One of the top South Korean girl groups T-ara has sparked a bully controversy after its agency CCM made a surprise announcement of removing a member from the fold. Instantly the outcast Hwayoung, who had joined the group in 2010, became a tragic heroine in the eye of 300000 South Korean netizens who rallied for a campaign to recall the group.
Her dismissal came after a public row in Internet between the members and Hwayoung, who had been injured and subsequently failed to appear on the scheduled performance. The rest members, instead of expressing support or sympathy to their handicapped comrade, derogatively criticized Hwayoung of the so-called attitudinal problem as though her injury could have been prevented if she had been determined like they or actually was not serious enough to hamper performance on stage, followed by the official dismissal of Hwayoung by CCM on Monday.
CCM stated that its decision had been made based on Hwayoung’s unacceptable attitude and behaviors, which had been counterproductive to the team, citing an incident when Hwayoung had refused to perform in live. However, after her official removal from T-ara, Hwayoung tweeted saying “Facts without truth” which indicated that she had been forced out. According to Chosun Ilbo newspaper of South Korea, in an article on its English-language website, said the affair revealed a “culture of catfights” among the K-pop girl groups, implying that it’s one of an evil cycle of cultural habits.
South Korea’s K-Pop has been a phenomenal success garnering a huge international support and is on its way of further expansion. However, there have been sobering concerns about South Korea’s oppressive culture, which obligates the junior submission to the senior, deeply rooted in the fabric of K-pop industry. Under the ironfisted rule of entertainment agency, the sole gate to fame and success for many celeb-wannabes, the employee artists and trainees, were heavily subjugated, psychologically and contractually, to work under slave contract. More often than not, hierarchical abuse has found a way in South Korean entertainment industry, facilitated by cultural tolerance as in the recent T-ara scandal.
SM Entertainment, the biggest entertainment company in South Korea currently managing Girls Generation, TVXQ, and other prominent artists, had been exposed to public as three members of TVXQ years ago filed a lawsuit to demand termination of their contract with SM. The South Korean court acknowledged that SM’s contract didn’t meet the basic labor requirement and ruled in favor of the three members.
Hwayoung, who had now expelled from her agency, made a public apology regarding to the current T-ara crisis, offering an apology to CCM and T-ara members while Kim Kwang Soo, head of CCM openly criticized Hwayoung and even threatened her in an interview. Despite clear evidences of a collective bullying piling up, there is no sign of remorse or acceptable explanation from CCM except passing all the blame to the victim as the agency blatantly announced its Japanese concert schedule.
The confidence CCM shows in the middle of bully incident is staggeringly audacious and demonstrates an utter disregard of the basic integrity and moral sensitivity that a commercial entity must carry, especially in the wake of bully allegation. It is interesting to see how CCM will appease the public in a society suffering a high suicide rate caused by bullying and hazing.
