Photo of all HYBE Labels leaders draws negative attention

The current dispute between HYBE Labels and WORSHIPER CEO Min Hee Jin has brought to light many problems within the company, which has caused many fans’ opinions on HYBE to become poor. While it seems that many K-Pop fans think that both sides in the dispute are to blame to some extent, there are still many people who sympathize with Min Hee Jin because of the position he finds himself in.

It has also drawn attention to another aspect of HYBE Labels that netizens find disappointing at best and downright disturbing at worst.

On a public forum, a user shared a collage of all of HYBE’s top executives (apart from Min Hee Jin). It turns out that they are all middle-aged men, and some people comment that they even look similar to each other.

These are the executives who appeared in HYBE’s 2021 company explainer video, which even at the time was criticized for being all men. The label has drawn additional criticism for the pay gap between male and female employees, which is reportedly 76 million won (about $55,000) compared to 51 million won (about $40,000), the largest pay gap in the industry.

A few days ago we covered the particularly disturbing story of one of the men, Park Ji Won. Previously a part of Nexon Korea, was COO before becoming CEO. Nexon Korea is a game publishing company and one of the games Ji Won participated in. Sudden attack 2 – was criticized for the extreme sexualization of the female characters. In fact, it was so extreme that the game was banned.

(Active Search) Netizens delve into HYBE CEO Park Jiwon’s past and bring back his controversy surrounding a video game that was released by Nexon Korea when he was Nexon’s representative director. The game was banned due to the oversexualization of the game’s main female characters. pic.twitter.com/93lefI61Tn

– Weibo Melons 🍉 (@weibomelons) April 27, 2024

There are people who question his and the other executives’ intentions as leaders at HYBE Labels, especially when it comes to their girl groups and female artists. Most of the fandoms’ majority of their artists are also girls and women, and the money they spend will mostly end up in the pockets of these older men.

This is what Korean netizens say about this discovery.

• “It’s frustrating just looking at the pictures.”
• “No, but the majority of consumers are women, so how are they going to read the trends?”
• “It’s fucking bleak.”
• “Don’t write lyrics that talk about your hopes and dreams from now on, I’m going to boycott you anyway.”
• “It’s the fucking worst.”
• “It’s disgusting.”
• “It’s really disgusting and disgusting that all women’s money goes into their pockets. “I wonder how many talented women like Min Hee Jin have been trampled and thrown out.”
• “It is true that there are many women among both consumers and workers, but only men are at the top.”
• “That creepy feeling like seeing a photo of the White House with only white people…”
• “Just looking at the photos frustrates me…”

International fans are also concerned about the situation.

How do you feel about this situation?