In the past two years, the domestic variety show "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves" has put the spotlight on mature women who have been marginalized by the show business circle, so it has received a lot of repercussions.
This year, a similar show in South Korea has just come to an end. The same attention to marginalized female stars, the same to give them another chance to appear on the stage, this show is even more heart-wrenching and uncomfortable.
Because these women who have been abandoned by the stage are only in their 20s on average, they have dreams of becoming members of the women's group, but now they are sick, relying on takeaway delivery, live broadcasting, and working in Internet cafes to earn money...
This variety show, which is known as the Korean version of "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves", is called "Miss Back". Unlike the domestic sisters who come from various fields of the show business circle, life is also very interesting, and the Korean version is full of helpless facts of Korean society.
The 8 sisters in the show are all idol singers, and some of them are members of the hot girl group of the year. In fact, they are not very old, but in South Korea, where the average life expectancy of the group is only 5 years, and the status of the girl group is very low, they have left the stage due to various injuries, bullying and accidents.
Less than 30 years old, still beautiful and talented, they were forced to live a "laid-off" life. Life is in a slump, can't find a job, relies on depressants to sustain life, is forgotten by the world...
This show is to help them reshape their lives and find themselves. When I watched the first two episodes, I really felt sorry for the situation of every woman. In Korea as a girl group, the fire is not hot to see the fate, sometimes it can be fatal. And these women who have been eliminated by the show business circle are the victims of this deformed industry.
For example, the experience of one of the guests, Jiaying, is simply unbelievable. Jia Ying is a member of the former girl group Stellar, 30 years old this year.
She has loved dance since she was a child, and has been a top student of dance until college, winning awards in various dance competitions in Korea, because she likes the stage she entered Stellar and started an acting career, who knows everything has become distorted.
Jiaying debuted when she and the members of the group were still young, at first the company positioned them as cute female high school students, but after two years of debut without splash, the company suddenly told them that they must take the sexy large-scale route.
In the case of minors in the group, they were asked to wear very revealing jumpsuits, almost as adult actors, filming 19 forbidden MVs, and making them make provocative moves.
Jiaying couldn't accept it at all, but the rules of the women's group at that time were to listen to the company. She was only told to wear very revealing clothes during filming, and Jiaying strongly refused. But I was asked, "How can you say that you don't wear it without wearing it?" ”
In the end, she was tricked into trying it on as long as she wore it, and when she was done, she changed into other clothes. Unexpectedly, this "try-on" photo was made public by the company that went against the grain. She and her members were targeted by South Koreans, humiliated by a flood of sluts, sexual harassment messages, and even death threats.
She was labeled a "meat seller", and even to this day, her younger brother as a professional baseball player is still called "Biaozi's younger brother" in the comments.
Jiaying thus developed a psychological shadow on her bare skin, and even in the summer she tried to wear dark long-sleeved pants, hating that others were staring at her legs, afraid of being attacked again.
Jiaying and her brother talked about the life of the former girl group
And the company, seeing that they still can't get red, gave up on them. In the 7-year women's group career, Jiaying hardly made any money, and on the show, she revealed that her activity fee for 7 years totaled only 10 million won, that is, 56,000 yuan.
After she left the group, her life was difficult, and people around her questioned her: Aren't you an artist, how can you not earn money? Jiaying can only live with her parents so far, and because she feels guilty about her parents, she earns money by working in a coffee shop every day, earning 10,000 won an hour.
She joked that being a waiter earns more than being a girl group.
Subtitles: TSKS
Now she barely relies on part-time work, and her dance learning for more than ten years is basically abandoned, she said, she has always missed the stage in her heart, but there is no other way out of life.
Jiaying's performance in the show
He had a similar experience with Jiaying, but the situation was worse than that of former girl group Nine Muses member Shi Luo. At the age of 33, she can earn a little by being a network anchor.
Shi Luo was very good as a child, whether it was studying or art and sports. Due to her family's good fortune, she was sent to Canada to study, but was severely racially discriminated against and bullied at school. In order to resist the bullying of her classmates, she joined the football team and became the head of the choir, but because she was too isolated and helpless, she suffered from bulimia, which soared to 70 kilograms.
In order to regain her self-confidence, she participated in the Korean idol audition, which unexpectedly led to more misfortunes. Her self-esteem was severely squeezed in the company, and Shiro, who was 168 in height, was disliked for "having too poor proportions", as long as she exceeded 48 kilograms, she would hear her agent say that "there is too much meat and think of a way"
Nine Muses, with Shiro on the far left
Over time, even I felt: "How did I grow up like this, I am too bad to be entitled to love." While the company humiliates female artists with her body, it also forcibly arranges sexy dress for Shi Luo and its members.
She is told to dance with garter, and from the video she is almost likely to wear no pants and only garter belt. As the captain of the team at that time, after putting on such clothes for the first time, he even heard the male staff on the scene say in the tone of watching a adult film: "This kind of picture has to be seen with wine." ”
Feeling humiliated, she could only shoot for a while and then go to the toilet and cry for ten minutes. As soon as the MV came out, south Korean netizens scolded them on the hot search, saying that they were "missing from their lower clothes" and did not have a face. Shortly after that, she was fired for not cooperating with the company, and still can't find a suitable job, and has long relied on bank loans to live.
Kicked out of the entertainment industry at such a young age, she suffered from severe depression and panic disorder and had to take her medication several times a day. Due to the side effects of taking medicine, she would unconsciously get up and overeat every night after falling asleep, and her life was extremely painful.
The rented one bedroom was small and across the bed was a daily live broadcast computer. Once such a good girl, she was tortured to the point of ruin.
