As I entered, I resolved not to despise any love. 4

Prologue: This is not a book about fandom 15

Part 1│Controversial Network

Chapter 1: Where Controversy Swept Through 31

1.
31 Fandom and Devotion, Not Choice

2.
The Ambiguous Category of Controversy 38

3.
Fandom Experience 41

Chapter 2: The Decomposition of Cancellation and the Feeling of Betrayal, Part 50

1.
Cancel: Recall, Inspection, Expulsion 50

2.
Surplus Culture and Betrayal 60

3.
Public Sphere for the Sensitive Public 66

4.
The feeling of 'schadenfreude' 74

Chapter 3: "Kids Like You Shouldn't Succeed in a Popular Career" 85

1.
Idol Executioner and the Qualification of Love 87

2.
The Art of Detectives: Creating and Protecting a Controversy-Free Society 122

3.
Controversy and Conspiracy Theory 132

Part 2│Fascination and Ethics

Chapter 4: "If You're a Real Victim, No, I'll Swallow You Back" 145

1.
"Out of Love for the Group Itself": The Dynamics of Cancellation and Nostalgia Within Fandom 146

2.
"What Do They Know!": Approximate Truths Love Needs 163

3.
"I don't think liking ○○ matters anymore": The Clash of Fandom and Values ​​202

Chapter 5: "My philosophy of life was ultimately shaped by ○○○." 216

1.
"It's so intense to be liked": Fandom Expands into Social Ethics 216

2.
"This is really not easy": The Ethical Attitude of Guilty Pleasure 227

Chapter 6: "I Keep Wanting to Withhold Judgment" 250

1.
"What? So pretty?": Fascination and love, neither fiction nor romance, 250

2.
"I think it's because I like it": The Emotions That Spark Fascination and Controversy 267

3.
"Because I kept sending them back without making a conclusion": Hesitation, a Stopping Flight 280

305 Reconstruction in the midst of controversy

Acknowledgments 313

Americas 318

Reference 331

How does "controversy" become a trend? This sophisticated cultural critique and cultural technology journal delves into the structure of online public spheres, where all manner of controversy is consumed as if it were a trend.
The author critically examines the online public sphere centered on social media, focusing on K-pop idol artists, who are most vulnerable to controversy.
This study examines how all incidents that could damage an artist's image, from school violence, bullying, sexual violence, human rights awareness, historical awareness, and character, are systematically produced as a single "controversy" within the network of the attention economy.
In this new economic system where people's attention becomes currency, controversy generates a specific kind of attention and creates a public and public sphere associated with it.


Yet, 『Hesitating Love』 follows a unique and novel trajectory that differentiates it from other books that address the issues of online public spheres.
This is because, through vivid interviews/conversations with ‘hesitating and hesitating fans,’ it penetrates the massive network of violence that is forming within the public sphere.
In this case, hesitation refers to the attitude of experiencing confusion and pain as a fan of an artist at the center of controversy, but not participating in the indiscriminate violence, and instead seeking the truth and engaging in ethical struggles in one's own way.


Fans, especially idol fans, are always surrounded by hatred and prejudice that they are irrational and ignorant, but the fans the author met show us a completely different path: the social and political possibilities of fandom and devotion.
Through the network of indiscriminate controversy and violence, or the hesitant fans who do not participate in cancel culture, which combines actors such as the public, fans, cyber-wreckers, the media, algorithms, and social media platforms, we can explore ways of discussing and thinking that go beyond "identifying the perpetrator" and "unconditional expulsion."
Let's examine how their ethical practices lay the foundation for imagining and creating a better online public forum culture.


Those Left Behind After Controversy Swept Away: On Fans and Fandom

Fandom and devotion are often understood as actions based on an individual's autonomous choice.
However, this book understands fandom as an event or situation that comes suddenly one day without one wishing for or choosing it.
This interpretation is also an attempt to avoid defining the identity of a fan based on consumption behavior or a strong sense of belonging to a group called fandom.
In the same vein, fandom is a practice that those who are thrown into the situation of fandom inevitably have to choose to deal with the bewildering happiness that comes to them, and it is ultimately a process of re-aligning one's own life.
In this way, the author avoids branding fans as irrational and unreasonable (consumer) actors, repeating the usual hateful views toward them, and thus pays attention to the various social influences surrounding them.

