Almost-kisses, grabbing crotches: OnlyOneOf, queerbaiting and the politics of dislike

This article calls attention to the uncritical use of queerbaiting in anglophone K-pop fan spaces and examines the term as an ‘empty signifier’. It focuses on the media reception of OnlyOneOf, a K-pop idol group that debuted in 2019, whose music video titled ‘libidO’ (2021) had gained traction for its queer themes in addition to the distinctly sensual choreography that revolves around the performance of ‘skinship’. We look at the reception of their discography, including their solo projects in which they highlight overt queer storylines, through the lens of the politics of dislike. Dislike is used not only for the performance of superiority over the disliked object (in this case, OnlyOneOf) and its audience but also to ‘perform identity, self, and community’. This dislike towards OnlyOneOf is observed to have arisen from two sources – homophobia in online fan spaces and allegations of queerbaiting in anglophone K-pop fandoms, with fans borrowing the term from online fan spaces of English-language media.