Hidden in Plain Sight: The Plague of Misogyny by Minha Choi
South Korea is being lauded for its swift measures to contain COVID–19. Global news outlets praise our healthcare system and up-to-date technology that traces patients’ routes. But in April, a shocking bomb implodes within our small peninsula, an even more malignant disease that doesn’t even get half as much attention from foreign media—”Nth Room Case”. Modern slavery. 15,000+ users. When I read these words on the bus, my stomach drops. I look around as nonchalantly as possible and see three other passengers—all men—and the driver. They’re looking at their phones. One smiles a bit, scrolling through his screen. Involuntarily, my mind wonders how many “Nth Room” users could be on the bus with me that day, and I walk a little faster on my way home.
When people hear “South Korea”, they conjure up K-Pop tunes or tech giants like Samsung—cultural exports that make it a global leader. But one glance at the string of recent scandals reveals just how severely Korea is lagging behind when it comes to women’s rights. In fact, new technologies have worsened the issue, creating novel methods to exploit women and making it easier to hide these abuses in plain sight. Our country is currently being ravaged by the digital, anonymous misogyny lurking underneath the surface.
In “Nth Room” chats, Telegram app users blackmailed women to produce sexually degrading videos, with rooms organized for users to select their “category” for the night—as if they were picking a course from a dinner menu. Particularly disturbing is the “female child room”, with livestreams of adult men raping elementary-aged girls in a hotel. These minors were coerced by the threat of their videos being leaked to their family. I shudder whenever I’m
reminded that that could’ve been anyone—me—because the abusers derive pleasure from humiliating all women indiscriminately.
What’s worse: this isn’t unprecedented.
In 2018, the Burning Sun scandal exposed male celebrities who shared and “evaluated” pictures of naked women they’d drugged and raped.
Prior to that were spycams: cameras inside public bathrooms, invasive clips distributed for anyone to devour. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve used a public bathroom since then—and each time, if I see holes in the wall, I rip off tissue paper and stuff them. I stuff, and stuff, but after a while, it feels helpless: like they’ll never completely be blocked, like we’ll never stop being preyed upon.
All this is a harrowing exposé into how normalized and rampant female objectification has become in Korean society. So what must be done?
We need stricter laws; this is indisputable. In 2018, Son Jung-woo—founder of one of the world’s largest child pornography sites with over 8TB of files and 1,000,000 total downloads—received a mere 18-month sentence for his crime.
But this isn’t the root problem. Misogyny isn’t something children first encounter online—it’s an underlying sentiment they grow accustomed to as they see mothers, aunts, and grandmothers huddling around the kitchen every New Year, preparing hours’ worths of food, while the men surround the television. Such familial scenes perpetuate the notion that women are subservient, existing to satisfy men. These are the small stones that accumulate into hulking weights like sexual exploitation, oppressing Korean women every minute of their lives.
The toxic repercussions of this mindset were shown in a Korean Women’s Development Institute study, which found that young Korean men are more antifeminist than older generations, with 76% opposing feminism. This demonstrates that male awareness about women’s rights is in need of correction.
To be clear, it’s not that women aren’t speaking out—there’s been a surge of recent protests, like the Korean #MeToo. But even regarding the “Nth Room”, some blame is being directed at the victims: ”Their fault for clicking on a suspicious link,” or “They deserve it for posting nude pictures online”. Gendered labels are often used to disparage them further. Not only should there be legal ramifications for malicious comments, but knowledge about women’s issues must be implemented into schools and families. Women are raising their voices, and Korea must open its ears to bolster them.
Altogether, I find Aldous Huxley’s quote incredibly apt in this crisis: “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” With new technology should come social improvement, but women’s issues are constantly maligned, their rights violated through online mediums. Before this plague of misogyny becomes untreatable, we must employ the cure: stronger legislation, equitable education, and ultimately, a drastic shift in social perception.