After the kpop star and Twitch streamer Jae Park called his friend a "sugar daddy" during a Rust stream, the content creator and idol suddenly decided to close his Twitch account with 441,000 followers. While users are quick to blame kpop "stans" for the incident, the issue may be more complex than that.
Jae Park comes from kpop group Day6, but was also a prominent streamer on Twitch where he gamed with other well-known content creators like Valkyrae. Aside from Rust, Jae has also been known to stream Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Valorant, and Among Us. During streams, Jae has spoken out about some of the rules he must endure by being a kpop artist, like not cursing in Korean, and some of his explanations have gone as far as making remarks against his agency and management, saying that he is expected to be a "perfect specimen," and will otherwise be reprimanded. But these strict rules are quite normal across most kpop idols and groups.
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Recently, Jae was heard calling his friend a "sugar daddy" during a livestream of Rust. Then, earlier today, Jae issued an apology via Twitter where he also announced he would no longer be streaming on Twitch, assuring his fans that his priority is Day6. He cites the joke as having "immaturity" and making an "inappropriate comment" seemingly after the kpop community lashed out. In an "act of sincerity," Jae says, he has shut down his Twitch channel where he was known to stream with other kpop idols like Mark Tuan from the former group GOT7.
On the surface, it looks like the issue is stemming from kpop "stans," or fans who take their obsession a bit too far. In this instance, it's possible that Jae received backlash from Day6 fans who felt the comments were inappropriate. After all, gay marriage is not yet legal in South Korea, are there are unfortunately many kpop fans who don't support the idea of an idol being LGBTQIA+.
While this comment in no way indicates that Jae might be part of that community and was simply a joke, it's possible that the "sugar daddy" backlash was in part due to homophobia from fans. Even some kpop news outlets cite this comment as "crude" and are glad "Jae owned up to his actions," while many others feel he did nothing wrong.
However, while many onlookers are blaming crazed fans, this situation likely also involves Day6's agency JYP, which is known for being excessively strict with its members. Mark Tuan began streaming after GOT7 broke up, a direct response to the way the members were treated by JYP. It's more likely that JYP, which has a history of such procedures, cracked down on the kpop idol due to concerns of how this might make him or his group look.
This could be implied when reading Jae's apology letter, which cites Day6, his fans, and colleagues to be victims of his "behavior." Regardless, it's sad to see a prominent content creator close their account due to such pressure, whether it be from his fans or JYP.