Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Yesterday, the HYBE/ADOR conflict continued in court with the injunction lawsuit brought by Min Hee Jin against HYBE. Two of the topics broached were HYBE claiming Min Hee Jin had disparaged the NewJeans members and that she had mismanaged a sexual harassment claim and disrespected women in the process.
While a couple examples were made public, they didn’t seem to make much of an impact. However, YouTuber Lee Jin Ho is reporting that others were presented in court but were censored at Min Hee Jin’s request, and that he has the censored messages. Needless to say, they figure to be much more impactful.
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In a conversation between Min Hee Jin and a male ADOR exec about a sexual harassment complaint, she rants about working with young girls in the company.
Lee Jin Ho said, “Earlier this year, HYBE received a report about a sexual harassment and bullying incident involving a female employee within ADOR. Back then, the deputy CEO suggested, ‘Wouldn’t it be better to go with a young woman?’, and took the young female employee to a drinking party with employees from a partner company to create a lively atmosphere. Later, the men left the scene together, leaving the woman alone, making her feel a sense of embarrassment, so she reported the issue to HYBE. HYBE conducted an official investigation in March and concluded that it was a communication problem, and issued a warning as the solution.”
At that time, CEO Min sent the male ADOR executive a message regarding the woman involved in the incident, saying, “XX, go try to off yourself”.
In another text message, the CEO Min wrote, “This is why I hate working with young girls. They can’t do anything but always whine, annoy me, and look tired. They don’t have responsibility at all… These women, I hate them so badly even though I’m a woman. They think and talk lightly about the world and they’re always lazy. Their vision is narrow… They envy me, saying they would never become successful if they worked to death like me. XX girls”.
Regarding writing a NewJeans acceptance speech, she complains about them getting fat, not knowing anything, and singled out a specific member for her weight.
The message [from CEO Min] said, “Just tell them to say they will be humble all the time, as I’m making sure they’re gaining popularity even when they get fat like pigs. If they pretend to be cool while saying impressive things, but don’t greet me, I might want to kill them.” She also says, “What do they know? They just look in the mirror.” and “They didn’t hit big because they’re good.”
Lee Jin Ho added, “In particular, she even made disparaging remarks about a certain member’s appearance, mentioning her real name.” The text message released said, “I scold these fat stupid kids for not losing any weight.” and “Wow, OO, fat XX (member’s name).”
She even reportedly took aim at NewJeans’ fanbase.
There are also disparaging messages about NewJeans’ fans. “Watching brainless kids going crazy calling themselves fans,” the messages said.
Lee Jin Ho says the evidence he presented was confirmed through HYBE’s audit.
So far, the pushback against this reporting involves Lee Jin Ho’s reputation as more of a cyberwrecker type of YouTuber, and Min Hee Jin accusing HYBE of unfair editing and piecing together the texts, claiming that they are being shown without the consent of the auditee.
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I’ve mentioned before that public perception regarding this conflict has trended closer to neutral in the time since Min Hee Jin’s press conference, but she’s still managed to avoid anything majorly damaging up until now. However, if these are all legit convos, I’d be shocked if she was able to avoid any backlash at all for these since they cut opposite to what she built her image on with the public.
Regardless, assuming the texts are true, Min Hee Jin being dismissive of a young female employee being uncomfortable in the cited environment and constantly shaming teenagers for their weight and belittling them would just be terrible. In any private convo expose, you expect some candid thoughts that most wouldn’t say publicly, but these reveal something far more than that.
