Thread by @reappropriate

Beef producers and stars (finally) release statement on resurfaced r*pe self-account by David Choe in 2014 podcast.

variety.com/2023/tv/news/b…

In case you missed it, we wrote about Choe’s remarks back in 2014.

reappropriate.co/2014/04/did-ko…

We also contextualized the story within the larger problem of rape culture here, again written back in 2014.

reappropriate.co/2014/04/the-my…

Despite his misogynistic remarks, Choe went on to appear in several eps of UGLY DELICIOUS for Vice (including with Beef EP and co-star Steve Yeun) — which was widely lauded in the AsAm community for its rep of AsAm food culture — and to host his own show, THE CHOE SHOW for FX.

At the time, Choe called the story an exaggeration and an extension of his art. In 2017, he apologized for the story, confessed it was entirely fabricated, and that he was receiving mental health treatment.

instagram.com/p/BVbLZiCFxAa/…

Here is the statement released today to @Variety, as written about in their reporting.

Sitting with this statement for a second, I went offline to think about why I don’t feel satisfied by this timeline; because the fact is I don’t.

I don’t think the 2017 apology or this statement do enough to address how violent, misogynistic, and anti-Black the original remarks were or how his subsequent excuse of “art” only perpetuates how society delegitimizes stories of r*pe and discourages victims from coming fwd.

I don’t think the apology addresses how Choe has built his personal brand around embodying an edgy exaggeration of toxic masculinity and street culture, and that the entire reason he told the original story - true or not - was to perpetuate the mythos of that brand.

I don’t think that anything that has happened since 2014 has grappled with how Choe sought to build his brand by exploiting a tale of violence against a Black woman — figuratively (or literally?) co-opting the Black female body to bolster his own masculine status.

Nor do I think anything that has happened since 2014 had contended with the profound violence of both the original story as well as the subsequent abuse and harassment committed by Choe’s fans against feminists who pushed back in 2014 (and are doing so again now.)

I’m also hard pressed to contextualize the 2017 apology and his assertion that he has changed given that his appearance in UGLY DELICIOUS occurred after 2017, and his hypermasculine personal brand appears largely unchanged.

Remember, it’s in these episodes that Choe gleefully celebrates Yeun’s WALKING DEAD character, Glenn, for “fucking a white woman”. If Choe had done the personal work in 2017 to better understand how toxic masculinity perpetuates gendered violence, it’s not evident here.

Which brings me to today. I find the statement by Beef producers unsatisfying bc it comes too late and it feels like an attempt to end — not engage — the current and very necessary discourse we need to have around sexual violence and r*pe culture as it impacts the AsAm community.

As much as I hate the inciting incident, I have appreciated the broad engagement we’ve been having here on sexual violence and r*pe culture, and how those issues are deliberately overlooked in our hyperfocus on representational politics to the exclusion of all other issues.

That leads me to question — and especially as someone who believes in restorative justice — if this wasn’t enough, what would I see as a step in the right direction?

Again I land on the feeling that the 2017 apology and today’s statement both focus on Choe’s healing, but don’t engage enough with the original harm or accept accountability. They are not coupled with proactive efforts to engage with the community.

I think I would like to see efforts - by Choe and producers of BEEF - to actually speak openly, honestly and at-length about how this whole thing illustrates how intertwined toxic masculinity is with sexual violence. Engage - not end - the discourse.

I think I also I’d like to see proactive efforts to invest in groups who already have a long history of working on sexual and intimate partner violence in the AsAm community, and who are already doing the work of challenging r*pe culture. Too often, that work is overlooked by us.

I think taking these actions would sit better with me than a 3 sentence apology given to a mainstream media outlet.

Would it be enough? I don’t know. But it would be more of a start than this.

(Also, it doesn’t sit well with me that the apology and statement blame a story of sexual violence on mental illness. Mental health issues don’t need to be further stigmatized — most ppl with mental illness aren’t violent.)

Shout out to my partner J for helping me work through the thoughts that became this thread. Love you. ❤️