1. IZ*ONE's Chaeyeon Recently, Chaeyeon posted a photo of her friend
sitting in front of the mirror on her Instagram story. There she wrote “My friend is this
smol bean" and "How to learn choreography in a mirror mode. Use a real mirror." as captions.
There did not seem to be any big deal except for how cute this is. Yet somehow, this story
still landed in hot water. Soon later, the story got deleted by Instagram for violating
one of its community guidelines - “b*llying and ab*se".
Chaeyeon was so baffled at this reason that she had to post a screenshot of the notification
from Instagram reporting her along with a big question: “What…?”
Her fans and followers were also confused. They questioned what in the photo could indicate
any sort of violence or hate speech or har*ssment.
It turned out, quite surprisingly, that it was her hand gesture that caused the problem.
So here's the thing: that pinching gesture was once used as a logo of a feminist group
that is no longer existed in Korea. Some Korean men view this gesture as har*ssment toward…
well the size of their private part, so to speak.
It seemed like those men have reported Chaeyeon’s Instagram story for s*xual ab*se, which eventually
led to Instagram’s decision to take it down.
Netizens find the whole situation extremely absurd, calling men who reported crazy incels
and criticizing Instagram for even listening to such people.
2. Lovelyz’s Mijoo Lovelyz's fans love Mijoo for her frank and
outgoing nature, but last year that personality put Mijoo in quite a controversial situation.
The scandal started when the first episode of MIJOOPIKCHU, her own variety show, aired
on Youtube. So in this video, Mijoo encountered a college student that is her age and they
had a short interview. Finding out that he had a girlfriend and that
they have been seeing each other for quite a long time, Mijoo just straight up asked
“How far have you gone with her?”, then immediately assumed “You must have gone
all the way with her right? I'm sure.” Well, in an Asian country like Korea, discussing
s*x out in public, especially with strangers, is considered a sensitive subject, even a
taboo. So sure, as anyone could expect, the student
was quite taken aback by that sudden question. He quickly denied and said they had only kissed.
The story didn't end there as Mijoo went on questioning his masculinity: “Don't lie.
Aren't you a man?” while looking down at his crotch.
After this video went viral, Mijoo’s behavior got slammed hard by netizens. Many agree that
that was obviously s*xual har*ssment for these reasons:
One, Mijoo and the student didn't even know each other that well to make a casual s*x
joke Two, Mijoo didn't have that guy's consent
to ask about his s*x life. People also mentioned that by adding the remark
“Where are you looking at? Mijoo’s gaze is…” on the screen, the production crew
obviously understood Mijoo's inappropriate s*x joke but still decided to keep this part.
In response to those comments that insisted she was simply joking, netizens pointed out
that it was a double standard, because if the genders were reversed, this whole affair
could have been a bigger fuss. Being heavily criticized, the video soon went
private, and Mijoo as well as her team had to apologize for their insensitive behavior.
In her post on Lovelyz's official Twitter, Mijoo said: “I truly apologize to the participant,
who must be going through the hardest time regarding this.”
She also stated that she had sent an apology to the male student through her staff.
3. IU The Kpop sweetheart IU was once labeled as
a “p*dophilia-obsessed sociopath” by both Korean and international netizens in 2015
when her song Zeze came out.
Yes, it was that bad. Before we go into details, let's talk about
the title of her song first. Zeze is actually the main character of a book called My Sweet
Orange Tree. In the novel, Zeze is depicted as a 5-year-old boy who suffered from an ab*sive
household. Now let's take a look at the lyrics of the
song: “You’re really innocent, but you’re
definitely cunning. You seem so transparent like a little child, but something about you
is dirty.” Also, in an interview about writing the song
Zeze, IU also said that she felt like Zeze's misunderstood traits made him “cunning,
charming and s*xy” All these details obviously did not sit well
with netizens. People just found it extremely disturbing how she could call a 5-year-old
kid “s*xy" and describe him in such suggestive lyrics.
The fact that IU even put up a drawing of Zeze doing a s*xy pose while wearing fishnet
stockings only built up bigger rage from netizens.
Considering how My Sweet Orange Tree handles the issue of child abuse, people were hugely
disappointed and upset that IU viewed the main character in a pedo-ish way, implying
that the boy was capable of seduction. Even the Korean publishing house for the book
had to vent their anger on Facebook by stating "IU-nim, Zeze isn't a child who's like that"
and listed out all the reasons why they could not approve IU's interpretation.
The online discussion soon delves further into IU's lolita concept as she often portrays
herself surrounded by infantile things in her music videos like the one where she's
drinking from a baby milk bottle.
Despite many criticisms, some, such as writer and critic Heo Jiwoong, defended IU’s right
to freedom of interpretation and secondary creation, “All literature is continually
being newly discovered atop the interpreter’s freedom and capacity”, he said.
The publishing house however pointed out that s*xualizing a 5-year-old child going through
the pain of ab*se was not something everyone can agree with. “The freedom of expression,
however, happens under the approval of the public", as they wrote in their Facebook post.
4. Former Stray Kids' Woojin After leaving Stray Kids, Kim Woojin became
a hot topic on social media in September last year due to accusations of s*xual har*ssment.
An anonymous Twitter user, who has since deleted her account, alleged that Woojin has inappropriately
touched her and her friends despite their constant protest when they met him at a bar
in Seoul. The girl also admitted that she was scared
of being victim-blamed since she went to the bar during the pandemic outbreak, so she could
not reveal her identity to anyone. Hours later, another Twitter user also jumped
in with another story of how she also got har*ssed by Woojin at a bar before a kind
stranger interfered. To support this claim, she posted a photo
of a bar table including a bottle of whiskey that Woojin bought for her, and affirmed that
his hoodie could be seen in the photo. In response, Woojin denied all the accusations
and stated that he has never met those people on his personal Twitter account. Along with
the denial, he also took this opportunity to promote his future solo project, only to
meet another backlash from netizens as people thought he was incredibly insensitive.
They also questioned how Woojin could be so sure that he hasn't met the victims when they
didn't even give any details about themselves. With all the fuss surrounding the idol, Woojin's
fans were disappointed, some were so furious to the point they burned Stray Kids' albums
and tore Woojin's photos apart.
Despite all this, Woojin’s new agency, 10X Entertainment, still claimed his innocence.
They confirmed that the photo of a bar table of the second user was originally posted on
Instagram by a total stranger in August, turning down the last bit of evidence. Recently, the
agency even released a teaser for Woojin's documentary, addressing and debunking all
the rumors. Still, people thought it's just weird how they are still milking from such
a disturbing incident.
So, what do you think about all the accusations above? Which case do you think is not that
serious and which one is even a false claim? Comment down below to share your thoughts
with us. Also, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to BeBossTV for more great content.
Thank you for watching!