South Korea has achieved the rare feat of economic convergence and sustained growth. Yet patriarchy persists. South Korea has the largest gender pay gap in the OECD. Large firms are overwhelmingly run by men, who harass with impunity. Junior women have long felt powerless. Online forums celebrate spycam footage that degrades and humiliates myriad victims. The male-dominated criminal justice system typically treats complaints with dismissal. Seldom seeing others speak out, victims have long felt alone and ashamed.
In “Flowers of Fire”, Hawon Jung charts South Korea’s growing feminist resistance. Fed up and frustrated, a few brave women came forward. Inspired and emboldened, Korean women have organised - testifying in public, sharing stories, publicly supporting each other. Decrying shame and stigma, they chorus “Not your fault”. Powerful men have been imprisoned for abuse.
Hawon Jung marshals wealth of data and provides fascinating insights into one of the world’s richest patriarchies. One of my favourite books of 2023. Bravo!
What follows is not a ‘review’, but selected highlights and tribute.
Under Confucianism, men were considered superior. This was captured in the idiom “namjon yeobi” (man high, woman low). A Korean woman was supposed to be obedient, chaste and self-sacrificing.
Female employment has risen, yet there is rampant discrimination, sexual harassment, spycam pornography, misogyny and institutional impunity.
Hoesik (after work drinking) remains integral to Korea’s corporate culture. Managers often pressure women to drink, then grope them during karaoke. Seo Ji-Hyun (a prosecutor) was astonished by the compulsory drinking, dirty jokes, sexual harassment and pressure to play along, while all the men stayed silent.
Eight years later, Seo Ji-Hyun appeared on live television and said she’d been sexually assaulted. To her surprise, women rallied en masse:
“I never expected any of this to happen. The outpouring of support, and all the women who came forward after me … it’s just unbelievable”.
In March 2018, women gathered to share their stories of assault. It became a MeToo talkathon. The crowd cheered their bravery, shouting “Not your fault”. Women
Hawon Jung 2023
Hawon Jung 2023
Inspired by prosecutor Seo Ji-Hyun, Oh Ye-Jin organised a protest at her former college. They collected stories of sexual harassment and abuse, published the results, and the next day hundreds of seniors stickered the building:
“Little girls don’t stay little forever. They grow into strong women that return to destroy your world”.
Hawon Jung adds that this phrase was part of US gymnast Kyle Stephens’ victim statement during the trial of Larry Nassar. At a hundred schools, more girls came forward. #SchoolMeToo was the most tweeted hashtag in South Korea that year. Teenage girls were fed up of their teachers’ impunity for harassment.
Hawon Jung 2023
Feminist consciousness can be like a volcano, erupting in marches and demonstrations. But that only occurs after people believe something is wrong. Books and films have played a key role, especially “Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982”. Cho Nam-Joo’s depiction of everyday sexism became hugely popular, and has been translated into 25 languages.
Spycam porn
‘Spycam porn’ means covertly filmed footage of women that is shared online. In Korea, it has become extremely popular. But the criminal justice system has long turned a blind eye. Even when women presented evidence, police were dismissive. On the rare occasions that cases made it to court, perpetrators are given impunity. As one judge concluded:
“The accused married only recently and has a job—meaning there’s a chance he could lose his job if he is sentenced to a prison term,” [so we should give] “a special leniency.”
One man who took 1,2690 upskirt shots with camera mounted shoes was given a suspended jail term. He went on to become a taxi driver, install a spycam in the backseat and upskirt over a hundred female passengers. Law enforcement turns a blind eye.
Hawon Jung 2023
The Misogynist Manosphere
Why on earth would anyone enjoy footage of public toilets?
Seo Seung-Hee (head of the Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Center) explained,
“Some toilet spycam criminals seem to feel great catharsis, as if they’ve conquered these women and girls who are otherwise unattainable in their daily lives, or as if they’d shamed, violated, and humiliated the women against their will”
That tracks user comments,
“Watch toilet molka when you feel overpowered by girls.”
“Did you feel hurt when the above-average-looking bitch who just walked into the subway looked down at you as if looking at a cockroach, and turned her head in 0.1 second? … Then watch the toilet molka. … When you feel like your mind and feelings are hurt because women treat you like shit, go witness the basic barbarity they try to hide with all the prettying-up. A cure-all”.
Hawon Jung further details how fraternal communities cheer each other on, “great shots!”, “Brother, this is a masterpiece”.
Deepfake porn is also increasingly accessible, thanks to widely marketed and cheap online services. In online chatrooms, men share violent rape fantasies and upload photoshopped sexualised images of their acquaintances.
