To G or not to G: Street Woman Fighter's Monika under fire for saying “Poppin” And Not “Popping”

The world of South Korean entertainment appears to be suffering from a linguistic dilemma, as Street Woman Fighter’s Monika is currently facing flak for saying ‘poppin’ and not "popping"!

On the most recent episode of Knowing Bros, a group of the Street Woman Fighter dancers made an impressive cameo, leaving the audience in splits. While their wit and charm was on full display for the entire episode, it was something Monika said during her appearance on the show that has garnered the most attention, and not much of it was positive.

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Street Woman Fighter's Monika received severe backlash, forcing several to come to her defense

During her introductory segment, Monika, who is part of the crew PROWDMON, spoke about dance genre - popping. The dancer introduced the styles by elaborating on the seemingly miniscule difference between "poppin" and popping." She said,

When you do ‘pop’ moves, you take the ‘g’ off of ‘popping’ and refer to them as ‘poppin.’

While the statement had no special value for regular viewers, Monika's explanation was met with a barrage of criticism from fellow dancers. Hundreds of performers attacked the PROWDMON dancer for her allegedly inaccurate explanation of the popping dance form.

Several dancers took to social media sites to express their disappointment, along with the correct explanation and the dance’s history.

One unnamed dancer on Instagram, disappointed with Monika, said:

Usually, we use nicknames such as POPIN or POPPIN, but the correct name of the dance style is POPPING.

She further elaborated:

LOCKING, POPPING are dances that were created back in 1970.

Not willing to let Monika's comments slide, the irate dancer went on:

You can dance LOCKING in a FUNNY way, but FUNNY and FUNKY are different. While it’s important to be funny….since that’s the only way people will tune in…I believe that dancers have a responsibility to relay accurate information to the public. I hope you don’t forget that.

Another dancer insisted that Monika should apologize for her lack of knowledge, insisting that it was unfortunate that she did not know the correct history despite being a professional dancer, and part of Street Woman Fighter:

Please correct your incorrect information ASAP.

Clearly hurt by Monika's comments, the dancer further opined:

You’re a street dancer. I believe that you know how many dancers have a deep affection for this dance genre. It’s unfortunate because if you had shared accurate information, everyone would have been grateful and excited.

Given the increasingly harsh criticism, several netizens began accusing the dancers of cyber bullying Monika.

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Poppin' Hyun Joon intervenes

In light of the escalating crisis, Poppin' Hyun Joon, widely regarded as the father of South Korean breakdancing, expressed his thoughts on the matter.

In a YouTube video, he expressed his personal views on the subject, claiming that "popping can be called poppin," and explained the differences between the two terms.

‘Popping’ can be called ‘poppin.’ When someone is talking about it or explaining the dance genre, it’s oftentimes referred to as ‘popping.’ When you read the word, it’s referred to as ‘poppin.’

Poppin' Hyun Joon then asked the attackers to apologize to Monika, insisting that the latter did not mean to belittle the genre. The revered dancer said:

I don’t believe that Monika belittled the genre nor do I believe that she purposely provided inaccurate information. She didn’t talk about it with the intentions of creating a debate but rather, she just introduced it on a major program.

Concluding his opinion, he stated:

As one of the older members of the community, I am really disappointed. I hope that the dancers who were involved with the cyber bullying apologize to her.

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Detractors staying adamant with their vitriol

While some harsh critics have come forward to formally apologize to the Street Woman Fighter dancer, many others have held their ground, refusing to apologize to Monika.

Despite her issues with Street Woman Fighter's spin-off series, Street Girls Fighter, Monika has remained busy. She'll be judging the show alongside some other dancers from MNet’s survival series.