130302 SNSD ‘Not Girls’ Anymore, Grows Up To Dating Scandals?

SNSD From Girls Into Women?

You can only be really a girl for a good short while, and Girls Generation isn’t an exception. While they maintain their youthful looks and stamina, the girls of SNSD are also blossoming into womanhood and gracefully so. However, no matter how graceful their growth is, this also spells them being more likely to be embroiled in dating scandals. After all, they are women too, and isn’t wanting to be in a loving romance part of the essence of being truly feminine?

When they first debuted, the nine ladies of Girls Generation were very well-guarded by SM Entertainment. Known for its strict policies, including dating bans, and the like, being the it-group for SM also meant less freedom for SNSD as rookies. However, as their success ascended to the heights, it also allowed each individual member to branch out into their individual activities outside the group. They joined musicals, took part in dramas and reality shows. With this occurring, the girls were given the opportunity to find friends outside their SM circles, and the set-up was not so ideal that their managers will not really be able to keep track of them all of the time.

So, did the scandal surrounding Sooyoung come about because SM is loosening its grip on the SNSD members or is it because the members are starting to become more ‘wild’ and harder to rein in? It is likely a good balance of both. Good management and leadership is borne from trust, and as SNSD has proven as a group, as individuals, as sub-units that they have capacity to deliver success, it only follows that SM begins to trust them with leading their own personal lives. While managing rookies do require a lot of micromanaging due to the investment put in, managing ‘seniors’ require a good amount of trust. The only way to reward their hard work is to trust them with their personal time. Being grown women, however, also meant that SNSD is beginning to explore their femininity. In a TV show recently, Tiffany confessed that they have tried porn out of curiosity. It doesn’t make them any less wholesome. Exploration is important to self-awareness, and even more so for them artists who likely will need experience to draw from when they act, sing and perform.

The recent dating scandals shouldn’t be a crack in SM Entertainment’s well-accoladed management policy. It just shows that the company has grown the strategy into a much more meaningful one that allows for trust through self-management. Other than that, rather than a scandal, the latest news about artists dating should be welcomed. They are evidence that Kpop artists, like the rest of us, lead lives that include close relationships.