Men not only uploaded covert pornography but also the victim’s personal details. Users revel in their capacity to humiliate, degrade and destroy. Videos are actually marketed as showing women whose lives were ‘ruined’. If she killed herself due to depression, it was a bonus.
In 2018, over twelve thousand women rallied against spycams. They were all colour coordinated, wearing red for rage. Protestors shouted:
“Women also want to let their guard down when relieving themselves! Women also want to live with their windows open!”
Seeing so many women demonstrate in unity enabled others to realise wider support. One woman confided in Hawon Jung.
“It was overwhelming … to see that I am not alone, and there were so many women out there who felt the same as me… I felt as if we finally found each other, and our voices will be heard at last.
Hawon Jung 2023
Hawon Jung 2023
The government has since stepped up efforts to remove spycam pornography and convict offenders. But the underlying cause persists.
Sexual Objectification
Misogynist slang has been popularised on the manosphere. Hawon Jung shares common terms:
Rag - a sexually experienced woman
Chewing gum (stuck on the pavement) - woman with small breasts
Kimchi girl - selfish, infefior and unreasonable Korean women
Kimchi bitches - women who exploit men
Bojeonkkae - a call for violence against women, sticking a glass bulb into a vagina and shattering it.
Women are constantly evaluated on their appearances - not just online, but also at work. In 2017, a Seoul stock brokerage firm introduced 20 rules for female employees’ appearances (including the mandate to wear full makeup). Jung add that even a major hospital gave women doctors advice on how to apply lipstick, mascara and blusher.
“You have no idea how quickly the girls internalize the message our whole society drills into them—that they were born to be looked at, so looking pretty is everything—and how their self-esteem nosedives each passing year” - Lee told Hawon Jung.
In 2018, some Korean women organised online resistance: “Escape the Corset”.
The scrutiny is truly intense. After An San won two gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, she was cyberbullied for having short hair. Some men campaigned for her to apologise, or even return her gold medals for being a ‘man hater’. Women rallied in An San’s support, sharing photos of their own short hair.
Korea’s Growing Gender Divide is causing Birth and Marriage Strikes
East Asian men and women are growing apart. Young educated women have become much more feminist. Given the dearth of marriageable men, many would rather remain single.
As Hawon Jung details, 60% of women in their 20s said they will not marry. More than 70% expressed reluctance about mothering. Having seen their mothers toil away in the kitchen for Lunar New Year only to be barred from rituals honouring their husbands’ dead ancestors, many young women are saying ‘no’.
“When my mom returned from work exhausted, Dad, who was often at home the whole day, used to yell about why the house was so unclean, why dinner was so late, or why my brother and I still hadn’t finished our homework” - Kang told Hawon Jung. “As much as I loved and admired her for being such a strong woman and supportive mom, I never wanted to live like her.”
One of Kang’s ex boyfriends had invited his parents for dinner then nudged her into the kitchen to do the washing up. She promptly left. Like many other young women, she has “four Nos”” no dating, no sex, no marriage, and no child-rearing.
Instead of doing the washing-up, more young women are organising communities (like the Eunpyeong Sisters) where women feel “safe, supported and respected, while having fun”.
Korea’s young men, meanwhile, have rallied in support of President Yoon Suk-yeol, who vowed to disintegrate the gender equality ministry and toughen punishments for false complaints of sexual assault.
South Korea has come to a major cross-roads, as shown by the brilliant Hawon Jung. “Flowers of Fire” is truly superb.
Now, here’s a question..
What will happen next?
One possibility is that masses of educated women seek economic independence, commit to their careers and flood leaky pipelines. As occurred in the West, maybe they’ll be able to support each other and consolidate strength in numbers.
But here’s why I’m sceptical:
South Korea’s male-dominated management is not caused by mothering, it is straight-up sexism. So even if educated women want careers, this may not be enough to dislodge discrimination.
As long as men continue to dominate management and socialise with other men (on and offline), they are immersed in cultures of self-righteous sexism. 80% of men in their twenties believe there is serious gender discrimination. It’s difficult to see what would unseat this antipathy.
Repeated rejections by women unwilling to date is likely to exacerbate male resentment and misogyny.
That all said, at least East Asian women have the option of forgoing unequal marriages and forging communities with other women. This is now seen as entirely legitimate; whereas in South Asia female singles are still heavily stigmatised.
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I've often suspected that extreme sexism leads to low fertility rates once women have options. Thanks for articulating that case so clearly.