(no subject)

[lirazel]

It just blows my mind that this keeps happening--SM treats its employees like shit, so much so that the employees take legal action to get away from them--and yet the company (and the industry at large) learns absolutely nothing. They didn't learn anything from Shinhwa, they didn't learn anything from Han Geng, they didn't learn anything from JYJ, and they won't learn anything from Kris. Nothing's going to change at SM or industry-wide until the law forces them to change or until they can't make money off of mistreating dreaming young people, and I don't foresee either of those things happening any time soon. I'm glad Kris is getting out while he can. I'm sure he didn't make the decision lightly.

What I really want to know is whether the female idols are treated better or (more likely) they're treated so much worse that they have less leverage (emotional or otherwise) to leave when they want to. Because it's significant to me that only guys have gotten out.

Comments

[madcap-shiny.livejournal.com]

can you tell me more about shitty things sm's done/the reason these guys are leaving? i have no doubts the idol industry is rotted to hell; i just haven't heard about specific cases and i'm curious.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

The thing is, we don't tend to get the details. We get vague statements about contracts and stuff.

Shinhwa's contract ran out and they wanted to move to a new company (afaik, they did not state why) and had to sue for the right to use their name there (Eric taught himself law so that he could defend them in court. They won. I'm kind of in awe of him--like that is the ultimate Leader).

Here's what wiki says about Han Geng:

Han filed a lawsuit against SME to terminate his contract, citing that the 13-year contract was unlawful, overly restrictive, and unfair. His arguments include being forced to do things outside of his contract and being refused sick leave, which led to kidney illness.

JYJ phrased it this way:

stated that the 13-year contract was excessively long, schedules were held out without the confirmation or permission of the members, contract terms have been extended and changed without their knowledge or consent and that the group's earnings were not fairly distributed to the members

In response, SM Entertainment called a press conference and claimed that the lawsuit was not about unfair contracts or human rights, but motivated by the three members’ greed to pursue their cosmetics business uninhibited by the restrictions their exclusive contract with SM bound them with.

As for Kris, afaik there haven't been any details released.

The thing is, the idols have to make the lawsuits about unfairness with money/contracts or whatever because just being horribly, horribly mistreated isn't against the law. So we don't know how much of what they did was motivated by the unfairness with the money/contracts and how much of it has to do with emotional abuse or just ridiculous schedules and exhaustion and overworking.

[madcap-shiny.livejournal.com]

UGH, that's so wild and concerning as hell -- i knew when i got into kpop that idols were on tight, tight work schedules, and the 9muses documentary just further confirmed that actual abuse is involved, so i guess i sort of already knew about this in the back of my head but just......yikes. it's not surprising but it is horrifying. and of COURSE sm would make it a thing of "oh, they're just being selfish/greedy when they originally promised us this thing" omfg becoming a kpop idol is LITERALLY LIKE MAKING A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL. and this on top of the invasive behavior of fans and the extra horrifying stuff sasaengs do? honestly, the cult of celebrity in america is fucked-up and unhealthy, but the kpop industry makes it look downright tame. that's scary as hell.

(plus the ways scandals work -- here in the usa, something like being caught in a relationship would just be a saucy bit of news that would fuel public interest in someone, but that kind of thing could RUIN AN IDOL'S CAREER. it's so, so genuinely frightening. and makes me extra mad about internet haters, like, these people get enough hell from everyone who's supposed to be on their side, you don't need to make it worse with snide comments.)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I could not agree more with every word you write.

[indiesnopp.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget that Hangeng saw his only choice other than leaving SM was suicide.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Shit, I hadn't heard that. That's unbelievable.