Victim-blaming outcry as Japan pop star
says sorry after alleged assault by fans
Victim-blaming: Victim blaming is blaming the
victim for a crime they didn't commit. Victim blaming is being blamed for somebody
else's actions.
Outcry: An outcry is a reaction of
strong disapproval and anger shown by the public or media about a recent event.
( Protesta )
Band manager criticised for silence after Maho
Yamaguchi, a singer with NGT48, said she was attacked at her home
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Fri 18 Jan 2019 05.55 GMT
Japan’s harsh treatment of
its female celebrities has again come under scrutiny following outcry over the
music industry’s handling of an alleged assault on a member of a popular girl band.
Harsh: Harsh climates or conditions
are very difficult for people, animals, and plants to live in.
Social media users and TV commentators have
joined the barrage of criticism targeting AKS, a music
management agency, after Maho Yamaguchi, a singer with NGT48, went public this
month with allegations she had been assaulted by two obsessive fans at the end
of last year.
Barrage
of:
A barrage of something
such as criticism or complaints is a large number of them directed at someone,
often in an aggressive way.
Yamaguchi, 23, said on Twitter that AKS had
failed to help her after the assault, which had left her deeply traumatised. At
the time of her tweet, the agency representing NGT48 – a sister group to the
hugely popular girl band AKB48 – had not commented on the incident.
Maho Yamaguchi, a member of pop idol
group NGT48 out of Niigata, Japan, apologised after alleging two fans assaulted
her. Photograph: Maho Yamaguchi/Instagram
The furore intensified when Yamaguchi bowed deeply and apologised to fans for “causing trouble” –
making fans worry by speaking out about her assault – during a concert earlier
this month. Many questioned why she felt she should apologise while her
industry handlers remained silent.
Bow: When you bow to someone, you
briefly bend your body towards them as a formal way of greeting them or showing
respect.
Her fans responded with a petition calling for
NGT48’s manager to resign that was signed by more than 53,000 people.
Yamaguchi’s case has highlighted the poor
treatment of young women and girls by Japan’s pop industry, particularly the
insistence that they appear morally unimpeachable.
Performers
are subject to strict rules imposed by their management agencies, including, in
many cases, a ban on having boyfriends to maintain the impression among their
largely male – and, on occasion, dangerously obsessive – fan base that they are
romantically available.
In 2013, Minami Minegishi, then a 20-year-old
member of AKB48, shaved her head – a traditional act of contrition in Japan –
and issued a tearful apology after breaking her
group’s strict dating ban to spend a night with her boyfriend.
Tearful: If someone is tearful, their
face or voice shows signs that they have been crying or that they want to cry.
In a comprehensive account of the latest
incident, Twitter user @katbeee said Yamaguchi’s experience highlighted the
widespread mistreatment of women in Japan’s idol industry.
“To the West, all this “idol drama” can easily
come off as “WACKY JAPAN!” nonsense — but these
incidents and lack of regulation in the idol industry are as serious as the
abuses committed in the Western entertainment industry,” she said, adding that
the industry was rife with “power harassment, sexual
exploitation, emotional and psychological abuse and overwork”.
Wacky: If you describe something or
someone as wacky, you mean that they are eccentric, unusual, and often funny.
Rife
with: If you
say that something, usually something bad, is rife in a place or that the place
is rife with it, you mean that it is very common.
AKS eventually apologised for its handling of
the issue, claiming it had remained silent throughout Yamaguchi’s ordeal to allow the police to investigate. A spokesman said
the firm had replaced the manager of the theatre in Niigata, northern Japan,
regularly used by NGT48, adding that it would step up
security around members of the group.
Ordeal: Any difficult, painful, or
trying experience; severe trial. An ancient method of trial in which the accused
was exposed to physical dangers, from which he or she was supposed to be
divinely protected if innocent.(experiència terrible / experiencia terrible –
ordalia / ordalía)
Step up: If you step up something, you
increase it or increase its intensity.
The firm also admitted that a fellow NGT48 member had given the men Yamaguchi’s address
and told them when she might return home.
Fellow: Your fellows are the people who
you work with, do things with, or who are like you in some way.
Word origin of 'fellow': "companion,
comrade," c. 1200, from Old English feolaga "partner, one who shares
with another," from Old Norse felagi, from fe "money" (see fee)
+ lag, from Proto-Germanic *lagam, from PIE root *legh- "to lie down,
lay." The etymological sense of fellow seems to be "one who puts down
money with another in a joint venture."
The two men suspected of grabbing Yamaguchi’s
face and pinning her to the ground as she was entering
her home in Niigata reportedly told police they had simply wanted to talk to
her and were released without charge.
Pin: If someone pins you to
something, they press you against a surface so that you cannot move.
NGT48 has cancelled three upcoming concerts in
which Yamaguchi was to perform, according to Japanese media.
Cap comentari:
Publica un comentari a l'entrada