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On February 1, SEVENTEEN Seungkwan appeared on Pixid's latest episode titled, Find the MZ Generation hiding in a room of Boomers to promote BooSeokSoon's latest comeback, SECOND WIND. Four males in their 40s accompanied Seungkwan in the episode. In the game, the five people are to be sat in different cabins and communicate purely through an online chat room.
As stated in the title, the objective is for the men to identify Seungkwan as the true MZ, while all Boomers attempt to conceal their generational affiliation. Many viewers found the entire episode funny, but the part where netizens got uncomfortable was when the topic shifted to talking about young K-pop girl groups, specifically NewJeans.
To give the impression that they are not of the Boomer generation, one of the men mentioned NewJeans, one of the most popular girl groups right now. Even to SEVENTEEN Seungkwan's surprise, the men knew a lot about NewJeans, from their viral song Hype Boy to their latest meme:
Kang Haerin is wierd.
As the men continued their conversation, fanboying more about NewJeans and other young-generation K-pop girl groups like IVE, etc., fans were inevitably creeped out and disgusted by the same. Given that most NewJeans members are still minors and the men have a big age gap between them, it naturally became a concerning topic, and they took to Twitter to discuss the same.
Netizens express disgust and concerns about middle-aged men fangirling over young K-pop girl groups in SEVENTEEN Seungkwan's Pixid episode
After the video surfaced of SEVENTEEN Seungkwan's Pixid episode on the internet, it became a major concern for many netizens. However, there are two sets of arguments for the same. Most people shared that it was both uncomfortable and concerning to watch an elderly men fanboy over girls with a huge age gap between them.
While just knowing them is one thing and quite inevitable too, since NewJeans has been the talk of the town nowadays, the intricacy with which they know about these girl groups scares netizens. The latest Haerin meme was not something that went viral but was an underground meme that was passed around just within the fandom. They were understandably worried about how men would see them after learning that NewJeans and other young girl groups have fanboys in their 40s.
However, there were also people defending the men, saying that there's nothing wrong with aged men being fans of young girl groups. They argue that age is just a number and that the fandom should rather be happy about fanboys being more open about stanning girl groups. At one point in SEVENTEEN Seungkwan's Pixid video, one of the men also stated something nice about NewJeans, appreciating their impact on the industry.
K-pop is divided into before and after NewJeans
Many found it adorable and commended the old men for recognizing the impressive talents of these idols. Regardless, the two-way road and the debates on the issue continue to grow, and people have expressed that debuting minors isn't recommended since they'll continue to be a topic of public discussion, which has many negative side effects to it.
As people continue to express mixed feelings and unsettled emotions towards SEVENTEEN Seungkwan's Pixid episode, the issue garners more and more attention, growing the debate of whether older men stanning younger girl groups is accepted or not.
