Oli London | |
---|---|
Born | England | 14 January 1990
Occupation |
|
Years active | 2018–present |
YouTube information | |
Channels | Oli London |
Genres |
|
Subscribers | 65.6 thousand |
Total views | 30.14 million |
Last updated: 29 December 2022 |
Oli London (born 14 January 1990) is an English Internet personality. London is known for his multiple ethnic plastic surgery procedures intended to make him look like Jimin, a member of the South Korean boy band BTS.
Born in England, London's interest in South Korean culture began after moving to South Korea in 2013 to teach English. In 2022, he announced that he would no longer undergo surgeries and that he had converted to Christianity and was planning to receive baptism in the Catholic Church. [1] He thereafter affiliated himself with the anti-gender movement. [2]
London was born on 14 January 1990. [3] His father is an interior designer and his mother is a housewife. [4]
London's interest in South Korea began in 2013, after arriving in Seoul to teach English for a year. [4] [5] London's partner, a Korean, taught him many Korean phrases; but according to London, he forgot almost everything he was taught due to his poor memory. [6] He also began researching the country's culture, and became familiar with many South Korean music groups. He became particularly interested in BTS, and began idolising popular member Jimin. [6]
The same year, London began having surgeries designed to make his face resemble Jimin. [7] On Jimin's face, London stated: "Obviously, he's changed over the years. But he's just got a very round, cute baby face, the most beautiful eyes, his smile, everything about him." [6]
London's television career is composed solely of guest appearances, all of which focus predominantly on his surgeries. [8] He started attracting media attention after appearing in a 2018 episode of the Barcroft TV documentary series Hooked on the Look, which presented his multi-surgery process to resemble Jimin. [9]
In 2019, London began his K-pop career by releasing the single "Perfection", a bilingual English-Korean song revolving on the euphoria he felt after getting his surgeries; [6] it received negative reviews from music critics for its excessive autotune. [6]
In 2020, London released a Christmas song called "Christmas in Korea". Like his other song, he received backlash, this time for cultural reasons.
In his acting debut in 2021, London starred in the partially fictionalised short documentary film Gangnam Beauty. It was screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, and London starred in two roles: as himself and as a sculptor forced to make fourteen different masks to save their village from the gods' wrath. [10] [11]
"In Korea, having white skin is considered a sign of perfection or beauty. And Koreans go to great, great lengths to maintain that skin. You know, they don't go in the sea and stuff. They avoid the sun. I do go to great lengths—I also avoid the sun. I would like my skin to be, like, super, super, like Snow White, like Korean people. I get upset that some people think it's racist. I'm not racist."
—Oli London, 2022 [12]
London has been a former supporter of the Black Lives Matter organisation. [12] [13] He has since backtracked, and is now a vocal opponent of BLM and "woke culture". [14] [ non-primary source needed ]
London describes himself as someone with "an obsessive and impulsive personality". [15] He practices speaking Korean with a private teacher every week. [12] He dated the French pornographic actress Angelique Morgan. [16] [17] London has spoken of his poor relationships with family and friends and society's negative views towards him because of his racial identity. This eventually meant that he had difficulty finding a romantic relationship and caused him to become reclusive. [12]
London is a former atheist. [18] Previously he was said to worship a cardboard cut-out of Jimin and even prayed to the singer. [19] He has criticised the Islamic doctrines of women's dress codes. [13] In November 2022, London announced his conversion to Christianity and his intention to be baptized in Catholic Church. [20]
Although he is of White British descent, London has previously identified as South Korean. [21] His self-identification attracted worldwide attention [22] [23] and stirred debate around the validity of being transracial compared to being transgender. [24] [25] Sandra Song of Paper magazine accused him of fetishising South Korean culture, calling what he had done "incredibly offensive, especially since it effectively trivializes our identities because they're suddenly 'trendy.'" [26] London has claimed to have received death threats on the Internet for being "transracial" [27] but defended his identity as personal and said his intention was solely to appreciate the culture. [28] [29] Others showed support for him. American activist Rachel Dolezal, who similarly attracted controversy due to her racial identity, stated that someone's personal identity (including London's) should not be other people's main concern. [30]
