Women and girls in South Korea often designate the title of a “survivor” to themselves after a “mudjima beomjae” occurs near them. “Mudjima beomjae” translates to “do-not-ask crime” literally, or an unprovoked assault in English. This often takes place in the form of misogyny, such as in the case of the 2016 Gangnam Station femicide,1 where a young woman was murdered brutally in a public restroom. The murderer later said that he had intended to kill any random woman, simply because women had “always ignored him.” His statement sparked the hashtag #survived across students of nearby schools. This slowly transformed into activism for the official address of the discriminative attitudes women have to face in the country. Their logic lies here: Why do women still have to fear for their lives even in a public restroom in the 21st century, and be grateful for each day that they survive from such arbitrary misogynistic treatment?
Read More“So, when are you getting double eyelid surgery with her?” my aunt asked me half-jokingly. I didn’t know what to be more taken aback about: the fact that she was suggesting I get double eyelid surgery, or that the “her” she was referring to was her own daughter, who hadn’t even turned one yet. At a very alarming young age, girls in Korea are introduced to a world where beauty is prioritized above everything else, a society where looks determine your worth. Monolids aren’t considered beautiful, which is quite ironic considering the fact that monolids are more prevalent in Koreans than double eyelids. As a matter of fact, only about 32% of Koreans have congenital double eyelids. However, the problem doesn’t end with whether or not one has double eyelids – women must also be thin, have fair (white) skin, a v-shaped jaw, and a high, yet thin nose bridge.
Read MoreAs the month of May approaches, many South Koreans begin to prepare for celebrations and plan family gatherings and vacations. One may wonder, “What is so special about May?”. The truth is, it is known as the “family month”. With a series of family-oriented holidays such as Children’s Day and Parents’ Day, the month of May encourages many to spend time with their families. TV channels stream family-oriented programs and advertisements while store racks are filled with children’s toys and flowers. One special holiday, however, often goes unnoticed during this special month of May: Single Mother’s Day. Since the early 2010s, some have begun to use this occasion to promote awareness and break the stigma surrounding single parenthood.
Read More“Live your life,” a 65-year-old woman tells her 38 years old daughter Kim Ji Young in the movie Kim Ji-young, Born in 1982. This movie documents the daily life of an ordinary Korean woman born in the early 80s. When this low-budget movie wa s first screened, the movie caught on explosive popularity among women in the 30-4 0s despite its tedious representation of a housewife’s daily routine as a daughter, wif e, and mother. The movie delineates a well-educated and once ambitious woman’s lif e reduced to cooking, laundry, and an unending cycle of changing the baby's diapers.
Read MoreAlthough South Korea has come a long way since its war-torn, authoritarian past, it has failed to abandon its outdated Confucian roots—specifically the pillar of Confucianism that emphasizes men’s dominance over women. For all the technological advancements my country makes, it takes that many steps backwards in educating men about women’s rights and their boundaries. I hate to generalize, but I have to to illustrate how grave this issue is: Korean men have grown too comfortable in their patriarchal bubbles; because of their carefree, unrestrained behavior, women are often disrespected both physically and intellectually. There are two prime examples I can draw from South Korea that support this notion: our country’s ubiquitous rape culture and men's attitude towards feminism.
Read MoreThe alarm rings at 7 AM and she wakes feeling refreshed. At 9:00 AM she brews a coffee and leisurely takes out the paper. Around 2:00 PM, after working on several projects, she heads to the Personal Training Studio that she operates. At 9:00 PM she returns from work to her cozy home and enjoys the evening hours with her family. This is my mom’s daily routine. Based on my understanding, my mom is a feminist whose existence per se exemplifies a ‘woman who pioneers her own future’. Thus, when I recently asked her, “Mom, are you a feminist?”, I had little doubt how she’d answer. Her response, however, made me wonder.
Read More“Mom, why are you the only one working here?”
