“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Read MoreAlthough South Korea has come a long way since its war-torn, authoritarian past, it has failed to abandon its outdated Confucian roots—specifically the pillar of Confucianism that emphasizes men’s dominance over women.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 idea of gender—not experience, initiative, work-ethic—but gender preventing qualified individuals from pursuing ambitious goals is incredulous. In the international school I was raised in, success basically came hand-in-hand with merit and hard work—as it should be. Ambitious girls took advanced math courses, led entrepreneurial clubs, and participated in scientific research because they wanted to—sometimes in greater numbers than boys.
Read MoreA headline on a morning news show caught my eyes. The chief of the Tokyo Olympics had expressed annoyance towards women in his speech, stating that “women talk too much” because “they are competitive”. What was wrong with women being “competitive”, I wondered. Why was it annoying when women talked too much? Even though I knew this man was not addressing me in his speech, I nonetheless felt my lips tightening as if the comment really had been made about me, about my passion for making speeches, about my ambitious personality. At the same time, my face took on a competitive shade of red as it occurred to me that I lived in a country where people responsible for representing the nation were instead degrading women in public.
Read More“The key to success is effort. The bigger the goal, the greater the effort” (Michael Josephson). To what extent has the society idealized the idea that with effort the impossible becomes possible? Is effort truly all that is needed to thrive in our societies? A woman with the same level of experience as a man, wins only 66% of the salary of her counterpart (Ortega, 2018). Only one out of 10 members of each executive committee is a woman (OIT, 2012). Only the 37% of the total entry-level charges within companies in Mexico belong to women (Bolio et al, 2019). The list of statistics continues, and the trend remains the same: women in Mexico do not have the same presence in the working sector as men. Is lack of effort the explanation to this phenomenon?
Read MoreWhen asked to describe a Filipina, most would answer a Filipina is soft-spoken, elegant, charming, and graceful. The characteristics said are derived from the character Maria Clara. Maria Clara is a character from the famous novel "Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not)" written by Jose Rizal. To many, Maria Clara is the epitome of purity and innocence. The representation of Maria Clara as demure and self-effacing posed an ideal "image" of what a Filipina should be. And conforming to these ideologies is the ill and the challenges that young Filipinas face today, and we should completely eradicate this stereotype.
Read More“Encircle the toys for boys, and box the toys for girls,” recites a first-grade student in the Philippines from her government-issued module. She cocks her head and stares blankly at the paper: a kitchen set, a shiny bike, a miniature castle; how does she choose which toy is for boys, and which toy is for girls? She has held each of them in her hands and cherished them all the same. “Just answer it,” says her mother. “Don’t be a contrarian. If it’s colorful and pretty, it’s for girls. If it’s for rough play and adventuring, it’s for boys.” Her eyes are usually bright; she is wonder-filled and jubilant with the youthful belief that she can amount to anything. Today, her eyes are downcast. She is not the first, and she will most certainly not be the last.
Read MoreIn a population of about 100 million people, 84 million Filipinos are Roman Catholic. In reference to the sacrament of marriage, Biblical law states, “so they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”- Matthew 19:6. Being devout Catholic countries, the Philippines and the Vatican are the only two remaining nations where divorce is illegal. While ideally, Church and State are to remain separate entities, one’s influence upon the other is undeniable demonstrated by how state laws align with religious beliefs. While the inability to file for divorce applies to both spouses, the issue is amplified for women as annulment, being the only option, adheres to limited grounds and comes with more repercussions for them as a result of living in a misogynistic culture.
Read MoreI was four years old when I started believing in fairytales. Growing up, I am always reminded of the little girl who marvelled at every magical wonder that each tale brings. I remember flipping through the pages of my storybooks, deeply enthralled by the utopian-like world, filled to the brim with fairies and princesses. Every night– in blissful stupor, I would lay, yearning for my own happily ever-after and a charming prince to sweep me off my feet.
Read MoreWith the pandemic, our lives have shifted and so have our realities. Working, going to school, and even shopping – everything is accessible with the click of a button. We think we are safe using these devices in the comfort of our own homes but the reality is we are not safe, even through a screen. We simply can not ignore the growing sexual harassment and violence on women online daily. With 73 million Filipinos online desperate to find sources of livelihood, social media becomes the ideal place for sexual exploitation, becoming a den that shelters predators to cowardly hide behind aliases. Online sexual abuse is tolerated despite the alarming rise in cases, thus, education must be demanded, in hopes for change.
Read MoreThe situation of women in the Philippines is ironic. Look above, and you'll see that the Philippines ranked 17th against 156 other countries in The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2021. (Baron, 2021) In other words, we are one of the best nations in the world when it comes to gender equality; in fact, we have been the best country in Asia in terms of closing the gender gap multiple times. (Buenaobra, 2010; Okutsu, 2018) But look below, and you'll see that — in the very same country — the end of National Women’s Month 2022 featured several netizens justifying the beating of Filipino actress Ana Jalandoni as something that “can’t be helped”. (Baclig, 2022)
Read MoreAs the 2022 Presidential Elections approach, Filipino voters have the chance to choose a new set of leaders to represent them. It is during this time that a better future is within their reach — that is, if they make the right decisions. In order to make that possible, past political mistakes are often brought to light in hopes that they are corrected. With the candidacy of female leaders Leni Robredo and Sara Duterte for the presidency and vice presidency, respectively, they are noticeably the odd ones amongst their mostly male competitors. Here we can see one of the adjustable flaws of Filipino politics: the lack of female leaders in the Philippine government.
Read MoreAs the eldest of 3 girls in my family, I have always felt protective of my sisters. Despite how much they can get on my nerves, their safety and well-being is important to me. I have been blessed to be in a position where my safety and well being, as well as those around me, have never been threatened–it has always been a given–as it should be. But I was reminded that this, unfortunately, is not the reality for everyone. I was shattered when I read about 13-year-old Joan Garcia who got pregnant so early on in her life that she had to grow up and drop out of school to take care of her daughter.
Read More“Oh, there goes Presidential-aspirant Leni Robredo again, making empty promises without even knowing how to speak properly. Is this who you want running the Philippines? A woman who claims she speaks from the heart but is actually deceiving the masses? She already knows she would lose, I mean come on, look at her competitors, she wouldn’t stand a chance against Bongbong Marcos. You shouldn’t vote for someone who you KNOW will lose, because then the vote will be wasted for naught.”
Read MoreThe Philippines has been known to be a conservative country because of its deeply rooted religious beliefs that are manifested in its moral values. Despite the separation of church and state, there is no denying that the Catholic Church wields great influence over Philippine politics and society in general. In line with this, it took years for the civil society organizations to have the “Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act” or reproductive health (RH) law to finally be enacted in December 2012 (Melgar et al., 2018) due to church oppositions claiming that the bill is “anti-life” (Robles,2012). Despite the implementation, there are concerns that the government's curriculums remain to emphasize "Filipino Values" on account of the religious pressure when it comes to sexual and health issues rather than fostering comprehensive insight for youths to make educated reproductive decisions (Joven, 2021). Because of these reasons, women and girls in the Philippines, continue to face the biggest challenge of the effects of the fundamentalist belief of the Catholic church on their Reproductive Health Law.
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.
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