My take on the Park Yoochun case

So contrary to what I was hoping, which was to maintain this blog a bit more, I have been quite distracted. But now I am back, unfortunately to blog about some pretty bad news – something I did not expect to be talking about. I believe it’s been around 2 weeks since this started? But I am honestly so tired and disappointed and heartbroken that I have to vent it out in a place with no judgement. And what better place than my blog which does not have much followers?! Should this blog be read by others, particularly anyone who knows and follows the case, then I am sorry in advance because this post will be long and confusing – and to be honest, depending on your stance, might be offensive – even if I am doing it unintentionally.

Before I start, I feel like I have to make a few disclaimers. 1 k-pop related and 2 not.

1. The K-Pop related one:
   Yes, my bias group is TVXQ. I am making this blog as a fan of the group, AND as a fan of Park Yoochun. This is not the time and place to get into an argument about the split – but where I respect and admire JYJ’s mission, I did not approve of their methods. On the other hand, not only did I respect and admire TVXQ’s mission, I also approved highly of their methods. Since then, I have followed TVXQ (more specifically, since I am Changmin biased, I follow his activities more than the group even) and with the news of the individual JYJ members rather than the group itself. When I evaluate the group of 5 together, Yoochun happens to rank quite high, just second to Changmin (but a huge gap lol), but I cannot say that I follow him beyond watching a few dramas and his last album which I listened to (because give me any main feature which is a ballad and I am sold!). So I just wanted to make a disclaimer here that I am not THAT much of a Yoochun fan anymore for me to be blindly following him or siding with him because I’m some dumb fangirl. That being said, Yoochun IS important to me because I have precious memories of this group together as 5 and this case absolutely sullies those memories, which is why I have such a strong opinion in it.
2. Non K-Pop related number one:
   I am 28 years old. I am (I think) considered to be mature for my age and am generally open minded and smart enough to make rational decisions. I have always worked and continue to work in a professional environment and take decisions on a daily basis which can have large consequences. I have never been described by anyone who knows me as dumb or gullible – I have enough cynicism in me for quite a few people.
3. Non K-Pop related number two:
   This is the most important point. I am not like a feminist or anything, but I am VERY sympathetic to the plight of women and their exploitation around the world. Since this case relates to sex workers, I need to be very clear from the beginning that not even one bone in my body will ever defend the rape of ANY woman, no matter what her background or profession is. I do not believe in this bullshit of “no sex worker can be raped because that’s her job.” No. It is NOT her job. Basic human rights to safety and not being forced into doing something you don’t want to is a right to EVERY human being. I will not stand for any crap about bringing down the women of this case because of their job, of which we don’t even know why and how they got into. Also, to be clear – rape is not only about forcing intercourse, there are other forms of sexual assault such as forcing the woman to do ANY sexual act she is not happy with. I need to make this clear enough as you read through this blog post because what I will say may seem to contradict this, but it actually does not.

So let us start. I am going to start with Miss A – the first woman who has started this and come forward with a claim saying that she was raped by Yoochun. My first instinct was to side with her and I spent the first days actually devastated because this man that I have followed and respected for quite a while, and who I built this image of in my mind turned out to be a criminal and had committed a heinous and unforgivable crime at that. My second reaction was to question how could someone be so different than what I expected, and that surely this must be a mistake. This did not last long. My THIRD reaction was to think about it rationally after the shock wore off. Actually, wtf is wrong with me? Do I know this man personally? Have I met him in any setting outside of what I have seen on YouTube channels and DVDs? Who the fuck am I to say that he could never do something like this – I don’t personally know him?

Then shit got completely muddled up when everything started to crash down with Miss B, C and D now coming forward saying THEY were also raped in the same manner, same method (in a bathroom), same way of luring them but at different points in time, including one that happened last year. Miss A also backed out of her case saying that she was in fact NOT raped and that she was angry and him and his friends demeaning her and so she and her boyfriend tried to bring him down. Truth or coerced? I don’t know.

