Total War: How the MeToo movement developed in South Korea
Dmitry Kurkin
South Korea seriously took up the fight against harassment. In a country where, despite all social progress, century-long gender inequality persists, #MeToo did not simply resonate - it broke through the dam. Numerous cases of harassment and aggressive sexual behavior are revealed in politics and culture - and lead to loud resignations and public ostracism of figures that looked untouchable. Local activists for the rights of women are demanding tougher laws against harassment - and the top officials agree with them. Judging by how quickly events are developing, in South Korea, time has come out not only for aggressive misogyny: the country is ready to reconsider the fundamental ideas about the place of women in society. Or does it just seem?
On the highest level
The chronology of the Korean #MeToo in a brief retelling looks like this. In January, prosecutor So Ji Hyun spoke out against South Korea’s former prosecutor at the Justice Ministry of South Korea, telling about inappropriate behavior on his part; she notified her superiors about the harassment of the official back in 2010, but no one took action. In mid-February, famous theater director Yi Yun Tak was accused of numerous cases of awakening of young actresses, he fully admitted his guilt and declared his readiness "to incur any punishment, including criminal liability for his crimes."
In early March, the governor of the province of Chuncheon Namdo and potential presidential candidate in the elections of 2022, An Hee-yung announced his resignation shortly after his secretary Kim Ji-eun accused him of four cases of rape. Almost immediately after, country president Moon Jae Ying publicly supported #MeToo and urged to continue the fight against sexual violence and harassment, adding that Korean society "is on the verge of decisive change."
A few days later, three actresses were accused of rape and harassment by director Kim Ki Duk, a few months before he was found guilty of inappropriate behavior: on the set of the Mobius film he hit the actress (her name is not called) and forced him to play in the cruel sex scene , which was not pre-registered in the script, - then the director got off with a fine. The participants of #MeToo demand that this should not happen again - in their opinion, aggressive harassment and sexual violence should be punished much more severely, up to the maximum prison terms.
The above cases are the most resonant, but far from the only ones. The fight against harassment has affected all the institutions of a deeply patriarchal and conservative Korean society. Despite the Ministry of Gender Equality, founded in 1998 - or, in literal translation, the “Ministry for Women and Family Affairs” - it has a strict gender division (according to one version, it is inherited from Confucianism).
Gamer supervision
The recent progress that #MeToo has brought to South Korea is only the beginning of a long journey. Its own Korean gamergate, which broke out in the gaming industry last month, serves as the best illustration of the status quo against which Korean women are joining. After an employee of the Seoul-based developer company IMC Games Son Hye-jin subscribed to several feminist groups on Twitter, gamers demanded that she be fired for "following antisocial ideology." Son Hye Jin quickly unsubscribed from the groups, apologizing "for the irresponsible behavior that caused such problems." As if this were not enough, the head of IMC Games Kim Hak Kyu said that the actions of his subordinate were "just a mistake, not a crime," and thanked users for their "vigilant vigilance."
The company was immediately accused of misogyny, at the same time remembering the Korean game developers all previous cases of monitoring their employees, who under pressure had publicly renounced feminist views. Large business (and the annual turnover of the gaming industry in Korea is 4.2 billion US dollars) in Korea is still in no hurry to abandon the traditional hierarchy in which women are prepared to play second roles.
Place at the stove
In Korea, the cult of "homemaker" is still strong, the result of which, among other things, was discrimination based on marital status. It was only at the end of 2015 that they were forbidden to ask applicants when they were getting married. Moreover, the incorrect formulation of the question was not so much the bliss of HR-players as the result of statistics: according to surveys two years ago, half of women of working age are not involved in any profession - it is customary in the country to encourage marriage, not career.
Inequality has long annoyed Korean women and generates gender enmity on the Web, which is worth only the thematic community "Korean men - for five years in the army" (the current service life in the country is two years). But one thing - splat discontent on the Internet. Quite another is to openly rebel against the traditional hierarchy, knowing that any hint of belonging to the movement for equal rights can be a reason for dismissal and a wolf ticket that deprives of career prospects. This state of affairs of the Korean women is clearly not satisfied, and they do not intend to keep silent any further.
Photo: robepco - stock.adobe.com