Katseye recently released a statement accusing Manon of being on Hiatus due to health reasons. Hybe is known for making the women go on a hiatus before officially disbanding them from the group.
Katseye is an international girl group with one of the most diverse lineups. As a popular factor, Katseye has some of the most diverse members in the group of kpop industry. It sparked a lot of opinions and hype from people all across the world.
However, the opinions weren’t very positive. Katseye’s first-ever viral video was “Debut,” in which they represented themselves for the first time. The song is catchy and gets a lot of attention, at first they were hyping the new girls up, spreading the music all across. Fans are excited to see representation within their culture. Though people soon realized that Manon, the black woman of the group, seemed to be covered up a lot in the music videos and choreographies, this was left overlooked as the girl group is large, and she was still one of the main vocals. Many fans spectated this is another form of racism given by Hybe, but was left unexplored as they’re still new and haven’t fully shone yet.
As more music was produced by Katseye, Gnarly, Gabriela, etc, fans seemed to forget the previous scandal written by Hybe. It was great, in fact, as they got more brand deals, fun trips, etc. Though with positives come negatives. Fans soon realized Katseye had no media training, as they previously ended up leaking their location to eat. This itself caused a bit of debate, though Sophia, the group leader, always intervenes at pivotal moments like these and saves the group. All in well this soon brought back the original claim, racism against Manon. Many fans started to revisit the brand deals and posters Katseye had gotten and realized she was very much covered once again. Despite being a main vocalist, she had gotten little to no visual representation. As the news became public, many started to blame Hybe, to which they responded that she was ill and couldn’t perform. Fans saw through this and ended up giving even more backlash, in response they temporarily put Manon’s contract on hiatus. Many fans think this is a performative act in order to keep their image; however, many can see Manon repost videos about being silenced and not actually being sick. As of now, we haven’t heard Manon’s official response to this, which many fans speculate is due to her contract and is being silenced.
