SHINee‘s vocalist Jonghyun addressed the accusations of him making a misogynistic statement on his radio show.

Late July 11 evening, Jonghyun posted to his Instagram, “I believe that one shouldn’t overreact to small happenings. I also think that the fundamental basis of a life of learning is that you should try to fully understand people’s views, and fix your wrong opinions. The reason why I’m posting this is because, as a man with a mother and a sister, there are talks going around of me being a misogynist and that I’ve said misogynistic statements. That is not true, but if those stories are going around and I stay quiet about it, some people will believe that I’m a misogynist who says misogynistic things. That would be a really big problem in my life, and a stain that I would not be able to erase.”

He continued, “I am not a misogynist nor did I say misogynistic things. If what I’ve said offended anyone, I want to know exactly what I said that has offended you, which is why I’m communicating like this. While talking about music on radio I said that women were blessed beings, and regarding this issue I will continue to post on SNS.”

He then took to his Twitter to post a transcript of a conversation between him and singer Nine of band Dear Cloud that has caused the controversy. In the recording, he said, “Women are blessed beings. They are the biggest inspiration to all artists. They make all poets write poems, all painters pant, and all singers sing.”

Regarding his statement, he tweeted, “What I said about women being blessed and the source of my inspirations doesn’t mean that they are below me.” He further continued, “People are wondering if I consider women as objects for the sake of creativity, but there’s nothing in the world that is used as objects for creation. One simply expresses what already exists through art.”

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