In agony, she still insists on live streaming or filming videos every day, and Shiro says "I just want people to know I'm alive".
Shiro's performance on the show
Shi Luo's experience made another guest very sympathetic. T-ara's fourth captain, Joo-yeon, also participated in the show, although among the 8 sisters, she was the best in financial situation. However, the experience of being attacked by netizens for a long time, being followed by perverted bastards, and sexual harassment has also made her have long-term depression.
She said that when she was in the group, she knew that she had a mental problem, but she did not dare to go to the doctor. Because she is a female artist, if she often goes to the hospital, she will be ridiculed by netizens as "pretentious".
Korean audiences are more critical of the behavior of female artists, but they do not pay any attention to their living conditions. What is more ironic is that the two female idols mentioned above who were violently attacked by the Internet because of their sexy clothing, they were forced to shoot the 19 forbidden MV, but they had a super high number of hits.
While using female idols as toys, he also scolded them for not keeping the way of women, which is really a double standard to confuse the world. But if it's a cool girl route, will the female idols have a better life?
Nada was once a member of the WA$UP women's group, taking the european and American rebel route. South Korea does not like this route of the girl group, she was humiliated by netizen sluts for dancing electric hip dance. The company simply hid them in the snow.
Nada and the members have not worked for nearly 2 years, during the activities of the women's group, the company has never shown them the salary list, the money is very small, and often deliberately suppressed self-confidence by the company's senior management. When she received some personal notices, she was tried to block by the company on the grounds of violating the contract.
In two years, Nada almost spent time fighting with the company, and was scolded by netizens for "trying to blackmail the company's money". Although after leaving the group, Nada has acting work to do because of Rap ability and straightforward cool sister image, but it is only at the level of food and clothing.
She still lives in the damp semi-basement, and she has to squat on the ground to wash her face and take a bath. Nada is naturally more confident than her other sisters, and even if her life is not very good, she still wants to do something for other women.
She went to a notice that would give sanitary napkins to girls from low-income families, and she produced an album that encouraged women's self-confidence. She knew what was going on with her, and it would be with women from all walks of life.
At the peak of the K-pop, Korean idol companies sprung up like mushrooms, with uneven quality, and everyone wanted a piece of the pie. On average, a new girl group is launched in a few months, resulting in young people holding dreams to break in, but very few people really come out.
Arjun's group THE ARK was disbanded after only three months of activity, but she practiced for two years to get on stage. Obviously, she has super singing skills, but she did not have the opportunity to show.
After losing his idol job, he worked three or four jobs a day in order to continue singing. Ride around to deliver takeaways, then go to internet cafes to work part-time as waiters, and then work as part-time music teachers
From the age of 20, the day the group disbanded, she encountered an unemployment crisis. Every day since then, I have lived on part-time work, logistics companies, children's coffee shops, restaurant waiters have done. As for full-time stable jobs, even Koreans who have graduated from prestigious schools cannot be found, not to mention these idols who concentrate on practicing singing and dancing.
In addition to market saturation, there is also the problem of the company's operation.
After 6 years since her debut, she still has to keep accounts every day, worry about running out of money, and basically eat instant noodles every day. If it weren't for this show, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to get on the big stage again in my lifetime.
The same is true of former DallShabet's★Busy Nei Sobin, who traveled from Gwangju to Seoul in order to be a singer. Due to the poverty of his family, he has been living in the examination hall. Later, the group disbanded, and she was good at arranging music, so she had to live at home in order to have a studio to continue writing songs.
In their 20s, they are still young in other industries, but they are already "old people" in the women's group. As long as it is abandoned by the company at this time, it is more difficult to rise than to ascend to the sky. If you love the stage and don't want to change careers, it will be very painful.
This anxiety is the same for the famous girl group members. Crayon Pop's ZhaoYi, after marrying the famous boy band HOT's Wen Xijun, was labeled "Wen Xijun's wife".
Marriage and children are very happy, but she is not like her husband can continue to be active on the stage, ZhaoYi said, no one wants to see women who get married and have children do girl groups, so she has no career and is attached to her husband's life.
She really missed the feeling of shining on stage, but no one gave herself the chance.
After school and Orange Caramel's lead singer, Raina, has been highly popular in the first half of her career. But near the age of 30, she clearly felt marginalized.
She came out of the SOLO album as the lead singer, but the response was very general, and the company let her hurry up and finish the song within 1 month, and then there was no serious work for two or three years. She is obviously still very beautiful and has super singing skills, but she is defined as a "worthless person".
Compared to her once glorious career, Raina's 30 years are bleak. She was devastated to escape the status quo by indulging in games all night and turning her day and night upside down.
One report described the experience of Miss Back and 8 "female idols" - the Korean idol industry, that is, even if youth, hard work, tears and blood are invested, the success rate is only 0.001%, and most people cannot survive.
Perhaps "Miss Back" is a first step in freeing these women trapped in the idol industry, at least, there is a constant discussion about their experiences on the Korean network. People are starting to care about their ideas.
And when I saw these female artists who had a midlife crisis in their twenties and thirties confidently stood on the stage to encourage each other, sing their favorite songs, and pick up dances that had not been touched for many years, the scene was really touching.
In the last episode, the sisters all cried, everyone was glad to know each other in the same situation, and excavated their talents that were suppressed and ignored in the girl group, some people found a future route, and some people overcame psychological obstacles to live a healthier life.
The beauty of these 4 months is the beauty of being respected, being listened to, and being cared for. Sister Shi Luo sighed, "People like me can have such a good dream, and now that I have woken up from the dream, I am a little reluctant." ”
I hope that this ride on the wind and waves is not just a dream, but the beginning of the change of the girl group...