My previous thread was to point out that enlistment is a fact of life in Korea, and their fellow enlusted peers are ordinary people like us. HOWEVER, the ministry and those in power are another issue. The article here talks about musical performances in the barrocks. (2/n)

The said previous thread

Back to musicals. There are several concerns with these musicals, and I will elaborate further below. 1. The actors/idols are not given enough resources while rehearsing 2. The actors/idols are not compensated for their work 3. The actors/idols are not given creative freedom

Before I elaborate, I want to make this clear: I do not wish to fear monger. My goal is to gently inform the iarmy of what has happened in the past. I want to give this context so that if in the future it looks as if the karmy are making (seemingly) a counterintuitive (4/n)

decision, the iarmy will have this added layer to understand why. I do not give false comfort; we are still in a tricky situation so long as the gov doesn't respect the boys for their artistry and only sees them as gold egg laying goose (5/n)

1. Not enough resources I deliberately used the word "resources" to mean multiple things: time, safety equipment, musical equipment, etc. They are all necessary for the boys to stay true to their unwavering commitment to high quality performance and also (6/n)

to ensure that they are not put in a position where they end up hurting themselves. Remember the goose metaphor. This is a recap of what one of the actors went through. He was forced to perform after a major injury.

(I am doing such a bad job with numbering the tweets ugh.) And the ministry - they are a bloody defense ministry and despite profitting from these militarty musicals, they show no inclination to respect the arts. Just look at what the enlistement office said +

about how popular music should not be given exemption because it is only pop music. I am NOT a multi, I am NOT a fake fan trying to get army to stan other groups (which I have been accused of). It is only that to these people, pop music is pop music, not smth to be respected

So we are in a tricky position where we have to prove that we support the boys, but not at the cost of mistreatment of the boys. We have to show them that we won't gobble up everything because it has the boys name slapped across it. Not if it means the boys were

forced to rehearse without the necessary means to keep them safe. Not if they are forced to rehearse injured. Not if they were forced to put out smth perfect when the ministry didn't give them the time to prepare for it.

Do you see what I am trying to say here? The ministry finally has their greasy fingers on the largest goose they will ever get a hold of, and the current administration showed no qualms about using the boys for their profit. We saw it at busan with the first concert site.

When I first started making these threads, the karmy were accused of turning their backs on the boys because we showed concern over the concert site. We did not withdraw our support, but we had to recognize that there were multiple stakeholders involved +

who did not care for the safety of the boys and army. Something like this will continue to happen. We need to stay informed and know these context.

2. No compensation The boys will not be compensated for their work. As soldiers they receive monthly income, but around 500 dollars. They may receive some benefits, but that is it. As soldiers they are not allowed to make money (they will receive royalty from previous work +

but any work done during enlistment cannot be for profit) But now, these musicals are easily 100 dollars per ticket. Guess where all that money goes. Yup. To the ministry. The ministry does not need to pay the boys, they are not required to invest in the performance itself -

as I said, the biggest fucking gold egg laying goose they will ever get.

Again, what I am trying to say is we have to be smart about what we consume and support. We don't consume photos from saesang not because we don't love the boys but precisely because of it; we want the boys to enjoy their time without stalkers. We don't consume

racist or xenophobic articles from the Western media. We have to be smart about it.

3. Lack of creative license The military musicals used to, less so now, have very nationalism-propaganda-messages. Cause the ministry puts them on. Maybe you are ok with it, but eh.... I don't know guys. I dont feel comfortable with that kind of message.

And the boys most likely won't have a lot of control over it. The enlistment system is extremely outdated, and this is honestly a massive tangle of ISSUES. I can't hope to cover them all in here, but I at least wanted to have this thread ready for the future.

Support the boys, but in a way that doesn't lead to massive exploitation. However, there are some good news. Two comforting facts that 1) the ministry technically cannot "force" the boys to perform (they can pressure I think but silver lining)

2) if the boys slightly space out their enlistment and go to different places (marine, army, air force, etc) the resepctive departments will have to squabble it out to allign the schedule. And we know how these government agencies communicate ;)

Thats it folks! Very summarized update (Also final note: some asked if we can know where they are dispatched. I personally don't think it is a good idea for safety concerns, and some kccasions they cannot say for security reasons.)