Some may know the artist and actor David Choe from Netflix’s new black comedy Beef (2023), released earlier this month, and others may remember him for becoming a multi-millionaire after accept shares instead of monetary payments from Facebook for a mural commissioned at their Palo Alto headquarters in 2005. Both of these accomplishments are currently in the background as a segment from a 2014 podcast has resurfaced in which Choe describes sexually raping a masseuse in a salon massage.
In the episode of DVDASA podcast, which he used to co-host with adult film star Asa Akira, Choe says he forced a masseuse named “Rose” to perform oral sex on him after he started masturbating during the massage. . Between laughs, Akira immediately called him out and said he was “a rapist” after Choe said it was “the thrill of maybe going to jail” that turned him on, to which he replied, “Yeah, a successful rapist.”
A few days after the segment went live, Choe wrote a statement defending himself on the podcast’s webpage on April 18, 2014 in which he alleges that the story he told was totally untrue. “Never thought I would wake up late afternoon and hear myself being called a rapist,” Choe wrote. Choe went on to say that the podcast is “not a representation of [his] reality” and called it “the art that sometimes offends people”, commenting that “all rapists should be raped and murdered”. In a 2021 profile in the New York TimesChoe again addressed the podcast, saying, “I’ve never raped anyone.”
Last week, investigative journalist Aura Bogado drew attention to the podcast segment on social networks by following Beefis a general success. Choe has since reached out to Twitter to get the clip removed for copyright reasons, catalyzing a new Streisand effect. fans of Beef and other productions from the show’s executive producers and co-stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, who were friends with Choe and invited him into the cast, are demanding an answer. Neither Wong nor Yeun have publicly commented on the matter.
The 2014 DVDASA The podcast segment isn’t the only instance in which Choe has vividly depicted scenes of rape and sexual assault. A 2009 article on the San Francisco-based arts and culture magazine Juxtapoz included text from Choe’s blog posts during his trip to China for a solo exhibition where he described a trip to a mall and being in an elevator with Chinese women in miniskirts that he wanted to flirt with. “I had so much cum in my brain, I mentally fucked and raped every woman in sight, I didn’t know (sic) what to do,” Choe wrote. (The text is no longer on Juxtapozbut Hyperallergic was able to access it via the rollback machine.) In 2010, Choe starred in a VICE Media online series titled How to hitchhike across America: bravo, some sections of which can currently be viewed on YouTube. “I almost got raped twice, so hopefully that doesn’t happen,” Choe said in the first minute of the first season in reference to his previous days of hitchhiking. “But I was a lot leaner and sexier back then. You know how many victims of sexual abuse gain weight to feel unattractive and unsexy, so hopefully they’ll leave us alone this time. Hyperallergic reached out to VICE Media And Juxtapoz for comment.
The current controversy around the Netflix series isn’t the first time Choe’s statements have been cited as grounds for cutting ties with the entertainer. In 2017, Choe was commissioned by real estate company Goldman Properties for an exterior mural on the wall between Houston Street and Bowery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Many artists and activists discovered Choe’s DVDASA were horrified that it was commissioned and the mural vandalized and tagged with the word “RAPIST”, after which it was whitewashed. Conservator and activist Jasmine Wahi staged a ‘No Means No’ protest at the site of the mural after it was painted, urging protesters to place a red handprint on the fresh slate ‘to commemorate those who would not necessarily have had the chance to speak about their victim status or their survival.
At the time, Choe took for instagram to provide a statement attributing his remarks to his mental illness. “Nonconsensual sex is rape and it’s never funny or appropriate to joke around,” Choe wrote in the caption of her post on June 16, 2017. “I was a sick person at the height of my mental illness and I have spent the last 3 years in mental health facilities healing myself and dedicating my life to helping and healing others through love and action.
To date, Choe has not issued a public statement in response to the renewed controversy over his comments. Neither Choe, Netflix, nor the producers of Beef responded to Hyperallergicrequest for comment.