In that respect, the controversy serves as an opportunity to clearly reveal the social and ethical aspects of fandom and devotion.
The controversy surrounding the 'favorite member' turns fandom into an ethically fraught act by making fans feel guilty.
“When an artist you love reveals a completely different side of themselves than you knew them to be,” “especially when allegations of violent behavior are raised,” the controversy becomes a huge event and shakes the very heart of the fandom that is the foundation of fandom.


So how do fans respond to controversy? There are likely a variety of responses, but this book focuses on those who either reserve judgment or continually revise and update their opinions, steadfastly staying put.
Unlike those who make a quick decision and leave the artist's side, there are fans who remain there, wandering and hesitating.
To claim to be a fan of an artist who is not "clean" and embroiled in controversy is to share in moral and ethical pollution.
Controversy quickly buries artists, especially female artists (regardless of guilt or innocence).
“At this point, continuing to like these ‘outdated’ people who have been pushed out of the attention economy is becoming out of style.
Controversy is trendy, but being a fan of a controversial artist is being out of style.”

Networks that Produce Controversy: Algorithms, Executioners, and Cyberwrecks

There's nothing more important than paying attention to fans responding to controversies.
It is a matter of reconsidering the very term/category of ‘controversy’.
In the idol industry, issues that are difficult to group together in terms of content, such as bullying, character, historical/human rights awareness, sexual harassment, school violence, backlighting, and advocacy for pedophilia, are all collectively referred to as controversies.
What is the basis for categorizing these disparate incidents under the narrow category of "controversy"?

The answer lies in the attitudes of those who deal with controversy and the networks that amplify it.
One of the interviewees for this book, Ame (pseudonym), pointed out that controversies in the entertainment industry, especially in the idol industry, unfold “in a way that almost completely buries the parties involved, regardless of the type, and rather than focusing on the incident itself, belittles the character and efforts of the parties involved, or resorts to sexual harassment.”
In this way, within a frame that blames the parties involved, the controversial actions themselves and the truth of the incident disappear from the realm of interest.


So how do idol controversies arise? These often boil down to "character controversies." However, character and morality, considered essential virtues of idols, are precisely what makes them vulnerable to controversy.
The allegations of academic fraud against Tablo and Lee Sun-woong, members of the hip-hop group Epik High, that began around 2010, and the online community 'Tajinyo' that was formed around this conspiracy theory, are in many ways similar to the idol controversy.
Online activism, represented by the "Netizen Investigation Squad" and "personal information raiding," and the "I'll bring you down too" sentiment (a kind of emotional egalitarianism) rooted in betrayal, appear to be key elements of various controversies spreading online.
However, 『Hesitating Love』 focuses on the special conditions of the present, which are different from those of the Tajinyo incident.
It is the algorithm that calculates and imagines the masses and the 'execution squad' that the algorithm spreads.
The grammar of the execution platform is that it spreads controversy in an instant without any specific focal point such as a cafe or community.


And at the center of it all is Cyber ​​Wrecker, a YouTube-based company.
While there are issues such as which channels can be defined as cyberwreckers and what the criteria are for distinguishing between simple "issue channels" and cyberwrecker channels, the typical description of cyberwrecker channels is that they "anonymously write issue content that is hateful content designed to generate views and packaged as news, and then when an incident occurs, they repeatedly delete the channel or take down the video."
Among them, cyber-reckons targeting idols stimulate the curiosity and desire of fans through paid membership-only content, promising to reveal the 'real side' of idol artists behind the scenes, including their private lives.
Certain acts driven by curiosity and desire actively fund controversy and connect with violent networks.

"Kids like you shouldn't be loved": The "moralism" and "love qualifications" that activate the executioner.

What's even more significant is that Cyber ​​Wrecker benefits from the success of the idol industry.
Among fans, there are probably more who don't subscribe to Cyberwrecka, but for some, subscribing to Cyberwrecka could be an extension of their fandom.
Of course, it is difficult to distinguish between fans and the general public (or non-fans) simply based on the number of views a video receives and who benefits from those views.
Rather, what is important is not the ‘quantity’ of interest but its ‘quality’.
Even if people watch the same video, their positions and emotions are different.
Unlike fan comments, which often express emotions like anxiety, frustration, or anger, non-fan comments focus on moral issues, such as right and wrong.
The difference between fans and the public lies in the reason for watching the video/content, the way they watch it, and the emotions they feel while watching it.