London came out as non-binary during the Pride Month of 2021, announcing that he used they/them pronouns as well as neopronouns inspired by Korea and Jimin. [31]
In mid-2022, he came out as a genderfluid trans woman and announced plans to get further surgeries to look like Blackpink member Rosé. [32] [33]
In October 2022, he told E! News that he was detransitioning, saying that he wanted to "go back to being [his] original self—a biological man", and updated his Instagram bio to indicate that he uses he/him pronouns. [33] He thereafter affiliated himself with the anti-gender movement. [2] London's book Gender Madness was published in August 2023. [34]
In March 2022, London announced plans for penis reduction surgeries, stating that "in Korea, [the average] penis is like 3.5 inches [...] People say, 'Oh, you can't be Korean. You're not 100 percent Korean,' and I just want to be 100 percent Korean. I would even have a penis reduction so I'm, like, the Korean average." [35] This statement brought him criticism for promoting stereotypes of East Asian men. [36]
At the time of his detransition in October 2022, he had undergone 32 surgeries, including six nose jobs, an eye surgery, a facelift, a brow lift, a temple lift, a teeth procedure, [33] and skin whitening injections. [12] [15] He stated that he planned to stop getting further surgeries, which he said he had "undergone in [his] obsessive quest chasing perfection". [33]
David Reimer was a Canadian man raised as a girl following medical advice and intervention after his penis was severely injured during a botched circumcision in infancy.
BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010. The band consists of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, who co-write or co-produce much of their material. Originally a hip hop group, they expanded their musical style to incorporate a wide range of genres, while their lyrics have focused on subjects including mental health, the troubles of school-age youth and coming of age, loss, the journey towards self-love, individualism, and the consequences of fame and recognition. Their discography and adjacent work has also referenced literature, philosophy and psychology, and includes an alternate universe storyline.
Kim Tae-hyung, known professionally as V (뷔), is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and a member of the boy band BTS. Since his debut with the band in 2013, V has performed three solo songs under their name—"Stigma" in 2016, "Singularity" in 2018, and "Inner Child" in 2020—all of which charted on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart.
Ethnic plastic surgery, or ethnic modification, refers to the types of plastic surgery performed frequently due to certain racial or ethnic traits, or with the intention of making one's appearance more similar or less similar to people of a particular race or ethnicity. Popular procedures which may have an ethnically motivated component are rhinoplasties and blepharoplasties.
Nkechi Amare Diallo is an American former college instructor and activist known for presenting herself as a black woman despite being born to white parents. She is also a former National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter president.
Kim Nam-joon, known professionally as RM, is a South Korean rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He is the leader of South Korean boy band BTS.
Min Yoon-gi, known professionally by his stage names Suga and Agust D, is a South Korean rapper, songwriter and record producer. Under Big Hit Entertainment, he debuted as a member of the South Korean boy band BTS in 2013. His first solo mixtape, Agust D, was released in 2016 and re-released in 2018 to digital download and streaming platforms, reaching number three on Billboard's World Albums Chart. In 2020, he released his second solo mixtape, D-2; it peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard 200, number seven on the UK Albums Chart, and number two on Australia's ARIA Album Chart.
The feminist philosophy journal Hypatia became involved in a dispute in April 2017 that led to the online shaming of one of its authors, Rebecca Tuvel, an assistant professor of philosophy at Rhodes College in Memphis. The journal had published a peer-reviewed article by Tuvel in which she compared the situation of Caitlyn Jenner, a trans woman, to that of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who identifies as black. When the article was criticized on social media, scholars associated with Hypatia joined in the criticism and urged the journal to retract it. The controversy exposed a rift within the journal's editorial team and more broadly within feminism and academic philosophy.
Transracial is a label used by people who identify as a different race than the one they were born into. They may adjust their appearance to make themselves look more like that race, and may participate in activities associated with that race. Use of the word transracial to describe this is new and has been criticized, because the word was historically used to describe a person raised by adoptive parents of a different ethnic or racial background, such as a Black child adopted and raised by a white couple.
