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A South Korean actor’s revelation that he fathered a toddler with a lady to whom he isn’t married has triggered a nationwide debate over superstar conduct and non-traditional household constructions.
Jung Woo-sung, a 51-year-old A-lister in South Korea’s movie trade, confirmed through his company on Sunday that he’s the daddy of 35-year-old mannequin Moon Ga-bi’s new child son.
While Jung pledged to “fulfil his responsibilities” 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.
But some progressive voices have defended Jung, noting a shift in South Korea’s attitudes in the direction of various household constructions.
Moon introduced her youngster’s start through Instagram on Friday, with out mentioning the daddy, describing the being pregnant as “unexpected” and saying she had been “completely unprepared for the sudden news”.
Two days later, Jung’s company Artist Company launched an announcement confirming that “the baby Moon revealed on her social media is Jung Woo-sung’s son”.
The assertion additional famous that Jung and Moon had been “discussing the best way to raise the child”.
It triggered outrage that shortly unfold throughout the nation, triggering a slate of opinion items in tabloids, spurring on-line debate and eliciting feedback from nationwide politicians.
Online, the response was largely vital in the direction of Jung, whose prolific movie profession has made him a family identify in South Korea.
Many commentators appeared to consider the actor had tarnished an in any other case upstanding and squeaky clear picture, with some expressing disappointment that the previous United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ambassador “can’t accept his own child”.
“Jung Woo-sung is pretending to be a good guy saying he will fulfil all his duty… A child does not grow on money alone,” wrote one commenter on Naver News, South Korea’s largest information combination web site.
“It’s not a problem not marrying after having a child. It’s that he pretended to be such an ethical person so far,” wrote one other.
Speaking to conservative information outlet JoongAng, an unnamed lawmaker from the right-wing People Power Party described Jung’s choice to have a toddler outdoors marriage as “something unthinkable in this country of social mores”.
“No matter how much the times are changing, Korea’s tradition and public sentiment must be kept (righteous),” the lawmaker mentioned.
A recent social survey by South Korea’s statistics agency found that 37% of people believed it was acceptable to have a child outside marriage – an almost 15% increase since 2012.
Of those who said marriage was necessary, more than 72% were above the age of 60 – with younger respondents increasingly less likely to take that view.
Other lawmakers have defended Jung, with Lee So-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying that “deciding to live with someone is a deeply personal and existential choice”.
“To assume that simply having a child obligates people to marry and take on the duties of cohabitation and mutual support feels suffocating,” Lee wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
“Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being ‘normal’… [But] even if society appears to have a standard of ‘normal’, every life is unique in its own way.
“Perhaps a better society is one that accepts and respects such differences without judgment,” she added. “That’s what I believe.”
Kyunghyang, a progressive major newspaper, put out an editorial piece noting that while some voices have pushed for traditional values, “additionally rising is the voice that our society should consider the varied 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 at this time is in opposition to [such] births.”
South Korea has a notoriously high-pressure leisure trade, with celebrities typically held to inordinately excessive social requirements and positioned underneath excessive scrutiny.
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