Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Given my feelings about this being a controversy to begin with, you can already imagine what my reaction was to the news that Mino was being threatened with lawsuits by the KAOG, an OB/GYN association, over his lyrics controversy.
This is honestly something that deserves to be from The Onion.
“Mino not only gave offense to women in Korea, but also Korean obstetricians and gynecologists who work 365 days a year, 24 hours a day for the health of women and future generations. It’s regrettable that his actions have damaged the honor of the 4000 doctors in the organization.”
In the event that no apologies are given, the KAOG states that they will resort to legal action.
Emphasis mine.
Additionally, the KCSC are looking into it.
The Korea Communication Standards Commission has acknowledged that Mnet‘s “Show Me the Money 4” aired problematic lyrics, and has submitted the item to be evaluated.
If you told me this was a joke by like “The Yangpa” or something, I would’ve believed it and found it funny.
Anyway, Mino and ‘Show Me The Money 4‘ did end up giving apologies, the most hep-hap of hep-hap things to do when you include wordplay about how women want to sex you in your song.
“Show Me the Money” released an official apology, saying, “It is the production’s fault. We will edit more carefully from now on.” It explained that it has tried to produce the show in consideration of the broadcast standards and the feelings of the audience; however, this problem has occurred and they are sorry they caused the audience to feel uncomfortable and disappointed. It concluded, “We will work hard to make a good program to make hip-hop and rappers well known.”
“Hello. This is WINNER’s Song Mino. I am sincerely and deeply reflecting on the controversial lyrics that aired through ‘Show Me the Money.’ In competing against other talented rappers through ‘Show Me the Money,’ I felt a lot of pressure to write more aggressive lyrics and choose stronger words, which led me ultimately to a wrong decision. Once I had the chance to step back and take a look at myself and how wrong I was through the broadcast, I was endlessly embarrassed and ashamed. Once again, to anyone who may have felt offended or uncomfortable by my mistaken expressions, I sincerely apologize. I will do my absolute best to redeem this mistake caused with music with better music in the future.”
Then there’s the netizen consensus:
1. [+11,974, -287] It’s not just an issue of his lyrics being low rate. If he had used an analogy of a prostitution house, he would’ve gotten some hate and people would’ve been over it but the fact that he said gynecologist’s, a place where women go to not only to give birth but to treat all other medical issues just makes me wonder what other dirty things are in his head for him to think of such a place as a place where women go to spread their legs
I loathe when people use this type of writing prompt, but … am I the only one who sees this type of reaction as the problem to begin with? I mean to me it’s the whole puritanical shtick, just framed a different way.
1. I don’t see how people are seeing this as him attempting to sexualize an OB/GYN visit, and not just it being a sloppy (IMO) wordplay about leg spreading so he can brag about how women want to have sex with him so bad.
2. More importantly, the offense being taken is actually a lot about how its seen as shameful to be spreading your legs for gynos to begin with. I basically don’t think the netizen comment featured is being as progressive or thoughtful as they think. Instead of arguing that spreading your legs at the OB/GYN or showing your privates to doctors/men/in general should not be frowned upon or reacted to this way, they’re basically saying it would be okay to call sex workers out since they’re social pariahs and nobody cares about them, but how DARE you make reference to the OB/GYN because that’s where even the “purest” of women with the whitest of skin and the longest of skirts go.
Fuck. That.
3. I mentioned this in the comments of the other post, but the funny part about this is that I do think there is a legitimate sexism complaint to be made regarding Mnet and their rap shows. It’s just there’s been no actual outrage about it for years now, or at least nothing that’s made it mainstream.
For example, so far on ‘Show Me The Money 4’, KASPER has only been referenced in terms of her drawing the desire of other men for her looks, Ahn Soo Min was only featured due to both her looks and the interest of another male rapper, and the producers completely passed over showing “ugly” female contestants who either failed/passed in both the first and second round of auditions.
That’s a problem in terms of representation and how the producers see female rappers, which should’ve been clear to anybody who watched ‘Unpretty Rapstar‘. I would get behind a movement that says Mnet should apologize for that, just as they probably should have for editing ‘Unpretty Rapstar’ to portray a lot of the female-female conflict when there actually wasn’t much beyond Jessi‘s rant and what I think was legit animosity between Tymee/Jolly V and Jessi/Kisum. Hell, even going back to ‘Show Me The Money 3‘, the only reason Tymee and then Jolly V got play is because of their fighting.
But hey, I guess it’s easier to go after the idol rapper that’s making a relatively harmless and absolutely basic “derp I have sex with lots of women derp” brag lyric. Certainly easier than actually challenging the root problems and/or the people in power who dictate female representation and determine how they’ll be perceived by the general public.