Jeon Jung-kook, known mononymously as Jungkook, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and dancer. He rose to prominence as a member and vocalist of the South Korean boy band BTS. He has performed three solo songs as part of BTS' discography— "Begin" in 2016, "Euphoria" in 2018, and "My Time" in 2020—all of which charted on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart. He also recorded the soundtrack song "Stay Alive" for the BTS-based webtoon 7Fates: Chakho.
"Serendipity" is a song by South Korean boy band BTS, sung as a solo by member Jimin. It was originally released digitally as an introductory song on September 8, 2017 in the extended play Love Yourself: Her, with the full length edition of the song being released on August 24, 2018 in Love Yourself: Answer. It was written by "hitman" bang, Ashton Foster, Ray Michael Djan Jr., RM, and Slow Rabbit, who was also credited as the producer.
Park Ji-min, known mononymously as Jimin, is a South Korean singer, songwriter and dancer. In 2013, he made his debut as a member of the South Korean boy band BTS, under the record label Big Hit Entertainment.
Run BTS is a South Korean variety web series starring boy band BTS. The series broadcasts weekly and has been offered for free viewing on V Live since 2015 and Weverse since 2020. In each episode, the band members play games or participate in a variety of activities that require them to complete challenges, and sometimes carry out secret missions, in order to earn prizes or receive punishments.
Be is the fifth Korean-language and ninth overall studio album by South Korean boy band BTS. It was released on November 20, 2020, through Big Hit Entertainment, nine months after its predecessor, Map of the Soul: 7 (2020). Created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Be was inspired by BTS' perspective of life during the pandemic. The record sees the band members contributing to various aspects of album-making process including songwriting, development, production, and visual design.
BTS In the Soop is a South Korean reality series created by Big Hit Entertainment and Big Hit Three Sixty, starring boy band BTS. The eight-episode first season premiered on August 19, 2020, on the South Korean pay television network JTBC and the online platform Weverse, and features the band taking a break from their busy lives in the city to spend a week together at a remote forest location where they relax and engage in various hobbies.
South Korean boy band BTS was formed in 2010 and debuted in 2013. The septet has had a significant cultural impact both in Korea and internationally, and is considered one of the leading figures of the Hallyu wave in the 21st century. The commercial influence of BTS upon the Korean economy, along with their philanthropic and other commercial ventures, has received extensive attention in the press and in financial markets.
Face is the debut studio album by South Korean singer Jimin of BTS. Released on March 24, 2023, through Big Hit Music, it is primarily a pop, hip hop, and R&B record, with Pdogg, Ghstloop, and Evan responsible for production. Comprising five songs, all co-written by Jimin, and one instrumental, the album was heavily inspired by the emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Jimin as a person and performer and addresses "themes of loneliness, wrestling with oneself, and finding freedom". Two singles were released in support of Face: the lead single "Set Me Free Pt. 2" and the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "Like Crazy".
"Set Me Free Pt. 2" is a song by South Korean singer Jimin of BTS, released as the lead single from his debut solo studio album Face on March 17, 2023, through Big Hit Music. An intense hip hop and pop track about Jimin's refusal to be brought down by those who criticize him and overcoming his internal battles, the song was written by Ghstloop, Pdogg, Jimin, and Supreme Boi, with the first two also responsible for production. The song features the singer rapping for the first time and also utilizes distorted vocal effects and Auto-Tune.
"Like Crazy" is a song by South Korean singer Jimin of BTS, released as the second single from his debut solo studio album Face on March 24, 2023. A synth-pop track produced by Pdogg and Ghstloop, two versions of the song were recorded: one in Korean and one in English. Lyrically, the Korean version talks about the realization of losing a loved one and holding on to a reality where they still exist, while the English version addresses the burden of stardom and fear of losing oneself. Both versions were written by Pdogg, Blvsh, Chris James, Ghstloop, Jimin, BTS bandmate RM, and Evan.