I was taking a break from this blog for a while when the Junhan Bubble controversy happened last year. Everything has been thoroughly hashed out, he has given multiple apologies, and this post feels pretty futile. However!!!! Considering my other posts on the crossover of disability and kpop it would feel weird not to cover this incident. So, take my hand, if you will. I’m dragging you back into the hell of 2025.

For the context: Junhan is on Bubble talking about what everyone is studying when a fan mentions her major. She ends up bringing up gene editing, a minefield, and Junhan accidentally shows his ass.

I still find it hilarious that all us white folk got was ability to tolerate lactose. It’s better than commending our colonialism skills, so I’ll take it.

To disclose my biases first as I write this (besides anti-ableism), I am a big fan of Xdinary Heroes now and really like Junhan. At the time this scandal happened, though, I was a pretty casual fan of the band and didn’t even know his name. I didn’t care for “Happy Death Day” when it dropped but continued to listen to their music video releases and it wasn’t until “LOVE and FEAR” that I really became a fan of the music. Still, I was busy with school and so they were on the backburner, something I’d get into eventually. Imagine my shock when I open TikTok and everyone is talking about some guy Junhan supposedly supporting eugenics. It honestly shocked me.

The ableism scandal with the IU music video didn’t surprise me that much, so why did this eugenics one? Well, as someone involved in the whole disability rights sphere, the general public does not call out or notice eugenics often. Ableism is one thing that is extra recognizable when it targets deaf/Deaf or blind folks (such as in IU’s video). Eugenics, though, is something most people forget exists outside of the context of genocide. Eugenics is the belief in propagating “good” genes and eliminating “bad” ones. Sometimes this means ethnic cleansing and eliminating “bad” racialized genes. Other times it means sterilizing deaf people so they can’t have kids. People tend to believe eugenics isn’t going on anymore outside of the ethnic cleansing context, but eugenics is still kicking. The fact that gene editing is happening at all is an ethical minefield that no one wants to touch with a ten foot pole.

So why was what Junhan said bad? Well, firstly it propagated misinformation and common racist misconceptions about both black and asian people. The fact that these stereotypes are seen as “positive” doesn’t really make it any better. Particularly with the black race being strong and athletic part- something that is undoubtedly one of the factors that has historically led to medical malpractice that continues into today. Black people are subject to myths of a higher pain tolerance, having thicker skin (literally), being more violent and/or dangerous, etc. But even more tellingly, Junhan heard gene editing brought up and immediately jumped to racialized traits on his own accord. I can’t excuse this nor forgive it, really. It’s not my place.

What I can speak on is the actual ableism and eugenics part itself. Eugenics is a shit concept but I don’t think a lot of people outside the medicinal sphere understand that there’s a very thin line between eugenics and what is considered “neutral” medicine. Gene editing therapy to prevent conditions like Down Syndrome is pretty uncontroversial to the public, yet it is pretty much the textbook definition of eugenics. Back when the eugenics organizations here in the US existed they could only dream of technology like that. They just had to do it all the good old-fashioned way- through selective breeding (and violent sterilization). Now it’s becoming far more efficient and eugenics is normalized- insofar as long as it’s not racialized. Eugenics seems to fly under the radar, simply seen as technological and medicinal advancement- until race is uttered in the same breath. People most likely wouldn’t have rang the alarm if Junhan had just kept with the preventing diseases bit. This is one reason why I was so shocked he was being called a “eugenicist” instead of just a “racist.”

I’ve actually got some bioethics books on my reading list because I don’t know how to feel about the direction we are heading in societally. Instinctually everything about it rubs me the wrong way- it’s eugenics, after all. Gene editing just sounds like playing god, a horrible idea. Preventing disease is cool but I don’t want entire disabled populations to cease to be, nor the slippery slope to designer babies real quick. People have been trying to wipe out d/Deaf people for forever and that’s an entire fucking culture and language that would cease to be. It is a sort of genocide in itself.

Because of World War II, eugenics is now heavily associated with the concept of ethnic cleansing, and they can even be conflated for one another. But actually, these are separable ideas. Some Korean netizens particularly were really mad at the statements and tore into Junhan, and it makes sense. The Japanese government abducted, tortured, and experimented on a lot of Koreans during WWII in the very name of eugenics.

The other reason I was so surprised was that the people calling Junhan out are kpop fans. Kpop itself is super eugenics-y when you think about it, something that has slowly eaten at me for years now. There’s the more obvious surface level stuff- everyone is able-bodied, has the same slim body type, the beauty standards and plastic surgery engineering… But it doesn’t really end there. The kpop industry runs at such a rapid and unhealthy pace that only the strongest can even survive all the training, nonstop promotions, dance practices, etc. Its selective- just look at survival shows.

But to circle back to Junhan in particular… Do I personally hold this mistake against him? No. I’m not really the persecuting type. His mistake seemed to be parroting myths he heard uncritically rather than anything with genuinely mean-spirited intent. People will inevitably take that as me being some sort of “apologist” and that’s alright. I’m soft and merciful, hold it against me. He apologized and hasn’t repeated the behavior since. I’m actually thankful that his moment of ignorance opened the door to the eugenics conversation to a lot of people and gave me the opportunity to speak on it, even if only a little.

What I hope people take away from this whole debacle is that eugenic ideals are alive and well and even still being acted upon. Consider all the disabled children that were unable to be born because of our advancements in prenatal testing. Consider how uncritically people accept disability as lowering quality of life.