If You Still Believe the Shaved Head Story, It's Because You Want To
If you think they were forced to shave their heads, you are wanting to be gullible.
There are a lot of idol detractors. People who do not like idol culture, do not like Japanese male fans, or maybe even more broadly do not like Japan.
Let’s be honest.
That is the heart of the issue here.
They do not like those things, but instead of being honest with themselves, they cling to this one “shaved head girl” incident and constantly bring it up as the end-all-be-all example of why the culture is bad.
It is their singular Holy Grail of evidence.
Whenever I hear these critics talk about idol culture, they always repeat the same talking points:
That shaved head girl.
The AKB saw event.
They made a movie about it called Perfect Blue. (Fictional)
And now they have started using Oshi no Ko as evidence.
Again, a fictional show.
Never mind going to Japan to visit the country. Never mind going to a show to see it for themselves. Never mind taking the time to talk to actual fans who have knowledge and experience.
Never mind that the shaved head girl herself ended up staying in AKB for an additional eight years before graduating.
The truth of the matter, plain and simple:
They do not want to actually know the truth.
Every time someone brings up conflicting reports or evidence, they default to:
Oh, I know how Japan actually is.
I know how to read in between the lines.
I know what actually happened.
Okay, then at what point is evidence enough?
If the person who did it says she did it on her own accord, if she has been on TV shows after graduation talking about it, what kind of evidence could even exist to change their mind?
Ultimately, it does not exist.
Because It's not about finding out the truth. It's not about changing their mind.
It is about how they want to see it.
They want the idol world to be some scummy, grotesque place.
They want it to be true because if it was not true, they would have reexamine other things they might have possibly gotten wrong.
Why else would we be here, more than ten years after Minegishi Minami shaved her head, watching some other disgruntled AKB member shave her head and then people are immediately off to the races saying:
“Guess the industry hasn’t changed at all.”
If you think for even a second, a logical second, you would know there is absolutely no way AKB management would tell her, force her, or even coerce her to shave her head after the fallout from the misunderstanding last time.
Even if you still believe they “forced” Minegishi to do it back in 2013.
Why on God’s Earth would they think that is a good idea now?
Imagine you are management.
Pull your head out of your ass for a second.
Why would that be a good idea?
If you still think it is a possibility, then let me tell you why people fall for scams.
They fall for them because they want it to be true.
That is why they ignore all the obvious red flags that everyone else sees coming from a mile away. They convince themselves either out of hope or fear.
They wanted that cute girl who randomly messaged them to be real and in love with them. They wanted to believe they won the lottery, or that some Nigerian prince was going to solve all their problems with a bag of money.
This is where we are with the idol world.
Especially now, with the availability of information on the internet. If you are still going around believing these things, it is because you want to believe in the scam.
You want to believe these salacious stories these websites are throwing at you.
This is not about pretending the idol industry is perfect.
It is about asking a very basic question:
What evidence would ever be enough for you?
If the person involved says she did it herself, if she stayed in the group for years afterward, if she has talked about it publicly after graduation, and if AKB management would have every possible reason to avoid repeating the exact same controversy again, but you still insist the only possible explanation is secret coercion, then you are not investigating anymore.
You are protecting a belief.
And that belief is simple:
You need the idol world to be ugly. You need the fans to be pathetic. You need Japan to be backwards.
And if you are still clinging to the shaved head story more than ten years later, while ignoring everything that came after it, then maybe the problem is not the industry, the fans, or the management.
Maybe it is that you are too quick to fall for these types of stories.