Goo Hara, Sulli and now Moonbin: What’s behind the media deaths in K-Pop?

In recent years, there has been more discussion about suicide among South Korean pop (K-Pop) artists, a topic that would have gotten out of the hands of the companies that control the industry. In 2020, the former member of the Kara group, Goo Ha-ra (28), was also found alive in what was a suicide. In Months earlier that same year, Goo-Hara’s friend and also a singer, Sulli, was found dead in her apartment in Seongnam. The same happened with Jonghyun from the ‘boyband’ SHINee, in 2017. These events, which worry K-Pop fans around the world, motivate a question: What is behind the suicide of a media person?

harsh demands

The connoisseurs of the K-Pop scene are not surprised by the impositions of the main music companies for the artists, subjected to aesthetic and behavioral requirements such as maintaining a specific weight, being pleasant and tender, not swearing, training hard; etc

Can these demands motivate the suicide of a public figure? Álvaro Valdivia, director of Sentido: Peruvian Center for Suicidology and Suicide Prevention, and a specialist in mental health promotion and suicide prevention, ruled out the existence of a single cause that led to this decision.

“Suicide is multicausal. People who decide to end their lives do not do it for one reason, they do it for a host of reasons. Media pressure can be a triggering factor, it can be one more factor that, together with others, (such as) personality, previous experiences and other things we don’t know, make them reach this moment in their lives.”, he assures.

The demands of the South Korean industry of which these people were part are common elements to analyze the case. Belonging to the same artistic and personal exhibition system is, according to Valdivia, a point to evaluate, especially when related to the so-called “vulnerability to stress”; that is, how a suicidal process is built, in which the person is continuously exposed to risk factors.

“For these people who have a lot of followers, a lot of exposure, and a lot is expected of them, this factor of public exposure has a much more important and distressing meaning than for the rest of the population.”, admits the specialist, although he acknowledges that this is not a circumstance only of Asian culture. “Regardless of culture, anyone who is that high profile already has enough pressure and the ways to deal with it are different. If the industry in which they work, in addition to that, demands many things or demands to always be well, it is a factor more“, Explain.

Find responsibilities

Valdivia indicates that more than 95% of suicides happen by a voluntary decision. Another smaller percentage corresponds to people with psychiatric problems that distance them from reality, such as severe schizophrenia or drug addiction. Despite this, the relatives of the suicide ─also called “loss survivors”─ undertake a tough grieving process that leads them to look for those responsible who often do not exist.

Goo Ha-ra’s followers, for example, blame her ex-boyfriend Choi Jong Bum for her death for physically and sexually assaulting her during their relationship, as well as threatening to release intimate images. The depression that this event caused her would have intensified after the death of her friend Sulli de ella, who also died by suicide. These risk factors are valued by Valdivia as “extreme”, since they could prompt the singer’s decision. ”People who are grieving suicide have a very high chance of developing suicidal ideation as well. Probably, she felt exposed, she felt misunderstood and this hard event has made her feel bad too.“, Explain.

Although Valdivia believes that these events could have put more pressure on the artist, she does not consider it healthy to look for guilty parties.

“In mourning for suicide, there is a need to hold accountable. There is guilt, anger, anxiety. When there are fans who see everything she’s been through, of course they can put on a giant fight; but that will not ease the grief of the person who stays”. Rather, he advises that “To grieve for suicide, you must accept and forgive the person who left. That is very difficult when one is trying to blame others, because she already made her decision.”.

Can we speak of a “contagion”?

What is speculated to be a wave of suicides within the Asian music market would not be so far-fetched. According to suicidology research, there is a phenomenon called “psychological contagion” that affects certain populations or certain contexts to a greater extent; as in the case of a suicide of someone highly mediated and the way to report this death in the media. The case of the South Korean ‘idols’ fits these parameters.

Possessing popularity on a large scale, the extent of these stars’ actions—even their own deaths—are seen by a huge number of people. Within this public, there are even other famous figures who could use this fact to enhance their already existing suicidal ideas, but not create them. “It is completely false that one person puts the idea of ​​suicide to another. What can happen is that a person who has already thought about it, who is more predisposed and more sensitive, could generate a greater burden, only if there was a story before. But that by reading a newspaper, an idea appears in my head, is a myth”, affirms Álvaro Valdivia.

***

“Each head is a world,” says the song. We cannot know the true causes of a suicide, even more so of those who committed it in the midst of an environment of media and social pressure. In the case of Goo Ha-ra, Sulli, Jonghyun and all the stars who left of their own free will, whether they are K-pop or not, only their memory remains. And her songs.

Do you know someone going through this situation? You can contact line 113, option 5, 24 hours a day to receive guidance and information on the nearest Community Mental Health Centers.