Long rant BTS related
I was talking to a longtime froend about random life things when she said something like:
“Have you noticed that you get more upset when people mock BTS than when people mock you? When it’s you, you don’t care. But when it’s BTS, you get defensive.” (i had a fight with some friends over bts recently)
That… sat with me. Because she wasn’t wrong.
And of course my brain, being my brain, decided that 2 a.m. was the perfect time to unpack that.
So this is what i think: yes. It is love. A lot of love. But it’s not some shallow, “I like my fav celeb” kind of love. It’s the love you have for the people who helped you rebuild yourself when you didn’t even know how broken you were.
I didn’t just grow up listening to BTS. I grew up with them.
They were there when I was lost. When I didn’t trust myself. When I didn’t recognise the person I was becoming. Yes, I feel protective of them in the same way I feel protective of my friends.
Namjoon taught me how to trust myself.
He taught me my thoughts are allowed to exist. My questions are allowed to be asked. I don’t need permission to believe in my own mind.
Jin taught me that there is no dream too big for me to even attempt.
Not “you’ll definitely succeed,” but “you’re allowed to dream anyway.”
You’re allowed to want absurd things. You’re allowed to try, even if it’s embarrassing, even if people laugh, even if you fail.
Yoongi taught me something I desperately needed: boundaries.
He taught me that it’s okay to prioritise my energy. That I don’t owe every person, every situation, every expectation my time and emotional capacity.
He taught me resilience. His songs gave me language for emotions I couldn’t articulate yet.
Hoseok showed me that I could shine... fully, loudly, unapologetically.
That being bright doesn’t make you shallow. That optimism can coexist with pain. That you can be serious and still choose warmth.
Jimin taught me how to love freely.
How to be soft without shame. How vulnerability is not weakness. How caring deeply doesn’t make you foolish. That getting hurt doesn’t mean you were wrong to love... it just means you loved.
He showed me that tenderness is powerful.
Taehyung taught me something i desperately needed to learn... that being different acc to others is not something to fix.
I’ve always been called weird. Different. Too much. Too loud. Too intense. Too out of sync.
He showed me that it’s okay to think differently. To feel differently. To move through the world in patterns that don’t look like everyone else’s. That not fitting neatly into boxes doesn’t make you broken.
That questioning things, visualising differently, processing the world in your own way is not a flaw. It’s a perspective.
And Jungkook taught me to aim.
To try. To learn things just because I want to. To chase goals without apologising for wanting them. To love fiercely and fearlessly. To put your whole heart into something even when it’s scary.
So when people mock BTS, it doesn’t feel like they’re mocking just a band.
It feels like they’re mocking:
• softness
• difference
• emotional honesty
• men who don’t fit narrow, toxic definitions of masculinity
And let’s be honest... most of the time, what they’re really mocking is rooted in xenophobia, racism, homophobia, and a deep discomfort with anything that doesn’t look or behave the way they expect.
And that is where I draw the line.
Because these seven people didn’t make me weaker. They made me strong enough to not care what people think of me anymore or at least, strong enough to be getting there.
No one gets to disrespect the very thing that helped me survive becoming myself.
So yeah. I’ll shrug off insults aimed at me.
But I will always defend the ones who taught me how to stand in the first place.
And apparently… this what my brain decided we were unpacking at 2 a.m. 💜