fact: the main reason your K-pop fave got signed is not because they're talented. it's because your fave wanted to be an idol/celebrity/performer so much that they were willing to sign off freedoms and liberties to a corporation

if talent was such a huge factor for k-pop agencies look for when recruiting, we'd really only have super talented people in k-pop, and they would all be paid top dollar for their talent.

the non-vocalists skilled in things y'all often discredit (like visuals, PR and variety), if any at all, would be paid scraps.

but that's not how k-pop is!

imagine you're auditioning because you consider yourself a good vocalist.

you're more talented than the other girls shortlisted, but you are also sensible enough to say "this contract is garbage, why would I spend the rest of my youth slaving away for a corporation?"

but any k-pop company would rather take the other girl who can't sing as good as you, but is determined to get better, and more importantly is willing to sign a shitty contract that guarantees them years of exploitation and a mountain of debt!

to the company, the other girl is an asset more worth investing than you are - as someone who is clearly more prone to expressing any form of discomfort at exploitation, leaving the company, or anything sensible that gets in the way of their operations.

why would a k-pop company sit down and negotiate for decent contract terms with you, when you're just as much of a nobody as the other girls who want that place in the company much more than you do?

you: I have talent so I want to live in humane living conditions and be fed at least twice a day. I also want to be able to access my phone once a day to call my mom

the recruiting agents:

I think a more accurate comparison is that both K-Pop & Disney prey on the naivety of youth and feed their starstruck fantasies, knowing very well that they're not critical of shitty contracts, exploitative practices & the very slim odds of them succeeding https://twitter.com/wawabishimababy/status/1285314327575236608

if you're looking at my thread thinking

"Rhia is such a shitty person for discrediting my fave's talent!"

instead of

"wow, corporations in the glamour industry are so shitty! they exploit my faves and probably hers too!"

then congrats on having subpar comprehension skills!

this. there's a belief that "being this d̶e̶s̶p̶e̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ determined" is an indicator of ungodly levels of hardwork and grit, which (I'm not justifying exploiting) is probably true to a certain extent https://twitter.com/ungodlyaura/status/1285309973736624128

I know of tech startups who ask to look at your elementary/primary school academic records, and they only take in people who did poorly earlier in life but improved on it later.

again, it's what they believe to be an indicator of grit https://twitter.com/15andfrenemies/status/1285318004448784384