[PC stories/KPOP takes] CAN AESTHETICS OF A GROUP DETERMINE IF THEIR FANBASE WILL BE EITHER FEMALE OR MALE-DOMINATED?

Back then in 2nd~3rd gen the girlgroups that were doing sexy concepts or very innocent concepts were known for having a lot of male fans, sometimes to the point it would become creepy. Nowadays it seems that there has been a decrease in male fans for girlgroups in general compared to the older generations, it has been way more common to see 4th~5th gen girlgroups with female-dominated fanbases and a very low percentage of male fans, but of course there are a few exceptions, like LE SSERAFIM and NewJeans, for example. They are girlgroups with the most noticeable big male fanbase and I think I get why;

For NewJeans, they debuted with a relatable concept, wearing very casual and sporty outfits. Nothing too sparkly or quirky, they were your perfect girl-next-door girlgroup. I have noticed that a lot of male streamers and their followers like NewJeans and I feel that because a lot of guys nowadays even in South Korea think kpop is "too gay" (I know it's a weird mindset but it's the truth about straight men), so they feel more "comfortable" stanning NewJeans (and no it's not due to their partnerships with games since BLACKPINK and I-dle also did those and still got mostly female and gay fans).

And for LE SSERAFIM, it's a bit similar to NewJeans, their concept is known for being super minimalist and outfits are mostly plain also the members and their songs give off a cooler vibe, it's nothing like your "original kpop".

While, when girlgroups wear clothes that expose more skin and look very feminine like I-dle, aespa and Kiss Of Life lately, I still see a lot of K-netizens saying that the companies are doing it for the "male gaze", but actually the opposite happens, the female fans go crazy (positive) over their favorite female idols wearing those kind of outfits and those groups are the most known for having female-dominated fanbases.

IVE's concept is super girly, very sparkly royalty princess-like so they seem to attract a lot of kids regardless of gender but still mostly young girls who especially admire Wonyoung. ILLIT is a bit similar with their magical girl concept, they have a female-dominated fanbase and they're mostly young girls who admire their style and aesthetic.
As for girlgroups with a simple feminine concept, seen as neither sexy nor as childish, like StayC and Hearts2Hearts, their fanbases seem to be very divisive, you can hear both loud male voices and female voices in their fanchants for example. I would like to mention Triple S in the same category but due to the group's unique format their fanbase ended up being male-dominated so it reminds me of 2nd~3rd gen.

Do you agree with these observations?

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