'Cause I Have A Lot to Say about Amber Liu: Blog Twenty

Goodness, I don’t even know how to begin this rant.

Amber Liu is my favorite member of a Kpop (Korean Pop music) girl group called F(x). She is known for her boyish look, blah blah blah, and I feel like ranting about this in general. It’s one I’ve been building up for a long time so here goes.

I got introduced to Fx in 2010 sometime. A friend played me their *NU ABO* video, and I immediately liked the music and attitude of the song. Then came the second verse… the verse where Amber half-raps/half-sings. The first time I heard it and saw her on the screen… I’m going to out how judgmental I am… I was appalled. I was taken aback. I did not want to continue with the song any further. Why? Because Amber, this random girl with a deeper voice than the rest of them, totally seemed out of place in a Kpop girl group. She didn’t fit. Now, I was naïve then. I thought all Kpop girl groups were supposed to be overly cute, yet have sex intrigue all at the same time (which isn’t a good thing in this case, in my opinion). Amber wore a skirt in that video, and all I could think of was “clearly she doesn’t even know how to wear that.”

Yes, that was my ignorance I’ll admit it. BUT I kept listening to the song, and eventually, slowly but surely, Amber’s part became the best part out of the entire song. Suddenly, Amber was the only interesting thing it seemed F(x) had to offer. More on that later. I completely took back everything I ever said or felt about Amber, but now, I have some bones to pick with not only fans but her company as well. Here are some things people say about Amber.

1. Amber is a guy.

 

No. Amber is not a guy. If she was a guy, she wouldn’t be in a girl’s group. She wouldn’t have breasts. On every youtube video about Amber or Fx performances, there’s always several comments about her being a guy or people mistaking her for a guy. Having short hair and wearing a vest doesn’t turn you into a boy. Interviews I’ve watched, they’re always making fun of her—to her FACE—about how manly and guyish she looks. They go on and on about it. In one interview, the guy was talking about how fans call her “unppa”, a combination of “unnie” and “oppa”. Um, no, that’s not creative and it’s not funny. She’s an unnie, not an unppa, as sure as hell not an oppa. I always wonder how that makes her feel. She has to suck it up and put on a smile or else she’d get fired probably, but do they ever think about how they could be hurting her self-esteem? She’s not some mystical creature to be poked at and examined and analyzed just because they don’t know what a tomboy is. Sorry, but every girl on Earth doesn’t look like or act like one of those chicks from… yeah, I’ll be nice and not say. There was one photoshoot where they dressed up all the Fx members in traditional Korean clothing, and they dressed Amber up in the guy’s uniform.

That’s not right, and last I knew, Amber considers herself a girl. In what way was that appropriate? During other photoshoots, they have her wearing casual men’s clothing, which is a little more appropriate ‘cause that’s her style, but then they have her posing with the other members like she’s their boyfriend. What message are they trying to give exactly? But what I really hate about this treatment of Amber is when they act like she’s not pretty… because she doesn’t giggle and do aegyo every expression and raise her voice several octaves to sound adorable. Plus, she’s American. We don’t think that stuff’s cute. We tend to think it’s immature for someone her age and annoying. Hate to break it to some people, but Amber is very pretty. She could be just as beautiful as any of the other girls in the group, but that’s not the image they want to portray for her.

Which brings me to my next point.

2. Since Amber’s not pretty like the rest of Fx, let’s give her the ugliest outfit to wear for the performance.

I am NOT happy with the way they dress Amber for videos and performances. Back in the day, they tried a little harder, but lately, all they do is throw on the ugliest, bulkiest, manliest vest or jacket (and sometimes hideous hat) they can find and put it on her. Or the ugliest pants. They dress their male idols more fem and stylish than her! Amber is as much apart of Fx as the rest of the girls. Just because she doesn’t get to dress like a Barbie doll doesn’t mean she needs to look like she comes from the Island of misfit toys. In the *La Ta Cha* video, she looked comfortable but stylish for the dance sequence. In the *Chocolate Love* song/commercial, she showed that she could look incredibly sexy and still maintain her image. How did she go from this to this?

THIS is great looking! Amber looks amazing!

  <--- THIS is ugly as sin. Maybe even uglier.

In the *Pinocchio/Danger* video, she had ONE cute outfit… out of SIX. The other 6  outfits looked just plain awful. In the video she did with Dansen Tang, they dressed her up straight tomboy, but she managed to look awesome! Why? Because the clothes fit correctly and they looked like what they needed to. Out of all the groups from their company, Fx is dressed the worst for performances, and that pisses me off because they’re such an awesome group. What I’m saying is I don’t care what Amber’s style is, dress her nicely and cool looking. Don’t dress her like the company ran out of clothes. Also, when Amber was on hiatus, suddenly Fx’s outfits became sexier and better looking. It was like “Now that that tomboy is gone, we can finally make you guys into dolls”.

