Seung Ri’s Scandal: the Latest Chapter in South Korean Misogyny

Seung Ri, or Lee Seung Hyun (이승현), was a member of a popular boy group called BIGBANG. After receiving over 187 music awards including “Album of the Year,” “Artists of the Year,” and “Song of the Year,” BIGBANG was dubbed as a legend of K-POP (source). Currently, four of the five members are on an indefinite hiatus serving in the military, except for Seung Ri, who has managed to crumble their top-tier achievements into ash with a snap of his fingers (Avengers, anyone?). Recently, Seung Ri’s alleged involvement in a prostitution ring, as well as numerous charges of sexual misconduct, have shaken K-POP fans around the world.

BIGBANG had already been implicated in several controversies due to illegal drug use, unfair military advantages, and drunk driving among others, but nothing could surpass the new scandal Seung Ri has ignited. His heartbreaking and disappointing behavior has revealed the intertwined relationship between corrupt Korean police officials, businesspeople, the entertainment industry and other K-POP idols.

The scandal came into the spotlight when footage from November 2018 showed a man being violently abused in front of Seung Ri’s nightclub, Burning Sun. When the clubgoer, Kim Sang Kyo, tried to help a woman who was being sexually harassed by other men in the club, Kim was dragged outside of the club and violently assaulted by the staff of Burning Sun. When the police arrived, instead of helping Kim who was clearly the victim, the police arrested Kim as the assailant and Kim was booked with seven charges (source).

The doors to this disturbing scandal were opened by Kim’s call for a proper investigation. Initially, when Seung Ri was implicated, he denied all allegations and vowed to take full responsibility for addressing criminal wrongdoing at his club. But when the police confiscated his phone, the issue quickly gained attention when they found a group-chat history on his Kakao Talk (Korean version of WeChat) where several public figures shared illicit sex tapes and conversations that provided evidence of their involvement in bribery, illegal drug use, and sexual assault (source).

Although some of the meaning is lost in translation, the below screenshots of conversations Seung Ri had with his fellow culprits should give a general idea of their contents (source):

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The participants of this scandal are Burning Sun CEO Seung Ri, Burning Sun CEC Lee Moon-ho, Yuri Holdings CEO Yoo In-Seok, Former Gangnam police officer Kang, Junwon Industries CEO Choi Tae-young, Club Arena owner Kang Mo, Jung Joon Young, Choi Jong Hoon, Roy Kim, Eddy Kim, Yong Jun Hyung, and finally Lee Jong Hyun (source). Shocking, right?

Among these participants, Jung Joon Young, a singer and entertainer, is currently under fire for his crimes. It has been revealed that Jung filmed himself having sex with at least ten women without their consent, and shared the nonconsensual videos with a number of his friends, beginning in 2015. In August 2016, his ex-girlfriend sued him for taping sex with her without her consent but later lifted the charges against him (source). Honestly, I think if the police had dug deeper into Jung’s misconduct at that point, they could have saved the other women who were targeted by Jung and his group of friends from the trauma they endured.

At one point, it seemed to me that the #MeToo movement’s popularity in Korea followed by a months-long demonstration for women’s rights by tens of thousands of women could be the “turning point for women’s rights” in Korea (source). We wish this were true. Even though the #MeToo movement brought down a number of powerful men, it did not stop these idiots from illegally filming their sexual intercourse with other women.

To clarify, the #MeToo movement and the demonstration cited above are two different protests: the first one aimed to expose public figures who had been abusing their power, and the second a protest against “the consumption of spycams as porn” (source). So-called spycams are tiny cameras inserted in normal items from paintings on a wall to a button on a blouse. These cameras were originally used by policemen to obtain evidence. However, in South Korea, these spycams have been increasingly cited as evidence of abuse against women and misogyny because they’ve been used by men like Jung Joon Young and his friends to record sex without their partners’ knowledge, and also so by other men to surreptitiously record women in public bathrooms, to the anger and chagrin of many female Koreans, who have begun to push back against the “digital peeping Toms” (source).

The situations described above are beyond infuriating to Korean women like me. Yes, the K-Pop scandal was alarming, but the most shocking part about it was the reactions from Seung Ri’s fans. Comments like, “We will always be here for you!”, “Don’t worry, people make mistakes!” and even “It’s ok, we will always support you no matter what!” dominated social media after the story broke. To me, these comments were far more disturbing than the sex scandal itself.

One, these fans are mostly females who knew that Seung Ri was involved with the sex scandal where around ten women were drugged and raped. It did not and will never cross my mind to think it is okay for a woman to protect a man who had performed such a crime — it is horrifying and sick.

Two, loving and supporting a person should be accomplished through guiding them to make the right choices and teaching them to learn from their mistakes, not by supporting them unconditionally when they commit atrocities like this.

Lastly, blaming the victims — women who were drugged and raped, many of whom are suffering tremendously — for being part of this issue does not make sense at all, and is deeply offensive. None of them asked to be drugged, and none of them were begging for money through getting raped. These victims do not need hate from fans of their rapists or the public for being involved and harmed in these unethical and immoral behaviors; they have gone through enough already.

I see Seung Ri’s incident as the tip of a disturbing iceberg in South Korea: there are arguably many more public figures and incidents that have ruined the lives of innocent young women that remain unexposed. These public figures often manage to avoid taking responsibility through their unjust ties to other powerful men, and their authority as celebrities. I still remember reading an article about a well-known fine arts school forcing students to either ‘dress provocatively’ or ‘act innocent’ to entertain male audiences (source). South Korea has a long way to go when it comes to approaching gender equality, and I hope that this specific scandal sends a message to those all around the world to recognize the gravity of misogyny, sexual aggression and assault, and general disrespect for the rights of women.

Filming others without consent and sharing them is obviously wrong, but it still happens — and not only in Korea. A quick scan of the Internet reveals that this problem is also on the rise in the UK. Why is this happening? How can these pathetic, unethical criminals live with themselves knowing their livelihood is preying on innocent women — and just as bad, what is wrong with the worthless losers that visit their websites to look at the videos? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!