I will stop her to give an opinion: I saw some people who commented that it was strange that the women did not come forward until they saw that Miss A was getting public attention. Please. No. Women who are raped or sexually assaulted go through a period of trauma – some never even recovering. If they felt ashamed  (they should not be) or felt helpless, they may have chosen to not come forward at the time. But when they saw that there was a chance of being taken seriously they might have come forward.
I am not saying this is what happened, but I am saying please do not use their late reaction as an excuse to defend him. It will fall on deaf ears.

Moving on, where it gets messed up and where doubt started creeping up was actually with woman C and D. I don’t think they have the date they got raped recorded in a secret diary or anything, but they did not give approximates – they gave actual dates to the police. And these dates it seems to have been incorrect given that Yoochun was not in the country on those dates. They then CHANGED the dates to another day which worked. In fact, I believe there was more than just one change. This already sounds super suspicious to me. To compound this suspicion, reports were floating around the internet about a police report stating that gang related activities were rampant in these adult entertainment bars, and it is not uncommon to see some gangs targeting celebrities.

Opinon: OK – so at this point, I am feeling better. There is hope! Yoochun might be framed – right? To clarify this early on, this will be my stance for the rest of this post. Not that he is innocent, but that I am not 100% sure of his guilt just yet. But yes, this was the point when I started believing there was hope. I know there are claims out there are there is the Lotte scandal happening and it sounds like this might be a cover up for this case – I will not argue but it does not sound realistic to me. So I will not be using this conspiracy theory angle in my post.

During the next few days, I hate to defend C-JES, but I will have to give them credit for their stance and for them trying to reign in the situation correctly through claiming that they would not be giving any public stances or information – and would prefer to cooperate with the police directly and provide information to them. They obviously failed in containing the damage but I cannot say this is their fault. News reports were coming out from EVERY angle, everyone had an opinion, Yoochun was being bashed (to put it mildly) and our fellow non-involved commenters and the public became judge and jury – already finding him guilty before we even heard anything from the police. When we did hear something from the police, it was all from other people forums and so there are chances that they are not true. Evidence would come out and then be disproved, alibis came out and also got discredited. Basically, it is all one big mess that is impossible to sift through due to the massive amount of information circulating.

Opinion: The one case which I till now have the most concern for, the ONE case which really bothers me and if anything turns out to be true, this will it – is Case B. This woman’s testimony and her messages and the way she acted (based on her statements I mean) is the closest one to someone who has gone through a sexual trauma. And so if there is one case which will probably break it for me, it will be this one. I honestly have no come backs for this one, and it is more than 90% of the reason why I believe in Yoochun less than maybe other fans do.

Then yesterday, Miss E came forward. I have no shame even saying this, but out of all the claims out there – this one is the most suspicious. I hesitate in anyway to call her accusation a lie, so I will not. Maybe there is substance in what she is saying and maybe she is just not making a smart choice. But from what I have seen, if anything, this claim is what pokes the biggest hole so far in this whole argument. Her claim comes in one week after (which would have been fine) except that she claims that she didn’t go to the police because she thought they would not believe her especially with her job. This is a sad reality and I can accept that she may have felt that way. But instead of now regaining hope that 4 other women in the same position have gone to the police and were being believed and Yoochun was investigated – she chose to take this information to Dispatch – a gossip and expose site – and reveal it there. Someone needs to explain this logic to me somehow. What benefit would she possibly have to go to Dispatch instead of the police? More importantly, what detriment would it be to her to go to the police instead? Scared of being exposed? She saw how the other 4 women’s identities were protected. Scared of not being believed due to her profession? The other 4 women are of the same profession. Scared because she had no evidence? Neither did some of the other women and it’s still being considered. Scared that she might not be believed? Would be a possible cause if she did not go to the press about it to be believed. There is absolutely nothing I can rationalize in my mind to why her claim has any substance to it. However, this whole paragraph is useless because once again most people are choosing to ignore these gaping holes and adding this to a reason to the “already proven” victims list.

