Something that has been bothering me for a while, but I never had a reason to write about until now, is this obsession with what is going on in an idol's private life. I've seen two different stories pop up about this subject on sankaku complex, one about a member in AKB48 and the other being about Aya Hirano. Now that an episode of Bakuman 3 has cover this, being about Miho and Moritaka, I have my reason.
In the episode in question, Miho only receives one call from an outraged fan about the whole "having a boyfriend scandal", but things like this get blown out of proportion. I don't know exactly why, but fan of idols seem, to me at least, to treat idols like a plaything that is only there's to have, essentially a doll.
Product to Ship
I don't follow the whole idol culture, I don't even pay attention to celerity stuff in my county, mainly because this stuff doesn't interest me in the slightest. So when people care enough about a person, that don't have any relation with, to the point of trying to enforce what they can and can't do, there is something wrong with you, not the idol.
When it comes to day to day life of a fan of an idol, knowing about the idols' significant other or just never finding out, really doesn't effect your life in the slightest. If it does, ask yourself why, is it because you feel lied to or that the idol should belong to the fans? Either one of these, and maybe a few other excuses I haven't thought of, is really just you being selfish thinking that an idol is nothing more than a product; it's hard to remember, but idols or even someone famous are just human.
All that being said, there are companies that profit from having an idol presented as pure, so it isn't just the fans at fault. We need to reformat this engraved culture of idolizing "purity", whatever that means.
Enforced Culture
...idols present an image of purity, as defined by Japanese culture. Among other things, this means that idols must not have boyfriends or girlfriends and must appear to be entirely inexperienced romantically and sexually.
The full quote is on the wiki. When I read this, I was slightly relieved it indicates that the image of purity is only defined by Japanese culture. This basically means it isn't required, but people expect it to be true.
Now, the main reason I'm glad it is only culturally expected for an idol to be pure is that culture do change, whether for good or bad, but they aren't going to be constant. Things that are rigid usually lose their footing along the ever swifting sands of time, but they wont go without a fight.
Break the Chain
Like many things that are well establish, "Old habits die hard". The process of getting companies and people off the idea of purity being a selling point for idols will be slow, but I'm sure it will change soon enough, for the sake of the sanity of the idols and even the fans.