Have you ever heard about cancel culture? It means the act of removing public figures from social or professional circles after they have done or said something offensive. In this blog, I will tell you about the recent cancel culture in South Korean public figures because of past school behaviors. Every day, news of school bullying scandals were reported in Korea, including athletes, K-pop idols and actors.
This storm began with volleyball twins Lee Jae-yeong and Lee Da-yeong, who dropped out from the national team and their team (the Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders Volleyball Team) indefinitely because of school bullying. According to the victims, who were their schoolmates in middle school, this pair of twin sisters have done physical violence, stole money from and even threatened people with a knife! Both of them admitted their cruel actions and apologized on their Instagram. They said they sincerely apologize for their behavior and will become more mature. However, some people believe that the term ‘drop out indefinitely’ means they can come back later, so some people hope to end twin sisters' careers as volleyball players.
Kim Ji-soo is an actor and recently dropped out from the Korean drama ‘River Where the Moon Rises’, which he started as the main character. According to the posts uploaded by the victims, who were his classmates, he did all kinds of bullying in school like physical insults and abuse. More than that, he committed sexual assault! He was a ‘womanizer’ and even filmed himself having sex in the bathroom and forced male students to ejaculate on the victim’s face. After that, he posted a handwritten apology letter on Instagram and hoped that the drama could go on without him. However, Ji-soo has confirmed that he will soon be enlisted in the military and many fans believe this is a way for him to escape. Therefore, some fans are calling him to be jailed instead.
I believe that we should ‘cancel’ the above public figures as they do not have the qualifications to be someone role models. Nonetheless, some bullying allegations are false! Some people just want to create rumors and wreck celebrities’ life. Jo Byung-gyu, a Korean actor, was an example, he needed to step down from an upcoming new variety show because of public pressure. He also stopped his work and cut-off all advertisements even though he denied all bullying allegations. Actually, we don’t know the truth…
I feel emotionally exhausted about those fake rumors of celebrities' bullying accusations. I hope netizens can stop doing this ruthless action as they may wreck someone’s life. What do you think about the cancel culture? Would you like to give those celebrities a chance if they have reflected on their mistake and apologized with deep regrets? Welcome to add your comment below!
I think cancel culture is acceptable if the celebrities really did something wrong. The consumers may not want to buy the products that still using the celebrities who have scandals. In the bullying case among Korean celebrities, I think that the netizens who try to create some fake rumours is a kind of cyberbullying for the celebrities. They are acting just like what the celebrities did before as standing on the moral high ground.
I believe that everyone should be responsible for what they did. Although cancel culture may be mistaken in attracting people's power to judge people, the one who did wrong should be punished. However, people should be clearly known of the whole event before criticizing.
I agree with your point that cancel culture is a type of cyberbullying as netizens may personal attack on the wrong side in verbal. And it is difficult to determine which is correct and wrong. What I want to suggest is we should teach and change the values by education instead of cancelling culture.
I think the cancel culture is somehow acceptable if the scandal turns out to be true, the public figure should be judged by the public, which can be understood as a kind of punishment.
Cancel culture is quite serious and people should mind their language on the Internet. They should also do fact check before saying anything. However, if some celebrities did something wrong in the past, such as bullying, they should be cancelled!!