Male celebrities' chatroom reveals insensitivity to sexual violence

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Sat, September 30, 2023 | 11:19

Law & Crime

Male celebrities' chatroom reveals insensitivity to sexual violence

Posted : 2019-03-13 17:00

Updated : 2019-03-13 18:35

Reporters wait outside the office of a digital forensic company in southern Seoul, Wednesday, while police search the business that singer Jung Joon-young left his phone with for 'repairs' in 2016. At the time Jung refused to submit his phone to police after he was accused of secretly filming his ex-girlfriend, saying it was with a repair firm due to a problem. / Yonhap

Chatroom comments suggest police complicity in wrongdoings at clubs

By Lee Suh-yoon

New revelations from a chatroom where male celebrities and their acquaintances shared sex videos filmed without the consent of their partners have refueled an age-old debate on how male-only groups continue to tolerate ― even encourage ― a culture of sexual violence toward women.

One dialogue from April 2016, first reported by local broadcaster SBS, is particularly revealing about how women were sexually objectified by the chatroom members for their own bonding in these closed online spaces. In the disclosed snippet, a man surnamed Kim shares footage of him raping a passed out woman, proudly adding he fed her sleeping pills. To this, well-known singer Jung Joon-young replies "hahaha" and makes a degrading remark about the woman.

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The men in the eight-member chatroom were well aware what they were doing was criminal. In an earlier dialogue, Jung also suggests to seven other members in the chatroom that they should "meet (a woman) online and rape her in a car," to which one replies that they are already doing so offline and that they have done many things that could land them in jail "except for murder."

Jung, who also shared numerous sex videos of his own, admitted to all the charges in a social media post early Wednesday and said he would retire, following in the footsteps of Seungri, a member of boy band Big Bang who is also at the center of multiple illicit drug and sex-related allegations. Both have been summoned by police for questioning today.

The insensitivity to and support for sexual crimes against women in the chatroom played out at a much more serious scale at nightclubs such as Seungri's Burning Sun and Arena. Growing allegations show the club actively arranged for female sex workers, and possibly even drugged female customers, for VIP guests, turning a blind eye and even supplying "rape drugs" to male customers.

Plus, a good number of comments in the chatroom with Seungri and Jung raised suspicions of a bigger cartel involving members of the police force, according to lawyer Bang Jung-hyun who submitted the chatroom content to authorities on behalf of an anonymous whistleblower. The comments suggest police knowingly allowed Burning Sun to continue its illicit dealings and "watched" the owners' backs. One even mentions the chief of the Korean National Police Agency, investigators confirmed Wednesday.

These new, yet familiar, findings of sexual violence toward women point to an obvious conclusion: these recurring outbursts of gender-related crimes can no longer be attributed to ethical lapses of a few select individuals, meaning it's time to point the finger at society, culture and an industry that overlooks and encourages such horrifying behavior.

"Seeing how even public figures ― who are supposed to be sensitive to public opinion ― do not know their own shame and openly carry out such behavior, it's clear how widespread is the skewed perspective that treats women as objects of sexual gratification and not as human beings," Cho Hyun-wook, head of the Korean Women Lawyers Association, said in a press statement, Tuesday.

This is not the first time sexual objectification of women regressed to the sharing of these kinds of rape videos in male-only online spaces. Numerous chatrooms with male university students came under fire last year for ranking their female peers by looks, and sharing hidden camera clips. In the latter half of last year, women's groups and the authorities finally brought down a million-dollar spycam porn cartel with a push from the #MeToo movement.

"The culture and industry that objectify women's bodies was maintained by men's silence, solidarity and communication," K-drama and gender columnist Oh Soo-kyung wrote in her Tuesday's contribution to Sisain. "The bare face of this male community inside this horrifying cartel is finally being revealed."

sylee@koreatimes.co.kr