Recently, news about Oh My Girl members attending a festival at a university in Chungcheongnam-do on May 22nd spread rapidly in online communities. After their performance, the host of the event offered the water bottles that the members drank from as prizes for a talent show, which sparked the controversy.
Oh My Girl performed their hit songs for about 30 minutes. After their performance, the festival host initiated a talent show, using the water bottles that the members used during the performance as prizes, and distributed them to some audience members.
The host invited male students on stage and gave them the water bottles, specifying which member drank from which bottle. As videos of the scene spread in online communities, netizens poured criticism over the host’s inappropriate behavior, saying “This is clearly sexual harassment”, “I can’t understand why they did that”, “That’s so rude”, etc.
Regarding this, the host apologized through the university student council’s SNS account, saying “I apologize for distributing the water that Oh My Girl drank to students at the end of the festival. I mistakenly thought it would be a memorable gesture, but it caused discomfort. The students who participated in the talent show expected to receive a different gift, not the water bottles, and were surprised.”
The host added, “This incident was due to my poor judgment, so please direct your criticism at me, not the students. The students appearing in the video are being affected, so please stop sharing the videos. I sincerely apologize for my immature actions.”
The student council also apologized, “This incident was an unplanned action by the MC, not coordinated with the school or the performers. We sincerely apologize to Oh My Girl and their fans for the unexpected incident that occurred after the performance. Additionally, we deeply apologize to the students for damaging the university’s reputation as the organizing and managing body of the event. We promise to prevent such incidents from happening again and ensure thorough management in the future.”
This is not the first time Oh My Girl has experienced such an unpleasant situation at a university festival. In 2016, a male audience even made sexual harassment remarks toward Oh My Girl when the girl group appeared on the stage of Daegu University festival. Back then, there were still minor members in the group.
After the festival, a student wrote a post on social media intensely criticizing the man’s sexual harassment remarks and behaviors because middle school and high school students also attended the festival. As the issue sparked controversy, students of the school altogether expressed discomfort.
In response, Oh My Girl’s agency WM Entertainment stated, “To prevent this from occurring again, we plan to come up with measures to protect our artists from all aspects”.
After the 2016 issue, university festivals proceeded smoothly without problems for a long time. Therefore, the sexual harassment this time caused great disappointment and regret.