I have tried going on to websites and arguing, not in favour of Yoochun, but in favour of using our minds to doubt and wait for official information. Unfortunately, instead I get met with criticism and (most) people will attack back trying to lump anyone who does not think he is guilty into a category of “crazy fans.” Like please, I am SURE I am more reasonable that a LOT of the people commenting given the comments I have seen. Who the fuck are you? I am not even asking for people to lean towards his side. If you want to believe that he is most likely guilty, that is well beyond your rights. But to continuously accuse him of being a rapist and continue to accuse anyone who doesn’t agree with you of being crazy or worst – it’s fucking stupid and it’s childish. There is LITERALLY no skin off your nose to just wait for a final verdict. This isn’t your fucking brother or boyfriend or something. Just wait till the final verdict is out and then go on and say what you want. Have you ever considered what would happen if he does turn out to be innocent, and you just participated in bringing down a man’s career, life and reputation after 13 years of work building it because you chose to not wait for more information?  Have you thought that if it turns out that these women ARE lying, about the consequences on women who are actually being raped and hiding in fear or shame because people do not believe them but that people like exist who lie for whatever reason bringing down the credibility of the women in this profession? No, you don’t. Because you think that hiding behind your anonymous username and living in a privileged country with freedom and speech and all that is going to dictate how you handle this – and that should it turn out that he IS innocent, you don’t get affected in ANYWAY.

So yes, this is uncharacteristic of me to say it, but I will say it. I DO think I am better than most of you. Because while I do lean towards one side, and yes I do question the credibility of some of these women, I have not and will not demean any single one of them, I will not call them liars, I will not blindly defend Yoochun or try and allege that he is innocent. I will continue to defend us waiting for the people who are actually investigating and know the truthful information before making my judgement of whether he is a criminal or not. But you do not want to give even an ounce of credit to the doubtful information or the fact that you do not have ANY evidence. You don’t even fucking live in the same country to pretend like you know the details of the case. Please, spitting out statistics of female rape like that makes your case stronger. It doesn’t, it makes you look more ignorant except to other people like you. So I will continue to stick with this stance until information is out.

If Yoochun turns out to be guilty, he will not just lose a fan, I will actively be shutting down any one who tries and defend him (I am sure there will be those people….) I will leave with the disappointment and heartbreak of that, but I will not be regretful because I will not feel like I wronged anyone.

If Yoochun turns out to be innocent (and I mean really innocent, not some bullshit “not enough evidence against him” crap), then you will all have to live with the fact that he is in no way going to recover from this. I know it will make no fucking difference to you but you will have to live with this conscience for quite a while.

I am going to say one more thing, and maybe this is where the problem lies. You have the power as fans to control what happens to these idols lives. I will give you an example. Once upon a time in 2009, a group of 5 boys who were literally the most famous and important act in Korea split up – not because of internal conflict, not becaause of money, not because of greed. But because of manipulation of fans and the media. You can believe whatever you want to believe about what happened that year – but no one can deny the role of these 2 parties in what happened. The fans and media start this vicious circle of talking without considering the consequences. There are screenshots and conversations from back in the day supporting that even some of the fans who were making things worst did not expect that the group would actually split – they just wanted to defend their biases. Please heed this message well – this applies to both group – those who want to blindly support Yoochun, your’re not helping ANYWAY and you’re making us fucking look bad, and those who want to crucify Yoochun, you’re going to lead a man to have his life ruined without evidence. What will you if he is innocent?

Anyway, that is all I will say about this matter. Apart from this one post and any responses to it (I am to expecting any because no one really follows it), I will withdrawn from any social media and any comments or boards activities. I will no longer be commenting. I am tired, exhausted actually, and am emotionally so upset as I have to come to grips and prepare myself for the possibility of one of the people I respected being a criminal – and from what I have already seen from other people, you make it worst.