S.Korean poll reveals widespread abuse of entertainers

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Nearly four out of every 10 female entertainers in South Korea face unwanted sexual pressure, a survey showed Monday.

The survey of actresses, singers and TV personalities was conducted by opposition party lawmaker Byun Jae-Il and made public during a parliamentary session.

Some 25 percent said they had experienced unwanted physical contact, while 12.5 percent said they had been forced or requested to provide sexual favours in return for money or to advance their career.

The survey showed 43.8 percent were forced to drink with high-ranking figures in the entertainment industry, while 37.5 percent have experienced violence or abusive language at such gatherings.

Yonhap news agency quoted Byun as saying the exploitation of entertainers, especially young women, by some agents "has gone beyond the limit".

He called for swift government measures saying "this is not an issue to be left to the self-regulatory aspect of the market".

Agents and managers often pressure actresses to have sex with them while being videotaped, and later use the film as blackmail to prevent them from skipping to bigger firms, Yonhap said.

In March actress Jang Ja-Yeon committed suicide after suggesting she had been forced to have sex with influential figures in the entertainment and media industry to promote her career.

She left a note reading: "I am a powerless young actress who can't fix what is so evidently wrong."

Source: AsiaOne

Comments

[filmsession.livejournal.com]

4 out of 10 is a lot D:

[pandatablo.livejournal.com]

1 out of 10 is a lot . 4 out of 10 is wtf?why isn't anyone doing anything ...
ugh ... I hate it when things like this happen right in fron of our eyes and we can't do much to change them ...

[almosthello.livejournal.com]

.... i have no comment for once. wow D:

[robileczuya.livejournal.com]

Why are they so abused? :(( *cries with them*
I mean, they don't deserve any of it after all. They're persons, too. They have feelings. D:

[evil-zucchini.livejournal.com]

That's horrible. :| I now have to wonder if any of the entertainers I know have been forced to do that.

[wrongbyright.livejournal.com]

Those abusing their power should DIAF.

[diorbaby.livejournal.com]

except for the fact that you can manipulate statistics to say anything you want. i'm not saying this is ok, i'm just saying that you shouldn't just trust everything you read.

[nimco.livejournal.com]

scumbags.

[eatingthepie.livejournal.com]

+1

[smileyschaos.livejournal.com]

That's a lot in every 10 people. They don't deserve to be treated this way just because they're women. :(

[x3eviie.livejournal.com]

4 out of 10 is ALOT. This really saddens me... D:
fucking disgusting... it needs to stop.

[sincronia.livejournal.com]

This is so incredibly wrong. :| I don't even know what to think, for actresses and female artists to be degraded as such? Oh, must fame come at such a price... Ridiculous.

[a-small-star.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily more horrible than any of this other news is that I'm sure it happens to even a fair portion of male entertainers, too -- so everyone is probably suffering.

[a-small-star.livejournal.com]

This.

[honeydice.livejournal.com]

Sometimes i don't know if k-industry is good or not.

[kayen.livejournal.com]

That is truly awful, and something needs to be done. However, I still find it interesting that they clearly chose to focus solely on female entertainers, presumably taking for granted that the young men in the industry could never suffer this kind of treatment. Considering how such assumptions have often turned male victims 'invisible' in the past, it's slightly worrying that a cultural view of men as 'strong' might in fact cause the media _not_ to investigate that part of k-entertainment in this way.

[aunts.livejournal.com]

That's a VERY good point. I don't even want to think about what some of the male entertainers might have gone through...

[angelonair.livejournal.com]

Just think about it, quite a lot of female kpop idols that we know have been abused.
And quite a lot of girls who are trying to become an idol are being pressured to do "stuff".

Bodies without faces

[elusiveclover.livejournal.com]

Women in the entertainment industry are just bodies without faces. You’re a woman more than a musician/artist. The fact that you are a woman trumps everything. In a country dominated by male producers, managers and CEOs, women are often abused by men who are supposed to help them

[mystisblom.livejournal.com]

This is so crazy I don't know what to say.

[pinky-fairy10.livejournal.com]

This is insane. :| those kind of person should be arrested.

[ekkers.livejournal.com]

As sad and horrible as this is... I'm not surprised. Korean culture has always been rife with particularly bad kinds of corruption. And in an industry that is a constant walkway of disposable attractive people passing by, can we have expected anything else, like squeaky clean operations full of rainbows and sunshine? It's a dog-eat-dog industry. I wouldn't be surprised if the American entertainment industry's stats were just as high or higher... it's just Americans think of and consider sex in more liberal terms than Koreans do.

[dublejointedtoe.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. It's just that people choose to believe what they see on television to be an actual representation of the society there which is why when something BIG happens (Jang Ja-Yeon's suicide) they go, "HOW CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE? I THOUGHT THE KPOP INDUSTRY WAS PURE AND HEAVENLY"

It's an industry designed to prey on the desperation of the weak and vulnerable.

[lastclasshero.livejournal.com]

Again this gives k-entertainment world a bad name, apart from the recent boyband troubles.

Even 1 percent of this happening is WRONG WRONG WRONG. The percentage are really shockingly terrible. We need change (lol)

[bambayahh.livejournal.com]

oh god, that's so sad and disgusting D:

[fraash.livejournal.com]

this is just so wrong. so so wrong.

[booksandsarcasm.livejournal.com]

This is awful. x.x But I'm glad there's attention directed at it now. Jang Ja-Yeon's suicide was tragic but at least she left something behind and helped spur on further investigation into this issue. Ew. Creepy disgusting men who can't get any in real life have to force actresses to sleep with them? How do they delude themselves into thinking that the only person who is gaining any pleasure isn't just themselves. Disgusting.

[weerainbow.livejournal.com]

This is soooo worrying...any news of abuse is bad enough but to know that it's so widespread in the entertainment industry is absolutely disgraceful!! Something MUST be done!

[littlepianogirl.livejournal.com]

[steofrh.livejournal.com]

WTF! Thats so wrong!!! What is wrong with this world?!