"Causing Sexual Shame" vs "Excessive Intervention"... Controversy Over Hwasa's Accusation

Controversy Over Hwasa's Performance Sexuality Continues
Parents' Group: "More Harmful Than a Flasher"
Critic Kim Heonsik: "Third-Party Complaints Are Excessive"

Controversy continues surrounding Hwasa, a member of the group Mamamoo, who was reported for performing a provocative act on a university festival stage. The parent group that reported Hwasa stated that "the impact is greater than that of a flasher" as the reason for the report. On the other hand, the popular culture and arts community criticized it as "an excessive intervention in artistic freedom."

Shin Minhyang, the representative of the Student Parents' Human Rights Protection Coalition who reported Hwasa, said in an interview on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' on the 11th, "Hwasa performed an act that was completely out of context with the choreography," and claimed, "Such an act corresponds to the obscene act stipulated in Article 245 of the Criminal Act regarding public obscenity."

Representative Shin said, "I was not at the (performance) site, but Hwasa's video spread rapidly, and I saw it unintentionally," adding, "I felt sexual shame, and if it were the social average, many people would have felt shame like me, and many people complained of suffering.

Photo by Hwasa Instagram

Regarding the criticism of overreaction, Representative Shin argued, "Even if it is a performance, it should be conducted according to the place and people, and it should not be carried out like a terror against the majority in an unexpected place," and claimed, "Hwasa's act was seen by a larger unspecified public, so in some ways, it has a greater negative impact than a flasher."

On the other hand, the popular culture and arts community pointed out that it was an excessive intervention by a third party who was not even present at the performance site. Kim Heonsik, a popular culture critic, referred to the parent group that reported Hwasa as 'Monster Parents,' a term used to describe overbearing parents. Kim said, "(Monster Parents) refers to parents who interfere with everything about their children, and in Japan, it refers to parents who make unreasonable demands by frequently filing complaints to schools," adding, "One behavior of excessive intervention in everything under the pretext of child education was also found in Hwasa's case."

Mamamoo member Hwasa. [Photo by Yonhap News]

He said, "Basically, it was a performance with university students as the audience. If there was a problem, it is right to voluntarily point it out and make it public, but it is not appropriate from the perspective of the basic spirit of art or freedom of expression for a third-party parent group who was not at the venue to report it."

Critic Kim emphasized the need to consider the peculiarity that the problematic performance spread online through a fancam (directly filmed video) rather than a broadcast. He said, "If the problem is that the video keeps spreading through SNS (social networking services), then the responsibility of the SNS platforms should also be mentioned," adding, "Excluding that part and singling out Hwasa for reporting can only be seen as having an ulterior motive from the start."

Regarding the parent group's claim that "the social average felt shame," he said, "It was not the average person but a university students' festival," and added, "We need to see who the subjects feeling shame were, but this is not a case reported by students. It is appropriate to judge based on the university students."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.