It's #TinfoilHatTime!

Tonight's Topic: A Plot To Erase ARMY From Existence?

DISCLAIMER:

The thoughts and opinions in this thread are my own, blah blah blah, form your own conclusions, blah blah blah. Pinch of salt, all of that.

INTRODUCTION

The title might sound alarmist. However, in some ways, I find it to be true with how certain parties go out of their way to either ignore ARMYs when it comes to our symbiotic relationship with BTS or actively stigmatize our financial contribution to BTS's success.

We ARMY sometimes take for granted just how unique we are as a reliable, thinking, and planning source of income. We are always eager to spend money on things related to BTS and ARMY. At the same time, we've repeatedly shown we're not passive spenders.

If we feel something is of poor quality, we'll complain. If it's perceived as detrimental to BTS or ARMY's image, we flat out won't buy. As others have learned the hard way.

Despite ARMY as a visible and competent force behind BTS, there are those who attempt to erase our contributions, our identity, and even existence in some ways.

I believe there are a few distinct reasons behind this ongoing (and annoying) behavior.

REASON #1 - A DESIRE FOR CONTROL OF THE NARRATIVE

Silencing ARMY and not acknowledging our existence allows others to control the narrative. They can pretend they are knowledgable about BTS's rise, present, and future and that this offers a "neutral" perspective.

While it's true that fandom members can be biased, refusing to acknowledge that ARMY has done and are doing is a special kind of arrogance, because it erases half the story and misses out on something very incredible involving what people can achieve when they work together.

Also, as ARMYs are masters and mistresses of receipts, being able to ignore our words and claims allows others to avoid getting held accountable when they get things wrong.

People often treat fandom bias as proof that fans are inherently wrong BECAUSE we are biased.

This thinking falls flat when it's a justification of speaking over more knowledgeable people while choosing to cling to your ignorance.

People continue to try this with ARMY and are visibly frustrated when we don't allow it to happen.

REASON #2 - A NEED TO AVOID LOSING FACE
There's a strange pattern of behavior toward ARMY. Others insist that we are meant to throw our support behind "the next big thing" or random acts rather than, you know, be a fandom for the group that *NAMED* us in the first place.

I've seen people beg ARMY not to support BTS and buy their music, beg us to support other artists instead, or tell us that BTS has earned enough from their past work and so we should let future works flop.

And then there are those who get invested to a disturbingly emotional degree in the failure of BTS/ARMY.

It's gotten to the point where they team up with racist and xenophobic people to harass and mock us, ignoring that their faves (I guess?) are subject to the same racism.

What do I think of as the motivating factors behind these behaviors? A toxic combination of humiliation and entitlement.

HUMILIATION: There are some who very arrogantly assumed that BTS would flop.

They certainly never expected to BTS to exceed every other group they ever stanned off the strength of proven global fan support.

No media play necessary.

BTS succeeding so hard in America, despite the obvious xenophobia and discrimination, highlights what past K-pop groups *might* have had if they had unified and competent fan support behind them.

I wonder, on whose shoulders would such failure fall?

If I had to face the reality that everything I believed about international success was a lie because I just wasn't willing to put in the effort or because of an inability to bridge cultures and form a fruitful connection with k-fans, well, I guess I'd be mad, too.

ENTITLEMENT: Because ARMY is a unified fandom (K and I ARMY), we defy the common (though unspoken) belief that the only *real* fans are in the Korean market itself.

Because of this, there are people who feel entitled to tell I-ARMY to support other groups because they-

see us as *REAL* ARMY. They project their sense of being an outsider onto us and refuse to acknowledge the exception because then, I imagine they'd have to face their choice to remain second class citizens.

If you have this belief that ARMY (and I-ARMY in particular) isn't a real fandom, you feel comfortable doing things like:

- blaming us for groups disbanding
- blaming us for blocking korean idols from the international market
- blaming us for not doing enough to promote K-pop

Keep in mind these behavior sit side by side with:

- smearing BTS and ARMY tirelessly
- outright refusing to help us with streams or purchases
- celebrating every perceived hurt or setback
- teaming up with even the most racist of detractors if it means holding us back.

Whether it's masking humiliation or toxic entitlement, the associated behaviors lead some people to try to treat our fandom as non-existent. We're somehow a group of individuals just waiting around to stan a bunch of subpar pop groups.

I almost wish I could make it make sense.

REASON #3 - GOOD OL' RACISM & SEXISM

The music industry has traditionally been a boy's club that viewed women as either unwanted voices or prizes to be conquered. https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/reports/music-industry-sexism-426585

When it comes to women fans, which ARMY visibly has a lot of, our enthusiasm gets treated as inherently mindless fluff, contrasted with the idea that only male voices can bring validation to the things we choose to like.

This intersects with racism and xenophobia, where ARMY are told that we enjoy music that isn't good enough because it's not in English by a group that's not good enough because they're Asian males.

ARMY erasure happens because there are people who simply cannot believe that women are intelligent enough to care about chart algorithms or capable of developing complex fan theories and strategies. We certainly can't do that and fangirl at the same time, right? *bats eyelashes*

Through our visibility, ARMY stands as a powerful example of what happens when a lot of women come together to flex our mental prowess and throw our financial weight around, while at the same time owning what we enjoy and not apologizing for it.

Yes there is male ARMY and yes, we're a diverse fandom, but it's very obvious that the face of ARMY is female, and that this AND the POC nature of BTS plays a huge role in our erasure and misrepresentation.

Usually, female fans feel afraid to speak out, lest we get hit with the "hysterical woman" stereotype. There are various microaggressions and subliminal digs that are made against women or fans of color.

ARMY refuses to put up with it and that makes some people VERY angry.

...They're just going to have to stay mad.

CONCLUSION

For one reason or another, I expect efforts to erase ARMY as a whole or in part to continue.

The good news is that as ARMY evolves these efforts will fail more and more. We're recognizing the patterns. And we're answering with rational arguments and receipts.

It can be discouraging when our efforts are overlooked or others insist on putting us in categories that don't make sense. Just know that we're winning anyway. There are just too many of us to effectively silence.

And we're never going to shut up.

/END