S Korea’s clean-cut K-pop industry embroiled in sex scandal
SEOUL: With wholesome looks and increasingly global fan bases, K-pop has sold its stars as the ultimate squeaky clean pin-ups. But a burgeoning sex scandal in the industry shows how pervasive discrimination and abuse are in South Korean society, activists say.
In the space of just two days, singer-songwriter Jung Joon Young and BIGBANG boyband member Seungri announced their retirements from show business. Jung, 30, admitted filming himself having sex and sharing the footage without his partners’ consent, while Seungri, real name Lee Seung Hyun, is embroiled in a sex-for-investment criminal investigation. Both were members of the same chat room where Jung and others shared illicit content of 10 women, according to broadcaster SBS.
The South has been battling a growing epidemic of so-called “molka”, or spycam videos, mostly of women, secretly filmed by men.
But K-pop stars generally cultivate clean-cut images and are actively promoted by the South Korean government as a key cultural export.
Many face tremendous pressure to look and behave perfectly in an industry powered by so-called “fandoms” - groups of well-organised admirers at home and abroad who spend enormous amounts of time and money to help their favoured stars climb up the charts and attack their perceived rivals.
With fortunes at stake they would have more to lose than most by being embroiled in a scandal, even after a wave of #Metoo accusations in the still socially conservative South over the past year. AFP