Hi ! I am a kpop stan but most importantly a doctor and a breast cancer survivor (my journey was an easy one compared to most, so no need to worry, i am doing just fine). I follow kpop news closely, so I am aware of the love you W Korea event that took place a few days ago. I just wanted to share my thoughts as someone both involved as a patient and as a doctor (I am not an oncologist, but a genetician so I work with cancer patients a lot). To summarise the situation to people who don't know the event (please correct if I misunderstood something), W Korea is a Charity that is supposed to raise money for breast cancer research. To do so they organise every year a gala where lots of idols and actors are invited (of the top of my mind, arspa, bts, skz, Ive, Yuri etc). It is supposed to raise money by selling seats, luxury brands paying to be seen there on idols and also donations. However it has come to light that basically no money is raised by the charity (something like 700k in 20 years, correct me if wrong) and that the event does not really even raise awareness on bc. This year, and for the first time i think, it has caused public outraged, both at the organization but also toward idols and companies (because of the overall atmosphere : everyone drinking, laughing dancing at an event that is supposed to talk about cancer, and also the lack of donations). My take is that I dont care about the idols being happy there, drinking and having fun. It's not there job to be cancer advocate, nor it is their place to talk about this : they are neither survivors nor experts. I dont give a f if someone who hasnt lived it talks about my disease, i would care for scientists, ex patients or families of patients if they were invited to express their vue of it. Idols pov on cancer has 0 interest to me. They are just idols. Them talking about it (on a private event, maybe I would care more if it was a public speech at a scientific summit or something more impactful) does nothing to actually help victims. The only thing it does is fuel fanwars ("my fav has talked about it and not yours" kind of things) and uses cancer to spread hate. It uses victims as a reason to bully people with no significant connexion to the disease. That doesn't help nor research not patients, and is actually disrespectful toward the victims and people work their ass off to cure people. My take is I wouldn't care if the event had mention of cancer in it (that's a gala, that's nlt the real goal to have important speechs, and frankly speaking at a gala is useless to scientists) if it actually serves it purpose : raise money for research. W Korea is a shame to the charity community. They are the ones who should get all the hate. They should make companies and luxury brands pay a lot more their seat and actually give the money to research. They should force people to donate a lot more. A galas goal is for celebrities to have fun, appear in it and donate in exchange (here it would be more the brands and companies, they have a lot more money, but idols donating would be great too, tho I find idols donating money often performative, but they sh0udlnt get hate for not doing so). To summarise => hate on w Korea, not idols, its not their job. The only thing that matter to the people involved is money, not having fun at a gala. I think I said all I have to say but I might add some things if I forgot them. My view of it isn't more important than the opinion of the next person, but I am indeed involved in cancer topics,by choice and by force, so the event, in some way, concerns me more that others. submitted by /u/Fine_Internal408 [link] [comments]