It was an innocent question from a four-year-old child looking at her mother doing the dishes in her paternal grandparents' house. On national holidays like Seollal or Chuseok, all my family members come over to visit my grandparents. I remember most of us gathering around in the living room to catch up, but two women stayed in the kitchen all day long: my mother in my paternal grandparents’ house and my maternal uncle's wife in my maternal grandparents’ house. They have similarities. For each of them to call other family members in my paternal or maternal grandparents’ houses, the word “in-law” follows them; they are the women who become part of the family by marriage. I always wondered why no one helped them cook, serve food, and do the dishes. No one pointed out the problem of leaving two women in the kitchen alone. It took a few years for me to understand the system working behind the word “family.” Everything I saw was a typical life of women with their in-laws.
Read MoreMy mother became a flight operation officer in South Korea at a relatively young age, in her 20s. With her job, no mistakes could be made because she was literally in charge of the lives of everyone on an airplane. Like most people, she shared a healthy rivalry with a male co-worker. They were both excellent officers and had the same background, basically identical resumés. One day, my mother arrived at work to find that her co-worker had been promoted. Excited, she expected that she had been as well. The harsh reality was that no– only he had received the promotion. My mother says that this was one of the most consequential reasons she moved to the United States to start a new life. She would be happy to give up on her career if she could live a life with her husband and child, knowing that her daughter would grow to have unlimited opportunities. Though my family currently resides in South Korea due to a temporary fix, my mother has been sharing her experience with others who have encountered similar situations to support and define this injustice embedded in our society.
Read MoreI was too young to realize what was going on, but I still remember the visit to the emergency room as my mom woke me in the middle of the night. My dad was on a business trip to Singapore so my mom had no choice but to take me with her to the hospital as I could’ve awoken while she was gone. The memory is still sheared in my mind as my maternal aunt was beaten so badly that her facial bruises nearly shut her eyes. Some of her hair was ripped out and I could see her bloody scalp. My mom was crying so profusely at seeing her little sister in this condition that she forgot to shield me from the scene.
Read MoreBeing the only one in class who couldn’t bring her mother to school for Mother’s Day was definitely not a joyful experience for an eight year old. My mother couldn’t come to school that day because she had to work. I watched in silence that day, as every other kid in class recited their poems while their mothers took photos and smiled proudly at them at the back of the class. When my mother returned home from work late at night that day, I let out the tears that I have been holding all day long, and screamed at her saying ‘I wish you were normal!’ Normal. Back then, to an eight year old child who knew nothing about a glass ceiling, hardworking businesswomen were not ‘normal’.
Read More“What a great opportunity! Don’t hesitate to take the chance," said my mom.
A few months ago, I happened to overhear a conversation between my aunt and my mom when they were discussing my aunt’s future career path. My maternal aunt, a former journalist and a professor at a university near Seoul, had been offered the position as the first female dean at the university. However, some of the male professors were reluctant to support her nomination, largely because she was a woman. Moreover, when my aunt received the proposal, she first and foremost thought, “If I take the position, which doubles my work, would I still be able to take good care of my young children?”
Read MoreMy childhood ran on a conveyor belt of nannies. Even with a lineup of women helping her, my working mom regretted thinking she could have the best of both motherhood and career. “Maybe I should have chosen one over the other,” she tells me now. The generation succeeding her expresses even greater disillusionment. Among increasingly individualistic Koreans struggling with modernity in a collectivist society, millennial women feel conflicted between raising a family and pursuing a career. Stuck between progress and tradition, these women see a dim future on both fronts. Consequently, the fertility rate is falling near one (the lowest OECD level), and the gender employment gap for those aged 15-64 is the fourth largest among OECD countries at 18%.
