Wren Graves (Features Editor): In a nearly unprecedented move, one of the biggest K-pop groups in the world, NCT, has ousted vocalist Taeil amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Details are scarce, but the scandal comes at a moment of change for both the genre and the country.
For years, K-pop idols have attempted a perilous balancing act, releasing a stream of behind-the-scenes content that fosters a sense of closeness to the fans, all while keeping a squeaky-clean image 24 hours a day. In our increasingly digital world, it’s harder to maintain that wholesome veneer. Meanwhile, South Korea faces what one politician has called a “national emergency” of sex crimes, symbolized by recent news of elaborate deepfake porn networks hosted on Telegram that targeted and harassed South Korean women.
To help us understand, we turn to K-pop expert Mary Siroky. Mary, has anything like this happened before?
Mary Siroky (Associate Editor): Yes — in 2019, the Burning Sun scandal broke in South Korea. This involved the exposure of chatrooms that connected multiple K-pop idols to stories involving assault and sex work at the Burning Sun nightclub. Among the figures implicated were Suengri of highly influential K-pop boy group BigBang, who served as a club director for Burning Sun, and soloist Jung Joon-young. The latter went to prison after being convicted of raping multiple unconscious women, as well as filming women without their consent before distributing the images and videos in the chatrooms. He was sentenced to six years but was actually released from prison in March of this year.
This scandal rocked the K-pop world. A huge centerpiece of the story was the club itself, Burning Sun, which had been located in the trendy and fashionable Gangnam neighborhood. Burning Sun developed a reputation as a VIP destination for celebrities seeking privacy during a night out, which then made it a destination for dedicated K-pop fans hoping to brush shoulders with idols.
Wren: Wait, is that Gangnam as in “Gangnam Style,” Psy’s global smash hit?
Mary: One and the same! There’s a statue of his hands there.
The immediate reactions were swift, and many clubs in Gangnam stopped hosting parties. Visits to the neighborhood sharply decreased, especially from tourists. But, years later, the scandal remains spoken of in hushed tones; it’s not something current idols would be keen to comment on. There’s little evidence that Burning Sun triggered a larger shift in Korea’s celebrity culture.
In fact, many women in South Korea felt that this incident — which also exposed connections between the rich and famous and law enforcement in Seoul — was less specific to K-pop, and more symptomatic of issues that exist for women throughout the country. In a piece for The Washington Post, the writer Haeryun Kang said, “The most recent celebrity scandal has generated fury among so many Korean women not because it is unique but because the story goes far beyond K-pop. The patterns of male behavior feel disturbingly familiar. The gender power dynamics — that often objectify women into sex tools — feel exhaustingly repetitive.”
Wren: “Disturbingly familiar” and “exhaustingly repetitive” are still apt five years later. Looming larger than Taeil are the loads of young men (it’s always young men) acting like creeps in Telegram channels. Sexual deepfakes are a problem. Reportedly, the harassment that starts in the chatrooms doesn’t always stay in the chatrooms.
It’s worth noting, the whole platform of Telegram has been a hotly-debated topic ever since its founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France earlier this week. Durov is essentially being charged with a lack of moderation, pushing free speech absolutism even if it allows the proliferation of child pornography — or sexual deepfakes — across Telegram.
Mary: We don’t yet know if Taeil’s removal from NCT is connected to the ongoing Telegram “emergency,” but his departure arrives after a few weeks of South Korean women vocally expressing outrage around the toxicity in these chatrooms.
My feeling is that these two events lining up will fuel South Korea’s version of the #MeToo Movement, which has been picking up momentum since even before the Burning Sun scandal. Feminism can still be a dirty word in South Korea — BTS’ RM was listed on a notorious anti-feminism watch list after he recommended a book related to women’s liberation, alongside Red Velvet’s Joy, who wore a shirt with the slogan “WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS.”
I think something that has so many people rattled with Taeil is that this genre, more than any other, encourages people to feel like they know these people through an absolute abundance of content. This is a sobering reminder that as connected as listeners feel to their favorites, we only see what they want us to see.
Young women make up the majority of the fan bases for male idols. Young women are also the demographic most affected by what’s going on with the violence that stretches into the real world via communities being fostered in these Telegram chatrooms.
