“Should I drop this show?” There is a serious debate over a controversial line in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”
The drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” is embroiled in controversy with its lines.
Woo Young-woo’s line in the 10th episode of the ENA Wednesday-Thursday drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” which aired on July 28th, is embroiled in a controversy among netizens.
In the 10th episode, Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin) took charge of the lawsuit of Yang Jung-il (Lee Jung-won), who was indicted for quasi-rape against Shin Hye-young (Oh Hye-soo), an individual with intellectual disability.
Shin Hye-young and Yang Jung-il met at a meeting for the disabled and developed into lovers. However, the problem happened when a non-disabled person had sexual intercourse with an intellectually disabled that has the developmental age of a 6th-grade elementary school student, which led to Yang Jung-il being accused of quasi-rape.
Yang’s side argued that it was consensual sex, not sexual assault, until the end, but Yang Jung-il was still arrested as the judge gave him two years in prison. It is known that this case in the 10th episode was adapted based on a true story.
The part that netizens are debating about was a scene where Woo Young-woo asked Shin Hye-young to testify and said, “Even the disabled have the freedom to fall in love with a bad guy.”
Shin Hye-young said, “He didn’t commit sexual assault. My mother made me say so. My mother hates men. She doesn’t like him because she says he’s like a swallow,” she said, pleading Woo Young-woo not to let Yang Jung-il go to prison.
Woo Young-woo said, “Even disabled people have the freedom to fall in love with a bad guy. It is up to Shin Hye-young to judge whether what she experienced was love or sexual assault. Don’t let your mother and the court decide it instead.”
After the episode was aired, netizens have criticized Woo Young-woo’s line, saying it was an advice that blurred the nature of sexual assault cases against the disabled. It’s not something a lawyer with high-functioning autism should be telling to an intellectually disabled person with a developmental age of 13.
After the scene, Woo Young-woo and Lee Joon-ho even kissed, and the criticism intensified. Some even accused the writer of using Shin Hye-young’s case as a tool to emphasize the main couple’s love.
Twitter users are arguing fiercely over the issue.
Netizens who expressed displeasure with the lines, said, “I’m dropping ‘Woo Young-woo’. I really enjoyed watching it, but it’s uncomfortable to see it glorifies grooming crimes (sex crimes committed by perpetrators after establishing relationships with the victims)” and “If you look at the sexual violence figures related to intellectually disabled people in Korea, I don’t think we should solve today’s episode like this. Of course, he was punished. However, if it is concluded that it’s hard for people with disabilities to love, Shin Hye-young’s sexual violence case will be distorted,” and “Woo Young-woo, who is a person with high-functioning autism, should not project herself onto a disabled female with the mental age of a 13-year-old.”
In addition, “If the victim is a vulnerable like a disabled person, and the actual problem is enough to be made into an episode like that, there should be a clear ending for it. Otherwise, I think it’s better not to deal with children or people with disabilities in episodes 9 and 10 this week,” and “Honestly, isn’t the situation different between the victim, who has the mental age of a 13-year-old, and the high-functioning autism Woo Young-woo, who can even be a lawyer? In reality, 13-year-old non-disabled people have little judgment ability,” this person pointed out.
On the other hand, netizens who claimed there was nothing wrong, said, “I don’t think it’s enough for us to quit the show. I felt that they want to show the story from various angles. If she was simply trying to say that people with intellectual disability has the right to love a bad guy, she would not have included her psychological counseling opinion in the beginning,” they countered.
These netizens also said, “I personally don’t think dramas offer answers. Although the drama shows the ending of a court ruling, it does not mean to say that the answer is right or wrong. I think this drama plays a role of giving us the reason to think about such cases at least once,” adding, “It is wrong for children to be kidnapped or non-disabled people to use the disabled. That’s why they were both sent to prison. If the writer really tried to defend them, Woo Young-woo would have won the trial,” they claimed.
Source: wikitree
