Suzy Opens Up About Participating In Government Petition Regarding Sexual Harassment Case

May 18, 2018

After showing support for a petition related to YouTube content creator Yang Ye Won and her sexual harassment story, Suzy took to social media to explain her thoughts.

The singer-turned-actress posted the message through her personal Instagram account on May 18.

Her post reads as follows:

“On May 17, at around 4 a.m. in the morning, I somehow ended up browsing Instagram, when I saw an online post. [The post talked about] how a woman, who dreamed of becoming an actress, was looking for some work three years ago, when she had to take part in a photo shoot session that she didn’t want to do and experienced sexual harassment. And how she felt like she wanted to die when those photos were later released on a pornographic site.

“[The post] said that [the studio] did not perfectly explain exactly what kind of photo shoot it was, and that she blindly signed the contract without fully knowing. But once [the woman] actually got to the location, she saw that the photo shoot was sexually explicit in nature and that their words were different. And that the room filled with managers had an intimidating mood, so she couldn’t even run away.

“[When I read it early in the morning] it was so hard to read the detailed account, and at the same time, it was so regrettable that not a word of news was being reported on this shocking case and [her] courage. If it were the case that this post is true, I thought that more people had to know about this and that it’d be good if they had an investigation. I hoped there wouldn’t be any more victims like this in the future.

“However, when I searched online, this case did not appear anywhere, and there was no way to confirm whether or not it was true. I thought, ‘What is this?’ Only one or two posts had been uploaded on Instagram.

“At dawn, I texted my friend, saying, ‘There’s this case, but I don’t think people know about it. I don’t know what I should do about it,’ and fell asleep. When I woke up and searched [again], it was a relief to see that this case was being reported online [as a main story]. Even on real-time search results.

“It was a relief to hear that investigations had started, and I hoped that this case would end well no matter what. In my spare moments, I searched for articles while doing other work, but the comments on an article were shocking.

“Of course, they’re still investigating. Nothing has come out yet. In all respects, they’re solely one-sided claims, and there hasn’t been any evidence that fully supports either party for [us] to discuss whose fault it is. It’s hard to know what parts have been overblown, what parts have been left out, who’s telling the truth, and to what extent their stories are true. This is why I couldn’t readily make a decision [about this] early in the morning. However, I did not feel good as I saw comments which seemed to muddy up the essence of this case.

“Is there anything that I can do? For this case, since investigations are not complete, there was nothing that I could do to help. But I wanted to at least provide support to the woman whose photos had been released, for her courageous story. I saw comments saying it’d be good to have a petition that asks for more aggressive investigations on leaked hidden camera and illegal photos, so I participated on the [petition] site. The request for this case to be widely spread so that many could know about it – though it’s small, that much I could do.

“[Some] pointed out that I may have rashly intervened on a specific petition. It’s a valid point. Knowing [my] influence, and, as it is a case that does not have any results, it was an action that could of course cause bias towards one side.

“But regardless of what happens, I thought that either one of the two parties could hope for a proper conclusion as a result of this [news] spreading. Because either way, there is a victim. By gaining more people’s attention, I hoped that a more precise plan for a solution would emerge, which is why I didn’t want to let the case be so that it could just pass by.

“It’s not because that person is a woman. It’s not a problem regarding feminism. I intervened, as one person to another. It was my decision to intervene in regards to humanism.”