This week, it felt like the entire K-pop world
was falling into shambles. Scandal after scandal broke out relating to Seungri
and the Burning Sun nightclub incident, which started when it was reported that
women were being sexually assaulted inside a club, and a man was beaten by
security guards while trying to save these women. Seungri was the co-founder of
the nightclub along with Park Han Byul’s husband, Yoo In Suk.
While the Burning Sun controversy lost attention
after a while, it came back into light a month later when it was revealed that
Seungri was allegedly discussing hiring prostitutes for foreign investors with
Yoon In Suk. Soon afterwards, he was shown to be participating in a KakaoTalk group
chat along with several other men that involved sharing and watching sexual
videos of women, taken without their consent. Singer and variety show star Jung
Joonyoung was one of the main perpetrators in creating and sending these
videos, and the most revolting part was that it was implied that some of these
women were unconscious and/or drugged. Other
idols such as Yong Junhyung (Highlight), Choi Jonghoon (FT Island), and Lee
Jonghyun (CNBlue) were also discovered to have been involved in either taking
part in this group chat or at least viewing the videos. Seungri, Jung
Joonyoung, Yong Junhyung, and Choi Jonghoon all announced their retirements
from the entertainment industry one after another, and suddenly, all at once, K-pop
fans all over the world got to see how truly vile some of their beloved idols
were.
In the first few days of the scandal, I really
allowed myself be angry and disgusted at everything that was happening. Why? Because
these men not only did nothing to stop the hidden camera videos from spreading,
but talked about women disrespectfully and didn’t even apologize to the
victims. My friends and I became incapable of having conversations about
anything else except for this huge scandal – along with other depressing world
news that had happened throughout the week. I had to take down the Big Bang
poster in my room because it broke my heart to know that they would never come
back in the same way again. And every day, whenever I ranted with my friends about it, I used swear
words and insults I’d never use otherwise, sometimes even lashing out at them for not taking all of this seriously enough. Truth be told, it was not a very
Christian response to injustice. Anger is totally acceptable and even
encouraged in these kinds of situations, but it isn’t productive unless it
leads to action.
But even though I’m rightfully upset at these
male idols’ perverted actions and tendencies, I never believed in the statement
that “all men are trash”, even after #MeToo’s impact travelled across Hollywood
in late 2017. I do believe the world has to change and put more emphasis on
teaching men how to behave decently towards women, because women shouldn’t be
perceived as mere objects – they deserve full dignity as human beings. All of
us are capable of committing atrocious acts of evil – but we are all also
capable of being good and kind, and most if not all of the men that I know are
careful and respectful when it comes to what kinds of comments they make about
me.
The Korean legal system has problems of its own,
and it would be an outrage if they didn’t at least get SOME jail time for this.
If anything, the reputations and careers of all the male celebrities involved are
ruined forever. I certainly wouldn’t want them to return to the entertainment
industry, especially if they refuse to show remorse for their actions. But is
there any hope for these disgraced idols? Well, thinking about what happened in
the Bible, Paul the apostle started off as a criminal. He persecuted Christians
and approved of the martyr death of Stephen - he even admitted that he was the
worst type of sinner (1 Timothy 1:15). Yet God still transformed him and used him to spread the
Gospel around the world. I won’t ever condone the gross acts people do, but a
Christian alternative to simply condemning these men and wishing death upon
them is “love the sinner, but hate the sin”. Maybe all of this "reflecting" that Korean celebrities keep mentioning whenever they have to write a public apology will finally go to good use here, and who knows, maybe God might truly spark in them a remorseful and contrite heart.
A part of me wishes I could actually go and ask these celebrities what had happened in their lives that caused them to turn out like this, to put it in G-rated terms. Perhaps I might even want to work with criminals in the future so I can understand them better and help them work towards true change in character. I really don’t know at this point. And perhaps, hopefully, this mass unveiling of male celebrities’ behaviour will finally initiate that change not only in their personal lives, but in the nation of Korea as a whole.
