This past month, a myriad of issues blew up in South Korea that not only tarnished the innocent image of K-pop, but it also brought to light the perception of women in South Korea.

These issues include, but are not limited to, prostitution, sexual assault, rape, spy cams, police corruption, and drug dealing.

Korean pop, or more popularly known as K-pop, is a multibillion-dollar music industry in South Korea that has passed through national and international borders. Behind the cute, innocent image that K-pop generally has, no one would expect a world of corruption, sexual assault, and drugs.

This year, multiple singers, such as Jung Joon-young, Seungri (Lee Seung-hyun) from Big Bang, Roy Kim, and other stars made headlines as it was revealed that they had been caught filming explicit footage of women without consent, allegedly procuring prostitutes for business purposes, or allowing such content to be dispersed in a private group chat.

This issue only made it to the headlines because huge celebrities got caught. Little do people know, these kinds of things happen regularly in South Korea. There have been tons of cases where a person's partner would film their sexual activity, whether it is with or without consent, and would use it to blackmail their partner after the relationship ended.

In an interview conducted by the YouTube channel called Asian Boss, a woman stated that illegally filmed sex videos of normal Korean people could be found with a simple Google search. This goes to show how simple it is to be exposed and to ruin a person's life.

Pornography is actually illegal in South Korea, but, ironically, this has led to a porn/spy-cam endemic, in which hidden-camera recordings, also known as "molka" in Korean, are created and distributed illegally.

Spy-camera technology has become incredibly advanced, as you can see in this Asian Boss video. Korea's top spy-cam hunter, Son Hae Yeong, went into detail as to how serious this issue is in South Korea's society.

If you watch the video, you can see how shockingly easy it is to hide a spy-cam. Simple things, such as Coca-Cola bottle, clothes hanger, a Pringles can, and a pen, can hide a spy-cam, and these can be found everywhere, like hotels, subway stations, and restrooms.

With the rise in popularity of the hidden-camera issue, another that has come to light is misogyny. Particularly, women are not viewed as equals but as conquests that men have sexual relations with, with the intent of showing off their capabilities as men.

The celebrities who were involved in the sex scandal had a group chat where they shared illegally taken sex videos. In one of the chats, Jung Joon-Young reportedly replied, "You raped her haha" in response to a hidden cam video. This shows his lack of respect for women.

South Korea is a patriarchy filled with double standards and destructive gender relations. It's the 21st century, and women are still degraded and suffer violence, objectification, and degradation.

In another interview with Asian Boss, a woman stated that the scandal was going to be a "major turning point" because "the issue of feminism has been on the rise, and finally, active investigations are taking place. These illegal spy-cam cases keep getting exposed, like the scandal involving Jung Joon-young...I think this scandal reveals the current state of women's rights and the uncovering of shady activities in the Korean entertainment industry."

In light of the scandals and uncovering of the spy-cams, let's hope that positive change can be sought not only for men or women but for everyone in South Korea.