Hi! It’s Annie!
I touched a little on this in my Valentine’s Day post, but it has recently been brought to the forefront that quite possibly the most underrated members of ATEEZ are these two amazing gentlemen. Which makes me incredibly sad. I have not made it a secret that Yunho is my bias and Jongho has one of the most amazing voices I have ever heard in my life. And several things have come up recently that have brought up how much these men can sometimes be disrespected. Obviously, every member of every group unfortunately has to go through being disrespected at some point. But there have been several hits in the recent weeks that have caused Atinys to stand up for these two specifically, so I’m going to go through some of my favorite aspects of these two men while also addressing what has happened over the past weeks. Because these two boys deserve nothing but all the love.
Jongho Lanyards:
The event that started the string of events following it. There was an ATEEZ event not long after their concerts in the US ended, and many talked about this event specifically because of the freebies that were being given out. Lanyards featuring each of the members of ATEEZ were given out as part of this, and people were being very disrespectful about not receiving a lanyard with their bias on it. Specifically, a lot of people were trying to trade Jongho lanyards and would be very angry when people wouldn’t want to trade with them. I think all of that is wrong. Firstly, if you want to trade within your friend group because of biases, that’s fine. But wanting to trade with absolutely anyone because you don’t like the member you got, that sounds a lot like solo stan behavior. Personally, I would have loved to get a Jongho lanyard or a lanyard with any other member of the group on it. Because I love all of them. Jongho, for one, has one of the best voices in the industry and he’s the adorable maknae! I also highly recommend watching ‘Imitation’ if you haven’t, because his portrayal of Hyuk is guaranteed to steal your heart. I questioned my bias wrecker several times during my watch because of Jongho’s adorableness and this one very well-shot scene where his hair was blowing in the wind. Anyone who got a Jongho lanyard is absolutely lucky, and Jongho biases put up with a lot of bull from people attempting to force all of their lanyards on them. The Jongho biases are absolutely correct. Everyone attempting to trade is not.
Yunho Dance Prodigy:
I talked about this already, but there’s been updates about this one. A lot of people were accusing Yunho biases of solo stan behavior because they were calling him the main dancer of ATEEZ because ATEEZ doesn’t have an official dance line anymore. But Yunho is the leader in dance practices and has been noted to be the best dancer of the group by other members of ATEEZ. And he worked hard for both of those! He’s often underestimated because he’s such a tall dancer, and has expressed his frustration with that. The argument over Yunho’s dance abilities blew up so much that it caught mass media attention. ‘Koreaboo’ even made an entire appreciation post for Yunho’s dancing in support of him. Another tall idol trainee also came out in support of Yunho, explaining how difficult it is to dance when you’re over six foot and the tallest in your group. It means more movement in a shorter amount of time than anyone else in your group, so you often struggle alone with attempting to match the pace of everyone else. And yet Yunho does it effortlessly and nails the dance moves each time. So much so that he’s been called “my boy” by a popular choreographer in LA. So much that every member goes to him when they have questions about choreography. He even had a solo dance video before their debut that showed off how amazing he is. And he continues to show off his skills with every dance break he’s given. He’s definitely one of the best dancers of the 4th generation artists, and it isn’t solo stan behavior to give him the recognition he deserves. Especially when he can sometimes get less recognition than many of the other members.
Twins? No:
A lot of people have been saying that they think Jongho and Yunho look alike. I personally don’t see it. But a picture came out where a trick of the light really did make Yunho look a bit like Jongho while he was masked. People took Atinys talking about it as an excuse to call Yunho and Jongho “twins” and some people even expressed that they were never going to tell the two apart. Which, as someone who is actually a twin, sentences like that usually just tell me that the person who said it is unwilling to put any effort in. This has gotten so out of hand, that people have been posting this underneath every picture of Yunho and Jongho. International fans need to be hyper aware of how many times we tell people from other countries that they look the same. Because it’s something that uneducated white people do, way too often. I’m sure they don’t think they look the same and I’m also sure that they don’t want to keep seeing it under every post. If you genuinely think they look similar, I know I disagree, but fine. You don’t have to put it under every picture though. Just be more aware. Because sometimes it feels like new fans or solo stans not wanting to get to know two underrated members of the group. Yunho has longer features, is extremely tall, and very gangly. Jongho has rounder features and has a shorter and broader stature. They are both extremely handsome! Let’s celebrate them for their individual looks too!
Jongho and Dispatch:
This is one where my take on it probably isn’t what you would think, given the topic of this post. ‘Dispatch’ recently released a video behind the scenes at the ATEEZ concert in LA, but this video didn’t have Jongho in it. This caused many fans, mostly international ones, to become angry. Especially because it was so soon after Jongho was trending because of the lanyard and merch incident. I understand that Jongho biases were on edge, I kind of was too. But fans who spoke Korean were quick to point out that while Mingi was talking at the beginning of the video, there was a note explaining that Jongho felt too ill to film it. As someone who went to the last day of the LA concert, I can confirm that Jongho wasn’t feeling his best. It was announced that he was suffering from stomach aches before the concert and during the first day he twisted his ankle backstage. He was unable to perform some of the encore songs and definitely pushed himself to his limits dancing. But despite this, Jongho fans went as far as to say that the video shouldn’t have been put out at all if Jongho wasn’t feeling well enough to film. I feel this is going too far. Members of any group should feel free to take time for their physical or mental health without having to feel guilty about it. And forcing idol groups to postpone everything, including important media to get them out there, because a member is sick is not going to promote what we want it to. It’s going to promote more idols attempting to keep going when they really should take breaks. It’s kind of similar to how I feel about people telling Jimin to come home because he posts the least on Instagram. He should feel free to take breaks from any of his social media when he wants to without fans unknowingly making him feel guilty for not being a part of everything that’s posted. That’s just my two cents, but as I said, I understand where Jongho biases are coming from. And Jongho did so much more than anyone would be able to do on a twisted ankle at that concert. I’m so glad we all chanted his name so many times to let him know that he was loved and appreciated for everything he was doing.
Underrated Members:
There are always underrated members of a group, and they always have their own fair share of fans who love them as much as they deserve. I just wish all of them could be loved equally. And this happens to every group, including BTS. I recently found a picture of gift boxes set up for each of the members of BTS at a debut event. Jungkook’s box was overflowing and many of the other boxes had quite a few gifts and letters. Except for Namjoon’s which had only a couple and Hobi’s which had nothing at all. This still can be seen sometimes as Jin, Namjoon, and Hobi’s merch usually sells out last. I always hate seeing anything like this, and seeing any group being treated this way always rubs me the wrong way. As K-Pop stans, we all need to get better about supporting every single member of a group. I think I need to get better too. We all should like all of their pictures on social media, if you’re making something to give to one of them at an event then make something for all of them, and follow all of their social media accounts. Lately, I’ve seen people ranking the members of groups based off of their personal “bias order”. There isn’t any such thing and there shouldn’t be. You can have a bias and a bias wrecker based off of who has helped you personally or caught your personal attention, but what we aren’t going to do is start making lists and ranking everyone in a group. It doesn’t matter if it’s your personal preference. These are human beings, not fictional characters in your favorite show.
Jongho and Yunho are both amazingly talented and handsome. And they both have so many fans; I don’t want to make it seem like either of them have barely any. ATEEZ has a lot of fans who love all of the members. But we also need to be better about treating the groups like we love all of them! Don’t be afraid to show another member of a group love even if they aren’t your bias. Let’s make sure they know we love all of them equally!
See you across the pond!
Sincerely, Annie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 