A South Korean actor’s revelation that he fathered a baby with a girl to whom he’s not married has triggered a nationwide debate over movie star conduct and non-traditional household constructions.
Jung Woo-sung, a 51-year-old A-lister in South Korea’s movie business, confirmed by way of his company on Sunday that he’s the daddy of 35-year-old mannequin Moon Ga-bi’s new child son.
Whereas Jung pledged to “fulfil his duties” as the daddy, his silence on whether or not he plans to marry Moon drew fierce backlash within the conservative nation the place births outdoors marriage are seen as taboo.
However some progressive voices have defended Jung, noting a shift in South Korea’s attitudes in direction of various household constructions.
Moon introduced her youngster’s delivery by way of Instagram on Friday, with out mentioning the daddy, describing the being pregnant as “surprising” and saying she had been “utterly unprepared for the sudden information”.
Two days later, Jung’s company Artist Firm launched an announcement confirming that “the child Moon revealed on her social media is Jung Woo-sung’s son”.
The assertion additional famous that Jung and Moon had been “discussing one of the simplest ways to lift the kid”.
It triggered outrage that rapidly unfold throughout the nation, triggering a slate of opinion items in tabloids, spurring on-line debate and eliciting feedback from nationwide politicians.
On-line, the response was largely important in direction of Jung, whose prolific movie profession has made him a family title in South Korea.
Many commentators appeared to imagine the actor had tarnished an in any other case upstanding and squeaky clear picture, with some expressing disappointment that the previous United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees ambassador “can’t settle for his personal youngster”.
“Jung Woo-sung is pretending to be a superb man saying he’ll fulfil all his obligation… A toddler doesn’t develop on cash alone,” wrote one commenter on Naver Information, South Korea’s largest information combination web site.
“It’s not an issue not marrying after having a baby. It’s that he pretended to be such an moral individual thus far,” wrote one other.
Talking to conservative information outlet JoongAng, an unnamed lawmaker from the right-wing Folks Energy Get together described Jung’s choice to have a baby outdoors marriage as “one thing unthinkable on this nation of social mores”.
“Regardless of how a lot the occasions are altering, Korea’s custom and public sentiment have to be saved (righteous),” the lawmaker stated.
A current social survey by South Korea’s statistics company discovered that 37% of individuals believed it was acceptable to have a baby outdoors marriage – an nearly 15% enhance since 2012.
Of those that stated marriage was essential, greater than 72% had been above the age of 60 – with youthful respondents more and more much less more likely to take that view.
Different lawmakers have defended Jung, with Lee So-young, a member of the Democratic Get together of Korea, saying that “deciding to stay with somebody is a deeply private and existential alternative”.
“To imagine that merely having a baby obligates individuals to marry and tackle the duties of cohabitation and mutual assist feels suffocating,” Lee wrote on Fb on Tuesday.
“After all, there’s nothing improper with being ‘regular’… [But] even when society seems to have a typical of ‘regular’, each life is exclusive in its personal method.
“Maybe a greater society is one which accepts and respects such variations with out judgment,” she added. “That’s what I imagine.”
Kyunghyang, a progressive main newspaper, put out an editorial piece noting that whereas some voices have pushed for conventional values, “additionally rising is the voice that our society should consider the various shapes households take”.
“It makes one hope that celebrities having infants outdoors of marriage, like Jung and Moon, will assist change the general public view which right now is towards [such] births.”
South Korea has a notoriously high-pressure leisure business, with celebrities typically held to inordinately excessive social requirements and positioned underneath excessive scrutiny.