Quick Thought Experiment on the No Dating Rule
I’ll be honest here.
Let’s go back to the beginning of 2010. I’m sitting bored at some lecture, and as usual, I open up Google Reader.
Imagine then that the first news I see says that Ono Erena, active in AKB at the time, is involved in a scandal. Let’s say it’s of the romantic variety.
Does it bother me? Yes.
Am I going to follow her career from now on? Yes.
But is she still my number 1? No.
Considering how restrictive the idol image could be, and once was, it’s amazing how it can now stand solely on top of the No Dating Rule. Not to say that all idols fall into this – the term is overused as far as my opinion matters, but yes, there are idols out there, of the variety and AV kinds, to whom this rule doesn’t apply. Look only at the music idols, however, and the Rule is the only thing left of the image. Of the purity. There was a time when you wouldn’t see an idol talking about her personal life at all. In fact, you’d hardly hear her talking, aside from politely answering in two words whatever was asked, as the ideal image was timid. Things already changed a lot. Take out this one more rule, however, and you’d get something fundamentally different. Because I say so =D
I kind of liked back in the start of Momusu, the way they talked on variety shows but said very little. It meant fans could think of the girl as being whatever personality they wanted. It meant they were easier to commericialise. The magic and mystery of idols is gone, I miss it
It’s true that fans could assign whatever personality they wanted to the girls, but really only up to a point… I mean, if someone wanted to believe Yaguchi was as outspoken as she turned out to be after some time in Momusu, well, that’d be hard to do if she didn’t speak a lot in the variety shows she appeared in. If you don’t know much about a person, you can take a guess on what personality she has, but you’re still confined to what you observe her do – or you’re just fantasizing stuff. And anyway, Momusu is pretty recent, the only reason they didn’t talk as much in very early performances was either because they just were new to TV, back in the very oldest stuff (Asayan, early Utaban). As they got used to it, the personalities came out. The differences in treatment which earlier idols got were more about projecting a “sweet girl”, submissive image than going for “no image” at all.
Were they easier to commercialize? I don’t know. A true blank slate, someone fans really could assign whatever personality they want, would be an obvious success. You can’t beat a product that is what everyone individually wants it to be. It’s always a perfect fit. But I don’t think such an idol exists or could exist. So trying to please everybody by keeping a variety of members with distinct personalities is what seems to work best these days.
Nice read. I agree… for the most part. The no dating rule of idols is simply a current standard, and many idols who are falling victim to scandal, are really falling victim to trend of the times.
Idols of the 80s were vastly different from their counterparts today and I’m sure that within a few years, our standards for idols will have continued to change. I feel the natural progression of things, is that in the years to come, idol dating will become less and less taboo. Personally, I don’t care. I don’t want my favorite idols to date, but, I would still be a fan if they did. Preferbly, if the idol culture does progress as such… I’d want my idols to keep their romantic life to themselves. I don’t care to know, but if the information leaked, I wouldn’t make a huge deal about it.
All these Graduations and blacklistings is a bit much… for me anway.