Sowon poses with Nazi statue, K-Pop fans outrage: Sowon, member of popular South Korean musical girl group GFriend, has attracted the ire of angry fans after she posted, and later deleted, photos with a mannequin allegedly dressed in a uniform resembling that of a German Nazi officer.
Though Sowon deleted the photos posted to Instagram, the 25-year-old is facing heat from angry K-Pop fans accusing her of Nazism. One social media user, whose tw// nazism, nazi
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i'm disappointed of s0won but i'm glad she deleted.. she needs to apologize tho.. nazis are not friends or someone you can hug or look so lovingly at, they are killers, they killed 6 million jews out of them 1.5 million jewish children /srs pic.twitter.com/9GmWT8I60W
What really happened? Here are 10 points to understand the controversy.
Sowon Poses With Nazi Statue: A Timeline Of Events
1. Sowon apparently took to Instagram on January 30, sharing a series of pictures with a life-size figure that fans spotted was dressed in a Nazi uniform.
2. The photo was reportedly taken at Cafe Zino in Korea where Sowon was shooting for a comeback show under the record label Source Music for the band's Walpurgis Night album.
3. Sowon soon deleted the pictures from her social media feed. After a Jewish K-Pop fan pointed out that Sowon had posted and deleted said pictures, the photos went viral.
tw// nazism, nazi
— a jewish person 📌 (@KOOSDOLLZ) January 31, 2021
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i'm disappointed of s0won but i'm glad she deleted.. she needs to apologize tho.. nazis are not friends or someone you can hug or look so lovingly at, they are killers, they killed 6 million jews out of them 1.5 million jewish children /srs pic.twitter.com/9GmWT8I60W
4. Many users, Jewish and non-Jewish, brought notice to the turbulent history of the Holocaust attributed to Adolf Hitler and Nazis during World War II. In that light, they said Sowon's pictures were deeply offensive.
5. Some even accused Sowon, and GFriend, of Nazism, alleging that the band even in the past had been charged for apparent anti-Semitic symbolism.
6. While some K-Pop fans defended Sowon's alleged ignorance about WWII, some others said that was impossible. "sowon currently goes to a university... and before u go to any university in south korea, u have to take a college entrance exam which includes a social studies section w world history," one user wrote.
6. Many even noted that Sowon was also allegedly nicknamed 'Kitler' by friends.
i know everyone’s asking for sowon to apologise but i hope the rest of gfriend apologises too as a whole especially since she was nicknamed “kitler” and none of them thought it was wrong
— ales (@blushseoks) January 31, 2021
Label apologises after Sowon poses with Nazi mannequin
7. Source Music, the entertainment label that is the home of K-Pop group GFriend, took cognisance of the matter and said they were looking into it.
8. They later issued a social media statement addressing the matter in full, apologising for the offensive symbols in Sowon's photos. The message, originally in Korean, translates as: “The department in charge did not recognise there was a problem with the mannequin’s outfit… We deeply apologise for causing controversy.”
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— Big Hit — Source Music (@SOUHITINA) February 1, 2021
010221 | GFRIEND Weverse
NOTICE
Perminta maafan SOURCEMUSIC tentang video & foto GFRIEND yang menyebabkan kontroversi.
📎 https://t.co/caeKCHPIde#여자친구 #GFRIEND @GFRDofficial pic.twitter.com/N9Ga4gnuk7
9. Sowon has an 817K-strong following on Instagram, which has irked many fans as to the supposed reach of her now-deleted pictures. The 25-year-old singer is famous as a social media star and influential personality.
10. Sowon or GFriend haven't yet given any individual comments or clarifications on the controversy.