of BLACKPINK by anti-fans.
Fans of the girl group asked SM to focus on building aespa’s own colors instead of trying to make them the next BLACKPINK. Aespa’s AI concept was appealing enough, they said.
When it comes to MBC, the channel has been repeatedly criticized for its racist remarks and imagery.