In other words, Idol Cyber ​​Wrecker is a network that operates through the combination of the public who enjoys gossip, anxious fans who want to know everything about their favorites, the video-centric platform called YouTube, and the attention economy.
By differentiating between publicly available and members-only content, they capture the attention of both the public and fans, steadily diversifying revenue streams within the attention economy.
Here, the (idol) execution platform refers to a video that 'sets the stage' for criticizing a specific idol artist, and usually takes the form of a critical title and a corresponding video of the idol, or summarizing and organizing the controversy surrounding the idol in question.


The execution platform erected by Cyberwrecka garners constant and ongoing attention.
So why do execution stands continue to be built? The prevalence of execution stands stems from the popular "collective moralism."
Ultimately, the execution ground is the soil where collective moralism can be expressed.
The pattern of seeking recognition by demonstrating one's moral qualities within public discourse is common in online public forums.
This can also be cited as an example of 'grandstanding', which frequently appears in online public forums.
Grandstanders seek recognition from others by defining themselves as being on the "right side" of the "public" in various controversies, and to gain such recognition, they pour out excessive criticism on fans and artists in the midst of the controversy.

At this time, what dominates the public sphere is emotion and belief, not reason.
What matters is not what is actually a rational judgment, but rather what you believe about the 'moral thing', how you feel when you act on that belief, and the interest you gain in the process.
Here, morality refers to what is judged and imagined by the public to be 'worthy of happiness' and 'worthy of being loved'.
This attention again reinforces those feelings and beliefs.
The process by which interests and emotions, or interests and beliefs, reinforce and amplify each other, in itself promotes a particular form of imagination about morality or the 'moral', such as cyberbullying as 'the realization of justice'.

Idol artists, in particular, are in a situation where they must not only look great on stage but also have great personalities, and even their daily lives behind the stage must be thoroughly commercialized.
The difference between the 'on-stage' and 'backstage' appearance ('gap', 'temperature difference') must be used to create a single attractive product that encompasses personality or character.
Because of this, controversies surrounding idol artists, whether it be school violence, bullying, sexual violence, or even issues with their skills, are all replaced with ‘character controversies.’
In fact, character and morality are values ​​that can easily be damaged by mere accusations, and artists are easily criticized when controversies arise regarding character.
Additionally, they are required to perform emotional labor, such as maintaining a bright appearance at all times.


How the 'Public' Is Made: Wanted Culture and the Art of Blame

If the qualifications of love are linked to certain attitudes revealed in public opinion toward artists, the technology of the wanted list provides clues to how those attitudes are concretely practiced online.
The qualification of love is realized through the combination of two practices: ‘wanted culture’ and ‘the art of blame.’
The wanted culture, a language that originated in the violent subculture of runaway youth, is a process in which those “deprived of the space to define themselves in the dominant world order” seek power, meaning, and recognition through violence, becoming “a place where they experience and confirm their authority to judge and condemn.”

The wanted culture is reconstructed as a way of 'marking coordinates' within the arena surrounding idol controversies.
The cancel culture surrounding those involved in the YouTube backlighting controversy, such as Tzuyu and Han Hye-yeon, and the IU/Lee Ji-eun controversy over their self-composed song “Zeze” and the drama “My Mister,” clearly show the process in which celebrities, especially young female celebrities, become ambivalent beings who provide pleasure while also being annoying, becoming targets of criticism for surplus culture.
The reason the left-wing criticizes in this way is because they define themselves as losers in the current competitive system, and in that sense, the criticism has a structure similar to a wanted poster.
Especially in the school violence controversy, the warrants and condemnations are a kind of grandstanding that these individuals perform to gain moral recognition by demonstrating that they are not secondary perpetrators of school violence and by showing off how well they embody the morality of society.


Those who take note at this time are those who take themselves for granted as 'the public' and fans who call themselves 'normal fans' to avoid public criticism.
They find fans who hesitate and hesitate and try to find a slightly different truth and 'mark them with the coordinates' as '○○ maids' and 'ignorant fans'.
For example, in the school violence controversy surrounding Soojin/Seo Soojin, a former member of the girl group (G)I-DLE, fans who reserved judgment on her or fans who were looking for reasons why the revelations about her were false used the derogatory term "Soojin's maid," and the Twitter hashtag used by fans who supported her (#SoojinAmeokda) itself became a coordinate for finding and criticizing fans.
In this way, the hashtags shared by artists and fans in the midst of idol controversies have transformed into a kind of wanted poster, and people who agree with the content of the wanted poster may visit the hashtag or link and commit a group lynching.


