JYP Entertainment recently collaborated with Republic Records to debut an international girl group named VCHA from the survival show “A2K” . At the end of the show, many netizens were happy to see a lineup full of members from different races and cultures. In particular, members Savanna and Camila are of Black and Latina descents, respectively.
However, fans’ excitement dwindled after seeing these 2 members ended up being “whitewashed” by JYP.
To specify, JYP recently released teaser images for VCHA’s 1st single, “Girls of the Year” . However, in their images, Savanna and Camila looked noticeably paler, and their hair was straightened, erasing the natural curly texture signature for their ethnicities,
As a result, many have criticized JYP for forcing the girl to conform to Korean beauty standards by “whitewashing” them.
A fan even shared a side-by-side comparison of Savanna and Camila during “A2K” and in the new teaser, revealing remarkable differences.
It seems that the K-pop industry still has a long way to go when it comes to embracing diversity and letting go of toxic beauty standards.
Source: Krb