Girl group MAMAMOO has justified the controversial elevator-kissing scene from the music video of its new song "Decalcomanie," which is the title track of the group's fourth and latest EP, "Memory." The music video recently faced criticism from fans due to its strong sexual assault theme.
MAMAMOO member Solar has now clarified that it was never the band's intention to encourage sexual abuse and the controversial scene was only meant to add some diversity to the video. The video features Solar, Moonbyul, Wheein, and Hwasa as femme fatales and follows the seductress theme.
The scene in question shows a man forcefully kissing Solar inside an elevator. She resists initially but later gives in as he holds back her hands and continues to kiss her into submission. Fans expressed their anger over the scene, calling it "inappropriate and accused MAMAMOO of romanticizing sexual abuse, according to AllKPop.
"We mentioned before that we've returned with a femme fatale concept, but out of the four kiss scenes, three of the members led the kiss," Soompi quoted Solar as saying during a media showcase for the album. "We wondered what it would be like if one kiss scene was different, so I went with a different concept."
Solar added that she liked how the video turned out, but failed to take into consideration that the different angles in the video could lead to different interpretations. While Solar's kissing scene was a part of the originally uploaded video on MAMAMOO's official YouTube channel, the group published a different version without the controversial scene on Nov. 7, Monday.
This is not the first time MAMAMOO has come under fire over the sexual assault theme of its songs. After they released the track "Um Oh Ah Yeh," many fans disapproved of certain scenes from the video, including the part where Solar tries to make out with an unconscious Moon Byul in the hospital and a scene that shows Hwa Sa forcing herself onto Solar on board an airplane.