Here, the author suggests that we need to reconsider the category/language of ‘public’ that is taken for granted.
In an age where blame becomes a tool for creating and protecting society, where the belief that creating powerful "public enemies" and condemning them is the way to improve the public sphere prevails, the very art of blame becomes a path for organizing disparate individuals into a single category called the public.


“Condemnation creates the illusion that one is participating in the public sphere while simultaneously giving one a sense of being part of the public.
By becoming a public to protect the 'healthy society' and the imagined public sphere defined by the state, citizens act as if the public already exists.
What is thus born is a purified public sphere, where condemnation becomes a direct path for individuals to construct themselves or others into a phantasmal public.”

The Ethical Struggle of Hesitation: The Political Potential of Fandom and Love

Now, let's go back to the story of the fans who were left alone in the aftermath of the controversy.
"Hesitating Love" begins and ends with the presence of these fans left in the empty space left by most others.
More specifically, this book begins by trying to understand the feelings of fans who cannot leave because the truth of the controversy has not been clearly determined, that is, they cannot know whether their favorite artist is the perpetrator or not.
In that context, this book is by no means a book about ‘fandom.’
The core of this book is to discover the fierce ethical practices of individual fans that cannot be fully absorbed or encompassed by fandom, a collective entity assumed to share a single identity and interests.
The perspective that unconditionally reduces 'fans' to fandom runs the risk of doubly erasing marginalized fans while only reproducing the dominant public opinion.


“What I want to look at is not so much what happens within fandoms as it is the networks of fandoms, online communities, social media, the public, and algorithms that emerge, but the hearts of fans and the aspects of society related to them that are not easily revealed online, and the attitudes discovered within them.”

Fans who stray from the prevailing judgments and views within the fandom (regarding the controversy) and delay and hesitate in making judgments and decisions, rather than relying on judicial judgments, question the standards of right and wrong at a more fundamental level, consider the numerous others, and struggle with the ethical questions they raise.
The insight this book gleaned from the stories of individual fans is that this wandering and hesitation puts the brakes on the violent network driven by the attention economy and creates the possibility of a different way of thinking that doesn't consume controversy as controversy.
Their reflexivity also actively raises questions about the online public sphere created within the magnetic field of social media and the attention economy.


Fans, especially idol fans, are often dismissed as highly irrational and unreasonable beings driven by 'fascination'.
'Fandom politics', which has recently emerged as a powerful framework for summoning supporters in the political world, also relies on the dichotomy of 'ignorant fandom' and 'rational public'.
This perspective, born from the cycle of prejudice that “fandoms are mostly female and that women are irrational and emotional,” assumes that there exists a pure and rational state that is not “contaminated” by fans or fandom.
But “the principle of public sphere is actually a dirty dynamic that forms and sustains relationships and conversations, a mixture of fun, love, and guilt,” and only when we acknowledge that, not only fans but all of us, are always fascinated by something, can frustration not end in frustration but lead to ethical struggle.


The many interviewees who fill this book—fans who have experienced controversy—strive to treat artists not as commodities to be discarded if they don't like them, but as complex and unique human beings in their own right, and to do so, they remain committed to ethical considerations.
If this isn't love, then what is? The fact that it's fans who most intensely contemplate all the issues surrounding the idol industry—sexual objectification, misogyny, poor working conditions, exploitation by fans and agencies, health issues—and who take responsibility for their fascination and affection, sometimes even bearing guilt and shame, suggests that their fandom can become a concrete action to create a better online public forum.
It is at this point that the political potential of fandom and fandom lies.


“In the moment when love wavers but does not break, a certain persistent and confusing brilliance raises its head.
(……) Loving something and waiting for it was about developing the strength to hesitate in a world that didn’t give me time to hesitate.
In a network that continually produces controversy, the experience of lagging behind the pace of interest and emotion is transformed into a sensitivity that might enable us to resist that pace.
“In this way, fandom and devotion are reconstructed within controversy.”