They’re open to that criticism now. People question their voting affiliation now. There are many people that get exemptions for various reasons. The current National Assembly, I read a third of them did not serve. Exemptions are given for winners of domestic music competitions, for what is considered high culture. what Hybe is asking for is that popular culture be treated the same. for instance during covid musical theatre and high cultural musical performances were treated differently than pop culture performances. The exemption talk is part of a greater push for pop culture to be viewed as equal as high culture. Bang PD spoke about that with the transition committee.

No one talks about how the pansori winner who is exempted opened himself up for criticism or Son Heungmin or the speed skaters who win at the Olympics. It’s easy to see how these are driven by a largely misogynistic point of view where male dominated fields of entertainment or high culture is treated differently than the things women enjoy.