Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Yoo So Young, a former member of After School, guested recently on ‘Heard It Through The Grapevine‘ and talked about her experience with being sexually harassed by a company CEO.
She said, “I want to say that this happens all the time.” She revealed she had gone to dinner with a label she was about to sign with. She said, “We all went drinking and I was about to go home, and the CEO said he would take me home. I was the only woman, and when we got into the taxi, he held my hand. I knew right then that I had to be alert.” She continued, “I tried to send the CEO away after getting out of the taxi, but he got off after me and said he wanted to talk to me. It was late at night and nothing was open, and I was scared, so we went to a fast food place that was open 24 hours. He held my hand and said, ‘I like you and see you as a woman. I’m not going to let you go until you say okay.’ I told him, ‘I’m sorry but I don’t see it like that. Please cancel my contract as well’.” She then revealed that he said the day after that he had been drunk and didn’t remember anything, and decided ultimately to break her contract after 4 days.
The most notable thing is that she basically describes this kind of interaction as par for the course in the industry, and aside from what’s going on in America right now, it’s not difficult to believe given that it sounds similar to numerous other claims of sexual harassment against a company CEO.
Hell, what Yoo So Young describes here sounds identical to charges of sexual harassment brought by a female singer against a company CEO earlier this month.
Last December, the plaintiff had signed a five-year-long exclusive contract with agency “Y,” which also houses Moon Hee Ok, and officially debuted as a singer on June 15 of this year. According to singer “A,” the incident in question occurred on June 24 when the head of her agency had scolded her severely after a music show recording and sent her home. He later called her out, saying he had to apologize, and took her to a coffee shop in Nonhyeon District. The plaintiff explained that while they first conversed about work, he suddenly said, “I genuinely love you. I see you as a woman. Please become my woman,” while showing her the scars on his wrist from self-harm. She recalled feeling “a huge sense of dread.” The plaintiff said that the head of her agency later groped her and forcibly kissed her in his parked car, saying, “I have to see an end to this today. Let’s go to a motel.” The sexual harassment continued until she managed to curb any further advances and safely go home by continuously saying, “Next time,” according to the singer “A.”
Veteran singer Moon Hee Ok is also being charged for threats made after the female singer turned to her for advice, which is what makes you realize it’s normalized.
As for Moon Hee Ok, the plaintiff stated, “The next day, I contacted Moon Hee Ok, who I had always called ‘teacher,’ and throughly explained how this crime happened. However, she replied, ‘Don’t tell any outsiders about this. Do you think you will be able to work as a singer if this gets any bigger?’” The plaintiff explained that Moon Hee Ok consistently tried to coerce her or would threaten her to not tell anyone about being sexually harassed.
While Moon Hee Ok denied necessarily making threats, she basically copped to advising the female singer to keep what happened under wraps.
In regards to the statement made by singer “A” that accused Moon Hee Ok of telling her to keep quiet about the harassment, Moon Hee Ok said, “I feel sorry for giving poor advice to the junior I love and treasure. However, I didn’t commit commit crimes like threat or fraud.”
So yeah, what Yoo So Young is talking about is unfortunately not surprising.
