T-Ara and Hwayoung Scandals

Still on my "catch up" run.  Last year, T-Ara got caught up in a bullying scandal. I'm sure anyone who follows K-pop is aware of what happened since it was pretty much a huge deal.  Basically, there was a rumor going around that Hwayoung was being bullied, and then she left T-Ara.  That's the gist of the story.  There were the ever present "evidence" found by netizens to prove that Hwayoung was bullied, and then the official statements released by Core Contents Media (CCM), but they were standard.

Apparantly, the back story is that Hwayoung had gotten cocky after a while and her attitude had gotten nasty, which caused the other members enough frustration to mention it on Twitter.  This was part of the alleged bullying.

Now for my opinion.  There really wasn't much to the story, at first, I felt bad for Hwayoung and decided that I would support her and not T-Ara.  But then when the articles about her personality came up, I wasn't sure if I felt the same way.  You see, the evidence that the netizens dug up were videos and photos from variety shows.  I watch enough variety shows to know that it's not necessarily bad feelings that come out during the punishment segments, rather a group of people having fun at one person's expense.  It's actually quite common since the punishments are almost always either extremely painful or humiliating.

I no longer thought of the bullying as actual bullying. Maybe the members were just venting their frustrations. It's not like they chose her out of the blue to make her life a living hell just because they didn't 'like her.  It went a lot deeper than that.  She was becoming lazy and arrogant.  And whether or not you'd like to admit it, she was slacking on a job that's based on appearances.  Since she was in a group, her lack of discipline and humility would bring the whole group down.

In the end, the group and Hwayoung parted, with the latter giving a tearfilled apology.  I honestly can't see why she would apologize if she were wronged.  She didn't only apologize to the fans (which is normal in their culture) but she also apologized to the company, which indicates that she had indeed wronged them.

Now a days, though, Hwayoung is busy studying.  Studying what? We do not know.  She had taken a leave of absence from university to focus on her career, and so it may be that she's back in school.  However, she's also mentioned an interest in acting, so she may be studying for a role in a film or drama.  Either which way, I wish her the best of luck and hope that she maintains a good attitude this time around.