Whether you’ve been scrolling on Instagram or TikTok recently, you’re bound to hear a discussion about The Idol at some point. The Idol premiered on June 4 to widespread media attention immediately after its premiere at Cannes, where many were left shocked at the first episode. The Idol follows a rising pop star, Jocelyn (played by Lily-Rose Depp) as she forms a relationship with a nightclub owner and cult leader named Tedros (played by Abel Tesfaye, aka the Weeknd) in Hollywood. However, many fans aren’t watching the series for the plot line, but rather for one of the cast members: actress and K-pop idol Jennie Ruby Jane.
If you’re new to K-pop, this name may sound unfamiliar to you. Jennie Ruby Jane, otherwise known as Jennie or Jennie Kim, is a member of the girl group Blackpink. When it was announced that the main rapper and lead singer of the group was joining the cast of HBO’s new series directed by Sam Levinson, many fans were excited to see Jennie’s acting debut. In fact, when the series premiered last weekend, many were left talking about Jennie’s dance scene in the first episode.
In the dance sequence, Jennie’s character, Dyanne, is Jocelyn’s backup dancer who is doing choreography as Jocelyn is preparing to perform in front of a Vanity Fair reporter. In between scenes of the executives talking, we see Dyanne do the choreography flawlessly as Jocelyn watches.
After this scene aired, it became one of the most talked-about scenes on social media. Fans immediately began posting their versions of Dyanne’s choreography on TikTok, and a video of the scene has already gotten 13 million views on YouTube, surpassing the actual viewership of The Idol’s premiere (913,000 viewers, according to Variety). Jennie is a fantastic dancer, so it’s no shock that fans are obsessed with her moment in the first episode.
However, even though fans are loving Jennie’s choreography, the scene has been met with some backlash. In an article posted by Allkpop, some K-pop fans expressed that they think the choreography was “too much” or too provocative to be on a TV series. Blinks (Blackpink fans) immediately defended Jennie after this article was posted to Twitter, saying that it is acting — and if a male idol did something similar to The Idol’s choreography, no one would be complaining.
In my opinion, I completely agree. The backlash that Jennie is getting for her performance is unnecessary and just straight-up sexist. Jennie is a 27-year-old woman, and there are male performers out there who have done provocative choreography even in the world of K-pop, like Seventeen or BTS, to which no one batted an eye. (The backlash has also been mainly focused on Jennie, even though both she and Depp did the same choreography.) In other words, Jennie is a professional performer, and she knows what she’s doing on stage.
Also, in the context of other scenes in The Idol, like Tedros bringing a knife to Jocelyn’s mouth, Jocelyn telling Leia she likes Tedros’ “rape-y” vibe, and Tedros kissing Leia without her consent, Dyanne’s dance sequence is actually pretty tame.
Dance is meant to be an art form to everyone. As someone who did dance for a few years, I don’t see any problem with any of the choreography that has been shown on The Idol, and the backlash that Jennie is getting is unfair. For Jennie’s part, she hasn’t commented on any of the backlash yet — she seems unbothered by all of this, and rightfully so.