67BloombergBusinessweek November 11, 2019issue.Thisinstallmentwasfocusedonviolence.At
intervals,attendeesrepeateda simple,angrychant:
“Stopthedeathsofwomen!”Someheldsignsbearing
thenamesofmurdervictims.“Wecan’thelpbutget
furious,”organizerSonMoon-sookbellowedfroma
smallstage.“Thegovernmenthasneglectedassaults
againstwomen.Wecameoutheretodaytourgethe
police,prosecutors,thecourts,andthegovernment,
whoareignoringthedeathsofwomen,tocomeup
witheffectiveresponses.”
More than half of Korean homicide victims
arefemale,oneofthehighestratesintheworld.
Governmentstatisticsshowthatsexualassaultand
harassmentarewidespread,thoughfearofstigmatiza-
tionmeansfewgopublicwiththeirexperiences.(So
far,theonlywomentospeakoutaboutallegedabuse
atBurningSunhavedonesoanonymously.)Women
whodomakepublicaccusationsarefrequentlysued
fordefamation,andtropesaboutvictims’complicity
intheirownattacksremaincommonplace.Alcoholis
sometimescitedasa mitigatingfactorincourt,with
defendantsarguingsuccessfullyforreducedsen-
tencesbecausetheywereintoxicatedatthetimeofanassault.
“Blamingvictimsbysaying,‘Whydidyoudresslikethat?’or
‘Whydidn’tyourunaway?’arestillbigbarrierstowomentak-
ingaction,”saysParkHye-young,anassociatedirectoratthe
SeoulSunflowerCenter,whichassistsvictims.
Onmostmetricsofeconomicequality,thecountryperforms
appallingly.SouthKorea’sgenderpaygapis thelargestbyfar
amongthemembercountriesoftheOrganizationforEconomic
CooperationandDevelopment.It’sdeadlastontheEconomist’s
glass-ceilingindex,anannualrankingof 29 developedcountries’
friendlinesstofemaleworkers.There’salsoa well-organized
“men’srights”movement,andpollssuggestmalesarebroadly
skepticaloffeministpolicies.
TheMoongovernmenthastriedtoimprovethesituation
forwomen,passinglegislationtotoughenpenaltiesforwork-
placeharassmentandincreaseprotectionsforvictims.It’s
alsoencouragedpolicetocrackdownonspycams,initiating
severalhigh-profile prosecutions. (In March two men were
arrested on suspicion of operating a website that live-streamed
from inside hotel rooms, using cameras hidden in wall sock-
ets and appliances.) Women’s groups have tried to keep atten-
tion on the entertainment industry. Protesters frequently cite
Jang, the actress who committed suicide, as a sort of martyr.
At the height of the Burning Sun revelations, they staged a
march to the club. What happens after dark in a rarefied part
of Seoul might seem like a relatively contained issue, but activ-
ists argue that celebrities’ behavior—and the images of women
the entertainment industry promotes—have an outsize impact
on the larger culture.
Politicians seem to share the desire to clean up K-pop,
though it’s possible they’d settle for keeping misbehavior out
of the headlines. Successive governments have put music at
the heart of a soft-power strategy that seeks to position SouthKorea as Asia’s cultural
leader, and they’ve had
considerable success. The
boy band BTS, K-pop’s
most successful act, is
a true global phenome-
non, repeatedly topping
U.S. charts and releasing
collaborations with Steve
Aoki, Nicki Minaj, and
other Western perform-
ers. In his 2019 New Year’s
address, Moon praised
BTS and the music indus-
try for getting foreigners
“wildly excited” about
Korean culture.
One of the striking
things about the Burning
Sun scandal, however, is
how little the flood of reve-
lations has affected K-pop’s
operations. The industry’s response has been not so much intro-
spection as cauterization. Although Seungri could be prosecuted
on as many as seven charges, and other performers have retired
after scandals of their own, few K-pop executives or idols have
so much as acknowledged the turmoil. There have been no orga-
nized demands for better behavior from male stars or serious
discussions about revamping how idols are trained.
The main impact of Burning Sun, says Jeong Changhwan, a
former SM executive who’s now at entertainment conglomer-
ate CJ ENM Co., will be as a cautionary tale. “It’s a huge lesson
in what not to do,” he says. “The best teacher for young idols
is to see fellow idols get into a scandal and disappear from the
industry.” And they do disappear—YG Entertainment has already
updated Big Bang’s website, removing Seungri from the group’s
official portrait.
For everyone else, the show goes on. Before a recent taping
of M Countdown, a popular weekly broadcast in which rising idol
acts compete for viewers’ votes, heavily made-up performers
milled around adjusting their costumes and playing with their
phones. As the start time approached, the members of a girl
group watched playback of their rehearsal on a large monitor,
checking their moves for synchronization. A female singer with
purple hair, a powder-blue long-sleeve T-shirt, and cut-off black
jean shorts looped with silver chains paced the hallway, her
wardrobe calculated to signal rebellion without transgression.
The procession of performances began: 10 boys with per-
fectly calibrated rips on their otherwise pristine jeans, 6 girls
in high school chic, 5 boys and an ovoid mascot that could
have been the love child of Jessica Rabbit and Casper the
Friendly Ghost. In the next weeks, dozens more would hit
the stage, the latest products from an assembly line of arti-
fice. No one in K-pop is indispensable; no idol, no matter how
PHOTO: HAN MYUNG-GU/WIREIMAGE popular, is bigger thanthemachine.
SEUNGRI ▲