When allkpop broke the news that Sunye had come out about her relationship with Captain Planet, I shed 2 different tears. On one cheek, I was dejected that a potential Mrs. Steevo was taken off the market. On the other, I was appeased that she had found happiness. After all, she was more like a "dong-saeng" to me anyways. I had watched the pure-hearted leader of the Wonder Girls grow up to be the Wonder woman of awesomeness that she is today. The majority of AKPers shared my satisfaction with comments like these:

"He seems so perfect for her... I hope their love will last an eternity. ^_^"

"D'awwwh that's so freaking cute! :"D"

"this is ridiculously sweet.. Sunye definitely deserves a man like this."

Before we go giving ourselves the self-congratulatory pat on the back for displaying exemplary fan etiquette (how can you hate on a girl who does things like this, anyway?), I'd have to remind you that amiable reactions like these are not the norm when news of idol relationships surface. The comments section of the leaked Shin Se Kyung and Jonghyun story a few months ago looked like a messy collection of cyber ransom notes.

It's reactions like this, and this, and this, that make it obvious as to why these idols are bound by a code of silence when it comes to their love lives. They do it to protect themselves, to protect the fans, and to protect their significant others from the fans. Can we blame them?

An article from abc news says that our intense curiosity for celebrities' personal lives stems from a psychiatric condition recently identified as "celebrity worship syndrome". As ridiculous as it sounds, it's real. It even has its own Wikipedia page, so it's gotta be real.

A team of researchers from universities in the United States and Britain surveyed more than 600 people and devised the "celebrity worship scale", which divides the levels of fanaticism into three types:

Entertainment social: This is casual stargazing. The level of celebrity worship here is really quite mild: "My friends and I like to discuss how Ben could have moved from Gwyneth to J.Lo."

Intense personal: The person seems to feel a connection with the star: "I consider Halle Berry to be my soul mate."

Borderline pathological: Here, admiration has gone stalker-esque: "When he reads my love letters, Brad Pitt will leave Jennifer Aniston and live happily ever after with me."

According to the researchers, about one third of us have CWS to some degree. According to me, three thirds of us in the K-pop fandom have master's degrees in the subject.

All kidding aside, most of us AKP'ers do behave in a socially appropriate manner from what I've seen, but we know all too well about those "second" and "third" types. While K-pop has worked hard to distinguish itself from the world as its own genre, the K-pop fan culture has separated itself in its own class from international fandom as well, but not in a good way. We're notoriously known for our sensitive "butt-hurt"ees, indefatigable anti-fans, and worst of all, our abominable 'Sasaeng' fans.

For those who don't know what Sasaeng fans are, they're over-obsessive fans who invade the privacy of celebrities. Remember this Britney Spears fanboy/girl/thing? He was a Sasaeng trainee for 5 years before he debuted in America. Stalking, prank calling, breaking-and-entering, and mailing love notes written in menstrual blood are common practices for these admirers. Yumz!

So as the reasoning for all the clandestinity becomes more and more clear, I still have to wonder why this phenomenon is endemic to K-pop and not paralleled in western fan culture. Sure, they have their loonies, too, but I'm speaking in terms of resentment when it comes to idol relationship statuses. Why weren't Angelina Jolie, Jessica Biel, or Blake Lively met with the same mass hostility that Shin Se Kyung endured when they snatched Hollywood's hottest bachelors?  Do they not love their idols as much as we do, or are we just on a different level of frenetic devotion?

Is it possible that all the secrecy can be blamed? Is the silence of their love lives being mistaken for absence, thus feeding our erotomanic delusions? Are these usually antagonistic responses sanctioned by misled feelings of betrayal?

I can't help but think that these idols would ultimately be better off by exposing their private lives to the media.

Besides the occasional leaked scandal here and there, the media coverage of K-pop idols is docile compared to the cesspool of tabloids and paparazzi that drown western celebrities. In the same article, Simon Dumenco, a columnist for Folio Magazine, says gossip pages are "the magazine equivalent of crack… These magazines are proliferating for the same reason prescriptions of antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs are proliferating. They dull our pain."

So then… where are our crack-dealers? While western fans can turn to TMZ or magazine racks in any supermarket, convenience store, or newsstand to get their fix on their inamorata's love life, K-pop fans are left dry with nothing but cute selcas to fuel our disorders.

It's probably too late to change it now, but I still question if we would see such backlash if out-in-the-open relationship statuses were always the norm. Yes, we'd be subjugated to more corny matching outfits, endless 100 day celebrations, and hordes of dreaded portmanteaus, but we'd be desensitized to the relationship itself.

Whether you guys agree/like it or not, and as impossible as it may be, I hope Sunye's announcement becomes a trend and idols can eventually live and love without fear from us.

 

Except you, Nana, Suzy, Soyeon, and Yuri… you better wait for me.

 

References: abcnews Image: 9gag