[shakna]

Sexual awareness, like holding a boy's hand, is considered a major scandal. SK celebrities are often expected to be highly sexualised in clothing, their songs, etc. whilst maintaining an entirely "pure" persona. i.e. Never considered kissing, etc.

This "impure purity" is expected for both male & female celebs, though there are some differences and boys tend to get a little more leeway.

The celeb also tends to take the blame for their creepy fans. It's their fault for 'encouraging' stalkers, etc.

It's an impossible culture that chews people up and spits them out.

[wruza]

As I understand it, western streamers also may lose a big chunk of their followers engagement simply by mentioning their relationship. Lonely twitch watchers are sometimes substantial part of auditory, who have feelings to their pure idol. Also, look at the percentage of regular popular instagram (formerly fb) girls who NEVER post their boyfriends. It’s not only a culture, it sells much better.

That said, SK undoubtedly pushes it beyond any sense.

[Cthulhu_]

It's the same in the west though, or, used to be with the boy / girl bands from the 90's / 2000's. Pretty sure K-pop ensembles are loosely based on that.

[shakna]

It's really not even near to the same degree. For example, an unstable fan may bring a knife to a handshake event, see someone else shake their idol's hand, lose it, and start knifing people.

The idol is blamed for the incident. For the state of mind of their fan. For doing anything that might incite jealousy.