who remembers when she got critized by wearing expensive Gucci sweater to hang out with her friend
and she got critized by wearing inexpensive h&m dress for an award show
😭😭
The only thing she’s guilty of was being a little too deep that it just didn’t translate well. I always viewed Chatshire as an album where she’s going through a life crisis of figuring out her identity and where she would go next in her life.
iu’s “zeze” drama from 2015 keeps getting twisted into pedo accusations but let’s actually talk facts instead of outrage farming.
she wrote zeze inspired by the book *my sweet orange tree* not as the literal 5yo kid but as her own fictional character using the book’s themes of a troubled, misunderstood child. the book itself deals with abuse, neglect, imagination and duality. iu said some parts of the character’s temper felt “sexy” meaning charming or captivating in a literary way. bad wording? yeah she admitted that. but jumping straight to “iu sexualizes kids” is such a stretch.
key points people always ignore:
- she clearly said it’s a new character, not the book’s zeze. lyrics are from the orange tree’s view, poetic and layered.
- the korean publisher who complained later apologized and backed off, saying they just found her interpretation unfamiliar.
- iu apologized for hurting feelings and her poor choice of words but still stood by the song as art.
- the fishnet kid on the album cover was stylized artistic concept, not literal. this wasn’t “shifting blame.”
it was explaining artistic intent. art explores dark or uncomfortable themes all the time without the creator being a predator. plenty of books, movies and songs do this. after 10+ years, iu still has one of the cleanest images in kpop massive charity work, no real scandals, professional af. constantly dragging this up feels more like selective hate than real concern. media literacy exists for a reason. not every edgy lyric is literal. she took responsibility where it mattered and moved on. let her art be.