Shaun Under Fire For Allegedly Glorifying Prostitution And Objectifying Women

A Korean netizen has pointed out the inappropriateness of the lyrics to Shaun’s “Remember You”, the title song from the same album as “Way Back Home”.

According to the netizen, the lyrics are about a man who falls in love with a sex worker and asks her to run away with him. A part of the lyrics goes like this:

They say you’re an ahgassi
They say you’re just trying to get my money
We already know
Let’s run away and find love too
I want you

*The term “ahgassi” is sometimes used to refer to women who work at bars, attending to their customers by serving drinks, entertaining them and sometimes even more.

The netizen suggested a few points as to why these lyrics were absolutely inappropriate.

• The lyrics were about prostitution
• The song is not rated 18+ meaning pre-school and elementary school students alike are able to listen to the song
• Prostitution is clearly illegal but the song justifies this
• The lyrics suggest that the man is in love with the woman, but objectifies the woman by calling her “empty-headed” or mentioning that she is merely after his money
• This was Shaun’s title song

Some netizens agreed with the netizen’s argument and expressed their disappointment in Shaun, yet again.

• “This is really disappointing. It’s gross.”
• “Actually there are a lot of songs that are shocking and suggestive but I think the problem here is that it wasn’t rated 18+.”
• “I regret listening to the songs of that kind of person and defending him when people were criticizing him. I’m embarrassed.”
• “Yea even if it didn’t mention the part about targeting his money, the lyrics make me think of that kind of bar. Wanting to escape from pouring glasses, thinking of you even when sitting next to other men, etc. It sounds like a woman who works at one of those bars wanting to escape her job by seducing a man…”
• “I wonder if it comes from his own experience. The song is not at all impressive and I’m not moved.”
• “The person who wrote the lyrics and the person who received the lyrics and sang the song are both terrible.”
• “This is dirty.”
• “Gross…”

Other netizens didn’t seem to think there was much of a problem with the lyrics and simply took it as another attack on Shaun.

• “I understand that you don’t like it but is it really something to criticize him for? A lot of BIGBANG’s songs portray sexual relations in a figurative way and could cause a problem. Just let people express themselves through art freely. People change the content to Webtoons to suit their taste and ban songs, enough already.”
• “Is there a problem…? You could have just thought there was no glamorization and it was written as it, and just let it be.”
• “How is this referring to prostitution? It’s just a love story about a woman working in the adult entertainment industry. There are plenty of movies and dramas about this kind of story. Please, I beg the teenagers of today to educate themselves a little more…Are women who work in the adult entertainment industry not allowed to fall in love? Lol you guys are ridiculous.”
• “Those who criticize Shaun must all be young kids with no social experience. There are a lot of songs about drugs or crime. You guys just don’t know because you only listen to idols’ music.”

And of course, some netizens referred back to Shaun’s sajaegi accusations.

• “I hope that after this incident, everyone who does sajaegi fails.”
• “If it was the title song that climbed the charts, it’s more understandable. But since the title song didn’t even become and issue and his other song become no.1, it’s about time his dirty title song became an issue lol.”
• “I guess Shaun thinks it’ll work if he files a lawsuit lol. Now that I think of it, how come Nilo said he would file lawsuits too and now there’s no news of it?