Okay, so long story short, Red Velvet sub-unit IRENE & SEULGI are returning soon with TILT on May 26, and while there was never any doubt their concept was queer-coded, sapphic, GL (or however you want to label it), they’ve really leaned in with this comeback.
There are a ton of teasers that have effectively built up hype, but I think the lead picture on this article basically sums up the theme of it, with an assist from this video teaser and another picture that showcases the aforementioned BDSM elements.
In terms of discourse around this, my timeline seems to agree that yeah it’s fanservice or whatever, but hey the audience in question want to be baited, so give them what they want, and IRENE & SEULGI have been doing exactly that in spades. Plus, they’re in their 30s, on their second contract, and there shouldn’t really be much issue here.
Unfortunately, the adult themes seemed to run into backlash when a picture of an oyster was included in their teasers, and it was criticized on The Qoo and Twitter for the sexual implications.
There are still many comments and tweets in their defense, not all the comments were negative and they are not against the concept as a whole, many just think that one image was 'too much'.
We will not post further about the discourse. We will return to our regular programming.
Eventually, the company seemingly got spooked and they removed that teaser image, which led to fans making a meme out of it.
The oyster video edits i see on my tl: A thread 🧵 pic.twitter.com/EUyIk5Avva
— aeri 🦪 (@aeri_gato) May 17, 2025I truly don’t get how this is the line in the sand for the concept, as I’d argue it’s not even a particularly erotic or deep yonic symbol. It’s rather safe, yet enough to make pop music fans go insane, which is what it did.
So to me, all this feels like typical puritan conservative backlash, perhaps rebranded as some kind of women’s issue (since it originated from The Qoo, even though none of this has felt male gaze-y). It’s something so-called progressives online seem to be doing more and more of, yet it always ends up having no broader societal impact or purpose other than to shit on celebs and/or boost their own engagement.
It’s also just a bit confusing to focus on because innuendo has been absolutely everywhere across K-pop throughout its history (or just direct), and almost none of it faces any level of scrutiny. When people do bring up the sexual undertones, even involving younger Red Velvet themselves, it’s often downplayed or straight-up denied even when it’s blatant and involves minors. Really at times it at least feels like a lot of the backlash over sexualization is directed towards older idols, particularly women and sexual minorities, whenever they actually gain the freedom to do what they want. Not sure how the discourse got here, but shit is ass backwards to me.
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