THE H8 PSYCHOLOGY!!!
When we talk about “hate” in fandom spaces, the explanations usually stay shallow: jealousy, projection, toxic shipping wars. And while those are true, they only scratch the surface of something much more interesting, something psychological and cultural that goes beyond Jimin as an idol and taps into a pattern humans have repeated for way too long...too long 🔥:
the instinct to demonize what unsettles us, even when it fascinates us.
Jimin isn’t just hated because he’s popular, or because he doesn’t fit rigid molds of masculinity ... he’s hated because he embodies a kind of aesthetic and emotional uniqueness that short-circuits people’s ability to categorize him safely. It's so obvious at this point that it was never just about him being a ✨good person✨.
Take the way Jimin looks. His beauty is not the kind that slides neatly into convention. It’s mercurial, shifting between delicate softness and razor-edged intensity, between angelic sweetness and something nearly unsettling in its sensuality. I don't about y'all,but personally I've never seen something like how Jimin looks. The very first time I saw him, my body immediately reacted to him. And I can promise you, I was quite .... Uhh...disturbed. It wasn't in a bad way, but it wasn't something to just brush off either.
Jimin has what people love to call the Uncanny valley of attraction. Even after all these years, after getting used to seeing his face..it still makes you get into your head and wonder how the hell this man was created 😭 what was in the recipe??!
We’re evolutionarily wired to feel comfortable with traits that are familiar, predictable, categorizable. But Jimin exists in-between categories: not the stereotypical “pretty boy,” not the traditional hypermasculine star, not even fully contained in the label of “androgynous.” His features, his expressions, his stage presence combine into something that feels familiar but never completely lands. And when something cannot be categorized, the brain often misfires : instead of simply admiring it, people start to code it as “wrong,” “unsettling,” or even “dangerous.”
This is why throughout history, artists who embodied radical forms of beauty or theatricality : Lady Gaga in her early years, Nicki Minaj with her Roman alter ego ...all the other artists you could think of were branded as demonic, otherworldly or alien.
But it doesn’t stop at aesthetics. Jimin’s stage persona intensifies this effect because he doesn’t dilute his emotionality for palatability. He dances as though he’s tearing something from his chest, he performs with a level of vulnerability that breaks the “idol fourth wall” of curated perfection. Public vulnerability from a man is often seen as too raw and intense. So what's easier than just admitting he's got the most unique voice you've come across in generations? That he's a pretty man? That he's a talented man in tune with his feelings too? Calling him fake, attention seeking and too much.
If you just look at it carefully from a distance, that's all it took to hate Jimin.
If Jimin unsettles people because he destabilizes categories, Jungkook draws hate for the opposite reason: because he fits too many categories too well. He embodies the archetype of the “golden child” — the one who seems to excel effortlessly, who attracts admiration so naturally that others feel their own light dimmed in comparison.
You could go into any Field, or any age group in life. But it has always been the rule : group dynamics often point out that ‘golden’ children are paradoxically both admired and resented : they become vessels of projection for what others wish they were, while also carrying the burden of being “too much.” Jungkook’s voice, his dancing, his athleticism, his charisma, even his visual appeal. He is not just competent, but overly competent, and that disrupts an unspoken social contract.
In most groups, balance is maintained by the idea that no one person should be good at everything. So what do people do?? That’s where the nitpicking, dismissals, and accusations against Jungkook arise: not because he is lacking, but precisely because he isn’t.
But Jungkook’s situation is more complicated than just “golden child” resentment. He is also the youngest, the maknae, and this is where the “last-born curse” comes in. The youngest in a family is often– not applied to everyone though – stereotyped as dependent, sheltered, or incapable of true independence. Fans applied that script onto Jungkook from the start: he was the baby, the one raised by his hyungs, the one molded by the group. And in many ways, BTS themselves reinforced this — openly talking about how they looked after him, shaped him, guided him. The problem arises when Jungkook begins to grow beyond that narrative.
Every time he displays mastery — whether it’s his vocals, his artistry, his choices in solo projects — the narrative that he is “just a product of his hyungs” crumbles. And rather than letting that story evolve naturally, many people lash out. They cannot credit his accomplishments to him alone, because that would mean rewriting the role they assigned him. Instead, they reduce his achievements with dismissals like “he only learned that from his hyung” or “he wouldn’t be anywhere without them.” In simple words, Jungkook is punished for outgrowing the very box he was placed in.
He ‘ bretrayed’ the role others gave to him. Even if that betrayal is just growth. It comes with resentment.
I know y'all cannot relate to looking like Jimin, but someone can surely relate to being the Jungkook of their class, friendship or even home for sure 😂❤️🩹
And here’s the thing: if all of this were just coincidence, then why do the patterns of hate look the way they do? Why is it that when people go after Jimin, it’s always about his looks or his voice? Think about that. Why are the most viral hate tweets about Jimin not about his talent — not “he tanked”, not “he can’t dance for shit,” not “he has no stage presence” — but about his appearance, often in the most violent and dehumanizing ways imaginable? Why is it rape jokes??
It’s because the discomfort has never been about ability. It has always been about how his body and his presence destabilize people’s comfort with gender, beauty, and desire. Jimin’s hate proves its own point: they can’t touch his craft, so they insult the aura. They circle his face, his voice, his being, because that’s what unsettles them.
And then look at Jungkook. Why is his hate never clean, never simple? Why is it always in the form of “I love Jungkook BUT—”? Scroll through TikTok and you’ll see it: “but Rapmon made him,” “but he’s nothing without his hyungs,” “but his album was generic as fuck,” “but he’s always at the center.” Why can no one just say “he tanked” or “he flopped” and leave it at that? Why does the hate always spiral back to context, to credit, to comparisons? It’s because Jungkook breaks the narrative people want to hold onto. He was supposed to remain the baby, the one shaped and molded by BTS forever.
So when he succeeds, the only way to keep the illusion alive is to attach a “but.” But someone else trained him. But someone else put him on. But someone else did it better. The “but” is a crutch, a way to explain away his autonomy, because admitting that he did it on his own means letting go of the comfort of the old story.
So then, when you put Jimin and Jungkook together — when you make them Jikook — the hate doesn’t just add up, it multiplies. Because now, all the insecurities and discomfort they provoke individually are colliding in one place.
On their own, each one is already “ too much ”. They balance one another too well.
Why is it that when other BTS members interact, the fandom sees it as wholesome brotherhood, but when Jimin and Jungkook interact, it’s instantly polarizing? Why is it that harmless moments of closeness between them generate entire hate threads, breakdown videos, and dismissals as “fanservice”? The answer is the same as it was for them individually: because they threaten categories. As a ship, Jikook disrupts both the safe narrative of BTS as a family unit and the rigid binaries of fandom shipping.
Jimin, whose presence already gets coded as “too sensual,” “too feminine,” “too much,” paired with Jungkook, whose autonomy already threatens the “raised by hyungs” narrative — together they tell a story people don’t want to acknowledge. Jikook isn’t hated because it’s weak — it’s hated because it’s too strong. Because when you put together the boy who cannot be boxed in (Jimin) and the boy who refuses to stay in the box he was given (Jungkook), what you get is a ship that cracks the entire system of categorization fandoms rely on. And instead of sitting with that discomfort, people attack.
And now, now that they cannot hate like they used to...now that that cannot call Jikookers delusional anymore, they'll ignore them entirely. Their show doesn't get voted for. Their show is what people suddenly wish other members could have...*Seokjin oppa why don't you do AYS 2: The JiHope Version??
*let me take a few paragraphs off just to laugh