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GQ Magazine landed in hot waters after it published a lengthy interview with TXT, aka TOMORROW X TOGETHER on March 15, 2023.
The writer of the interview and the magazine faced extreme criticism from the group's fandom over several issues. Although now edited, the article used a racial slur to describe Huening Kai, misunderstood Taehyun's words and called a "Chinese music video" his inspiration, compared the group to BTS, and wrote many other things that did not sit right with the fandom.
As fans continued to spread their mistakes online with various hashtags and Twitter trends like "GQ apologize to TXT," they demanded that the magazine and the writer issue an apology to the group for the "poorly-written" article.
GQ Magazine faces the ire of TXT’s fandom over multiple mistakes in the latest interview
TXT recently had a photoshoot and interview with GQ Magazine. While the artists gave off a mature vibe in their pictorials, the written article provided little information about the artists to the fans. As a result, the group’s fandom, MOA, instantly began criticizing the author and the magazine over several issues.
Several netizens pointed out that the article talked more about BTS, TXT’s labelmates and seniors, than the group itself. They even called out the Twitter caption for saying that the group’s agency “wants them to be the next BTS.”
Fans who took screenshots of the first draft of the published article also pointed out that the magazine did not conduct due diligence in terms of research. This came across particularly when, instead of writing about “SHINee’s music video” being an inspiration to Taehyun, the article simply referred to it as “this Chinese music video.”
The descriptions used also did not sit right with TXT fans. The interview had phrases such as “wearing an adult diaper,” “Soobin (the tall and s*xy one),” "dark art of activating fandoms," among others. Fans also took note of Huening Kai’s description, which included a racial slur.
Additionally, at a few intervals in the article, the writer mentioned the struggles of taking the interview through a real-time translator. Fans called this out too, saying that it made the translator look bad.
While they agreed that there might have been some miscommunication, they were furious over the lack of research the writer apparently did about the Sugar Rush Ride singers.
Soon after the outrage, the article was updated and the problematic parts were tweaked. However, fans continued to demand an apology from the magazine and the author as they wanted them to acknowledge their mistakes.
GQ Magazine is yet to officially comment on the issue.
Recent updates on TXT
The five-member boy group’s latest release, The Name Chapter: Temptation, made them the second-fastest artist to hit the two-million sales mark in Hanteo’s history. With their first-week sales record of 1,248,370 copies, they also became the second-highest first–week sales holder, as per Hanteo’s charts.
The title track of the album, Sugar Rush Ride, also became the group’s fastest music video to hit 100 million views. As per Soompi, it achieved this feat in 37 days and 23 hours.
