BTS, the highly popular South Korean boyband that debuted on Jun. 12, 2013 under the management of Big Hit Entertainment, is composed of seven members: J-Hope, Jimin, Jin, Jungkook, RM, Suga and V.

The band has since gained a massive following through their global fanbase, officially named BTS ARMY, with the latter half standing for “Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth”. The band's official fandoms have been established in many countries, including Indonesia.

Negative public perception isn’t rare for BTS ARMY members in Indonesia. According to the fans interviewed for this story, they have been called everything from “brainless” to “toxic”. Suffice to say, they feel that these perceptions are misleading and are eager to set things straight.

Tasya Mutiara Ramlan calls BTS her “support system”. The 21-year-old has been a fan since February 2017.

She said the group’s music helped her cope with her insecurities as well as the stress she endured from her studies as a first semester medical student at Jenderal Ahmad Yani University in Bandung, West Java.

“The presence of their music boosts my confidence and makes me think positively. It has given me space to express my feelings,” Tasya said.

In November 2018, Tasya joined ARMY TEAM ID, an unofficial digital community of Indonesian fans that has more than 274,400 followers on Twitter. She now manages the community’s social media accounts with seven other administrators, posting frequent updates about BTS.

Prameswari Puspa Dewi, 27, said she was drawn to BTS after their single “Black Swan” was released last year, and that she viewed the band as a “role model and friend”.

“We [ARMY members] see BTS as human beings. An idol is usually pictured as a perfect [person]. But we view BTS as good friends that we can also take as role models,” said Prameswari.

Breaking the stigma

The prevailing impression of BTS ARMY members is that they are mindless, screaming teens. This is far from the truth, according to Prameswari, who explains that BTS fans are diverse in their gender, profession and age.

“It’s not the ‘screaming teenager’ [stereotype] that makes us feel uneasy, but how [some people] portray us as less diverse than we actually are,” she emphasized.

Evanggala Rasuli admitted that he had once harbored a negative impression of the BTS fanbase – until he became an ARMY member, that is. He then realized that his false perception derived from a skewed perception of what it meant to be a man.

“Do you know how toxic I was? Back in my teenage years, just caring a lot about my [male] best friend sent chills down my spine, fearing that it was a sign [I was] gay. I used the words bencong (transsexual) and homo in a derogatory way to mock my friends. It’s toxic, but I thought it was normal,” he said.

“Liking BTS challenged my toxic masculinity. Before, as a cishet [cisgender-heterosexual] straight male, liking what was considered not ‘manly male’ was challenging,” he said, adding that feeling bad about liking BTS was something he had to work to overcome.

Evanggala said it took him three months to fully admit that he liked the boyband, and now had no qualms saying that the BTS members were objectively “attractive” and their music had deeper meaning.

Better manr: Evanggala Rasuli, 31, an ARMY member and a father of a two-year-old son, feels that BTS has helped him to dismantle his internalized toxic masculinity. (JP/Courtesy of Evanggala Rasuli)

“After liking BTS, I feel free. I don’t have anything strangling me [about] what is masculine or feminine. I don’t care about those labels anymore,” he said.

“I'm a 178-centimeter-tall man with a beard and I like BTS. But I don’t care, because I’m old enough not to care [what people think],” said the 31-year-old senior manager at a media company and father to a 2-year-old son.

‘Happy meal’ for the ARMY

On Jun. 10, 2021, McDonald’s Indonesia launched a special “BTS Meal” in collaboration with the boyband, containing nine Chicken McNugget pieces, French fries and Coca-Cola with a choice of Cajun sauce or sweet chilli sauce.

The special meal was exclusively available at the restaurant’s drive-thru services and through food delivery applications, creating a buying frenzy that was thrust into a negative spotlight both in the media and among the public. The resulting coverage focused on the many online food delivery motorcycle drivers who had to wait in line for hours due to the high volume of orders. Criticism also came from people who thought that the large crowd it created was especially dangerous during the pandemic.

Liam, 41, who coordinates GojekOnTwitt, a Gojek drivers’ community on Twitter, said that many drivers he knew had looked forward to orders for the BTS Meal, as they could gain more income from the generous tips ARMY members gave them through the app.

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The official fanbase, ARMY BTS Indonesia, raised over Rp 262 million (US$18,118) on the Kitabisa.com crowdfunding platform for distributing to motorcycle delivery drivers in Jakarta, Medan and Surakarta.

Meanwhile, a collective of all BTS ARMY groups in the country ran a fundraising campaign dubbed “Makan Bareng ARMY” (eat with ARMY) as part of its FESTAPora event to celebrate the band’s 8th anniversary. The campaign raised over Rp 38 million in donations from ARMY members, which was then used to purchase basic necessities for distributing through charity programs for the poor and underprivileged.

“I respect and appreciate these ARMY [initiatives], as they are a form of support and care for [motorcycle delivery] drivers,” said Liam.

Spreading the ‘BTS love’

BTS ARMY Indonesia also runs an online peer-counseling and sharing program called AHC Indonesia to help people with mental health issues via Twitter’s direct message feature. Initiated on Feb. 8, 2018, the program has helped 3,609 people as per June 15, 2021.

“Our vision derives from BTS’s messages on mental health [and] their campaign on self-love,” said AHC Indonesia coordinator Sharon Mailangkay.

A more recent BTS ARMY project was Bintang Ungu (purple star), initiated on Dec. 30, 2020 with an aim to deliver early childhood education oriented in self-compassion and self-love.

Hera, a 45-year-old mother of three daughters, looked to BTS’s inspirational messages to initiate the project, which has seen 45 underprivileged children attend Bintang Ungu’s informal weekly online lessons on Mondays as of June 14. Hera and two friends, none of who have formal teaching qualifications, lead the informal sessions to teach basic skills like the alphabet, drawing and praying.

Spreading joy: Inspired by BTS's promotion of love and kindess, Bintang Ungu (Purple Star) runs a weekly class for forty five underprivileged preschool-age. (JP/Courtesy of Bintang Ungu)

In the Pohon Dari ARMY (trees from ARMY) project, nine BTS fans planted 2,575 mangrove trees on Tambakrejo Beach in Semarang, the capital of Central Java. Project coordinator Akira Frea Chiara expressed hope that the project would become an annual event and that more trees would be planted in many other regions.

Karlina Octaviany, 36, an anthropologist and ARMY member, noted that the band’s songs and lyrics resonated with fans who were active in social and political issues.

“Through this fandom, I learned about women’s empowerment and [solidarity] among minority groups toward a transnational social movement that I hadn’t come across before,” said Karlina. “[This is] Because the issues of racial discrimination and gender bias that the BTS members themselves face also resonate with the majority of female fans. The issues are close to home for ARMY [members].”

“[Band member] RM once said, ‘Use me, use BTS, to love yourself.’ I use them to fight the patriarchy,” she added.