"It's just a part of human instincts"- (G)I-DLE's Soyeon talks about the stigma around female artists, her support for the LGBTQ+ community, and more

On Thursday, July 25, (G)I-DLE Soyeon's interview with Cosmopolitan Korea landed on the internet. In it, the idol opened up about several topics, such as the stigma around the freedom of expression for Korean female artists, her perspective and support for the LGBTQ+ community, and more.

Initially, the idol expressed that women and men have different standards in the music industry. She explained that when male artists sing about mature themes, it's often overlooked and they don't receive criticism or any sort of backlash. Female artists, on the other hand, especially in the Korean industry, suffer when dealing with mature themes.

She gave an example from her group's release, the pre-release single, WIFE, for their album 2, and the criticism they received for the same. Soyeon expressed that mature themes and talking about sexual behavior shouldn't be considered dirty since it's a natural human instinct:

"In Korea, female musicians have never written or sung such songs. In novels and movies, there are many genres and diverse characters, so such themes can appear in music too. There was a lot of reaction saying the lyrics of ‘Wife’ are dirty, but I don’t think sexual behavior is dirty. It’s just a part of human instincts."

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(G)I-DLE's Soyeon gets candid about her thoughts on female artists' freedom of expression and extends her support to the LGBTQ+ community

(G)I-DLE's Soyeon debuted under Cube Entertainment in 2018 along with her fellow members, Miyeon, Minnie, Yuqi, and Shuhua, with their first single, Latata. The group has grown over the years to be popularly known for its bold, mature, and unconventional music concepts.

While they've been praised by netizens for the new edge to the Korean music industry, they've also received a handful of criticism from the same. In a recent interview with Cosmopolitan Korean, Soyeon talked about the recent criticism they received for their track Wife which held mature themes.

The idol shared:

"The freedom of expression as an artist is an important issue. I wanted to talk about the issue with the song ‘Wife.’ Male artists, especially male hip-hop musicians, have many songs that talk about sex. But in Korea, female musicians tend to express themselves more prudently when they sing about sex."

She continued:

"But a woman who desires sex isn’t a bad or wrong woman, right? I believe every woman has her own desires and personality, and I wanted to portray an active female ‘character’ with such desires just once."

However, this is not all the idol talked about in her recent interview. Soyeon also talked about her thoughts on coming out, and her support for the LGBTQ+ community.

“Recently, a friend of mine came out, but I don't really care about such things. I just think and say, “If they want to like men or if they want to like women, so what?” I don't want to hide who I am. I want to be confident about myself as a person and I hope others can be as well. I hope everyone can enjoy everything they deserve as human beings.”

Soyeon also spoke about how her open-mindedness allows her to explore more about music.

"I am a person without prejudice. So people around me feel comfortable coming out to me. Even if I were attracted to a certain woman, I don't think I would think: 'Huh, why am I attracted to a woman?'. That's why I don't try to limit myself when I write songs."

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Following the interview, fans have been endlessly praising the idol for her thoughtful words and comments.