Read MoreThroughout our life as human beings, we are bound to encounter pressuring environments. In school, some may feel the need to demonstrate outstanding academic performance to please their parents; in social settings, the pressure to succeed and prosper in life with a stable career is a common struggle among many. Yet in South Korea, there exists another breed of societal duress that haunts women and girls of all ages: The pressure to become beautiful. While it is true that women in other countries are also commonly influenced to polish their appearances, the social pressure Korean women face is a whole another concept that demands attention. Those who refuse to conform to K-beauty are confronted with severe societal oppression that enforces submission to a defined idealistic appearance, thus leaving no room for diversification.
Read MoreAs marriages are put off by young adults and the total fertility rate has dropped to the lowest in the world at 0.84 in 2020, South Korea’s population has begun to naturally decline with the number of deaths exceeding the number of births for the first time since records have been kept. In response to this existential crisis, the government has enacted a myriad of measures to encourage both marriage and childbirth, which unfortunately have failed miserably. However, one measure that has had success is international marriages which accounted for 9.2% of total marriages in 2019 and has risen every year since local municipalities started to subsidize private matchmaking agencies and rural areas such as South Jeolla Province have made welfare payments of $5,000 to Korean men over the age of 35 who marry foreign brides. The average age of husbands is 43.6 and the average age of foreign brides is 25.2.
Read MoreIt is no secret that many women feel conscious about the way they look. However, is it necessary for society to extend their vulnerability to the job market? Oemo jisang juui, a Korean term for ‘look-ism’ is a standard practice in the employment process for Korean women. A 2016 survey from Saramin, a Korean online job portal, found that more than 60% of Human Resources Personnel feel that one’s appearance does influence the applicant’s candidacy, especially for females. Thus, many Korean women find themselves in a situation where they are pressured to change their appearance to seek employment. The Korean job application process is already stressful, but the pressure for women to physically look good in their resume and interview adds a new dimension of stress. Over time, many Korean women became ‘numb’ to the discriminatory employment system and decided to take matters into their own hands by turning to professional photographers and even plastic surgery.
Read MoreBeing a feminist is to be a person who changes society by claiming that women and men exist equally. I represent myself as a feminist, with pride, since my parents have carefully nurtured me not to internalize the gender stereotypes inside. Since childhood, learning the identity which was being discriminated, such as gender, I recognized that women take the largest number among minorities, and that gender discrimination spreads both in public and private sector.
Read MoreIn my school’s classrooms, it’s not surprising to overhear a table of girls chatting about the cosmetic surgery procedures they want to undergo. What is unusual, though, is to hear a Korean woman declare themselves a “feminist,” whether in a high school classroom or on the busy streets of Seoul. Expressing support for equal treatment and less rigid beauty standards for women in the deeply conservative country, where its education system remains the greatest obstacle to gender equality, is often met with criticism. A popular beauty YouTube star Lina Bae even received death threats when she deviated from her usual makeup tutorials and removed her makeup in a video encouraging women to free themselves from conforming to beauty standards. “An ugly and fat girl like you shouldn’t even be alive,” reads a comment on her video.
Read MoreOne spring day in 2016, in a public bathroom of the bustling Gangnam area, a young woman was stabbed to death by a man she had never met before.
“I did it because women have always ignored me.”
Read MoreKorean Confucianism, Yu-gyo, is a long-standing tradition in Korea; filial piety, one of the three core values, is prized in a family over all other values. The samgangoryun states that there are five relationships that are necessary to ensure social order. Kings over servants, fathers over sons, and husbands over wives, to name a few. These relationships are parallel: wives should treat their husbands as they would kings, and sons and daughters should treat their fathers as their sovereigns. Younger people are meant to concede to the power of the people with more power, as dictated by the samgangoryun.
Read MoreThe interviewer peers at the woman seated across from him and asks, “You’re a woman. Do you want this job? Don’t you want kids later on in life?”
The young interviewee nervously replies, “I do want this job, but I’m also planning on getting married and raising a family.” The interviewer looks unimpressed as he scrutinizes the resume in front of him. This is the same look this young woman received at the last interview where she was rejected.
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