 with Amber

 without Amber

Just not cool. Moving on to something I once felt…

3. Amber doesn’t fit with Fx.

I’ve taken that back a long time ago now, but I’ll admit it. Amber does stand out… in a really good way. She’s what makes them different. Victoria is gorgeous, very confident, and the best dancer. Kyrstal is the diva who does it all. Sulli brings the cuteness and the cheer. And Luna is the strong voice. But without Amber, they’d be like any ol other Kpop girl group. This was proven when Amber broke her ankle and was gone for several months. They kept performing without her, and it was soooooooooo oh-so-very boring. I was almost embarrassed for them. I’m not saying that Amber is the only one that matters. I’m saying that Fx isn’t Fx without her. She completes their equation. At the same time, who is writing her raps? Why does she and Victoria only get to sing 2 whole lines out of an entire song? Hell, At least Amber gets to rap. Victoria barely gets to do anything, and that sucks. I know they don’t fully know the language, but considering they now speak it fluently and have learned to sing with it, how does this hinder their singing ability? It made me so mad to finally hear Amber’s singing voice on some Youtube videos and know that her company isn’t allowing her to fully use it.

[Victoria & Amber posing for *Nylon*. These 2 are my favs]

Same thing with her raps. In the Danson Tang song, her rap was generic (compared to Eminem… even Drake…even… no, I won’t go there) but sounded hella awesome. Back in Fx world, she’s rapping about boys being cute hamsters. And she only gets to rap for about 10 seconds, if that. This is why I could never be in a girl’s group. One youtuber posted about Amber and said that she should go solo. It intrigued me. I don’t know if I would want her to do that, but I feel like if it’s the only way she’ll be able to express her talent more and better herself musically, then why not? But only for a short period of time. I love Fx and I don’t want them to break up. But goodness, throw the girl a bone. Speaking of bones…

4. Amber is a lesbian. RAWR to anyone who thinks differently! RAWR to Amber for lying about it.

 

Do I think that Amber is a lesbian? ……..Yes. Does it matter what I think? NO. Do I know Amber personally to have this information? NO. I can’t really explain my reasoning, but I hate that there are arguments like this online. There was even one comment where someone was like “She’s clearly crossed the line of being a tomboy so stop giving her that excuse”. How do you cross the line of being a tomboy? And even if you somehow do cross this imaginary thing, how does that confirm someone a lesbian? Amber has been asked about her ideal type several times (that’s my next argument), and she’s talked about characteristics of “him” and drew a picture of a guy when asked to at an interview. Granted, she could be doing that and still be a lesbian BUT the point is, no one knows until she’s ready to address that issue with the world. Until then, stop dictating who she’s attracted to just because she wears those ugly vests and has a short haircut. I'm also pretty sure that some of these girls want her to be a lesbian so that they can justify being attracted to her. Everywhere you go online about Amber, at least 90% of the comments are about going gay for Amber, or girls "jokingly"being confused about their sexuality. They want her to be a lesbian because they simply want her and because she, again *sighs in exasperation*, is boyish.  I could be right, I could be wrong about her being a lesbian. I don't really care. Either way, I’ll support her as a fan.

5. Because Amber is so guyish, let’s set her up with any boy she’s seen with. Just to make ourselves sleep better at night knowing she likes a guy and not a girl.

I might be nullifying my above argument, but there is maybe only ONE guy Amber might seriously be crushing on (and I say this because her whole demeanor changes in videos I’ve seen of these two), but other than that, it’s just annoying. She’s friends with a lot of the guys from Kpop guy groups. Just because she’s seen joking around with one of them doesn’t mean instant love.

example: He must be whispering something about their love!! Nothing else is logical 'cuz I'm am insane fangirl!!!!

Shippers are going crazy anywhere and everywhere these days, but I feel like people care about Amber’s love life so much because they secretly want her to prove she’s straight. They want to prove that these guys are in love with Amber despite how she’s different than the other girls they see everyday. There's also these videos about Amber doing "girly things" because they just want to seek out her femininity to make themselves comfortable with her. Again, I wish people would stop dictating her love life and searching for her inner aegyo to suit their morals. I do feel like male idols are probably put off by her at first but eventually become great friends with her. They don’t have to worry about impressing her ‘cause she’s not that kind of girl, and I think they’re so deprived of female contact anyway (because of contract issues, they’re not allowed to date apparently), that they can’t leave her alone. Seriously. She’s the one girl they can be all over and no one important will question it.  

6. Because Amber is so popular online, I’m going to hate her. 

These people are the people who get mad that Amber has many fans who support her more than the rest of Fx. Let me just say that I LOVE Fx. They all seem like really nice girls (well, except the one I don’t like… who I won’t say), and I’d go crazy if I met any of them, no matter which one. But people who don’t like Amber because she’s so unique really irks me. We should want unique groups and unique people. Why is it worth it if everyone is the exact same? Like I said before, Amber is NOT Fx. Amber, Victoria, Sulli, Luna, and Krystal are Fx. They all complete the group. Just because Amber is usually singled out online, why is that a valid reason to hate her?

My whole point about this is that there’s a whole lot of nonsense going on about Amber, and I wish some people would just have a seat. Like I had to do with myself.   

Here's a video of Fx from MBC's Gayo Daejun performance. *Gangsta Boy* is my favorite song of Fx's. I love her intro!! Not the best performance they've done, but still. I love F(x)!!!