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#MeToo: Women in Korea Debilitate Sexual Violence

최종 수정일: 2018년 3월 27일

Credit: Jong Chul Lim / Money Today

The radical #MeToo movement has encouraged women from all around the world to speak out for themselves and to claim their rights. In Korea, starting from the end of January, Seo Ji-Hyun, a female prosecutor, took her brave steps by exposing her own experience of being molested by a senior prosecutor back in 2010 on the internet.  


Seo stated in an interview with JTBC, “People have encouraged me… that truthfulness could be given weight only if the writer confronts the problem by herself.” Due to the stereotype that women should not have professional or high-ranking jobs, sexual assault in the legal world is still a problem that women have to face every day. In the male-dominant patriarchal society, women in Korea are still scared and hesitant to speak more openly about this issue. According to the Global Gender Gap Report of 2017, South Korea ranked 118th out of 144 countries. As The Interpreter expresses, Korea is going through a phase of seismic shift where the rights of women are counted less. As the phenomenon is spreading as not only a personal issue but an issue for society as a whole, some media outlets call the #MeToo movement a ‘revolution’.


Meanwhile, the real-life stories from the Korean #MeToo movement can be divided into two: celebrities and regular people using an online platform. As of March 16, 2018, the National Police Agency said in an official statement that they are making allegations of 64 people in total. Most of the people being celebrities, well-known filmmakers, or politicians, this is giving a lot of chaos and terror within the society. One example could be the suicide of Cho Min-Ki that took place on March 9. Cho, who was an actor and assistant professor of Theater and Film, was under investigation for molesting and abusing female university students. In another incident, Ahn Hee-Jung, former South-Choongchung province governor, was also accused of raping his secretary. This is where the problem of “hierarchy” comes out to the surface again. The Guardian, a British media outlet, stated ‘rigid hierarchy’ has made the victim arduous to refuse the offer and the forceful actions made by Ahn.


To look at ordinary people who also got into sexual abuse, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, are becoming the main platforms for survivors to raise their voice and to bring awareness. Every day, Facebook pages such as “Bamboo Forest Representing the Voice of #MeToo” are posting anonymous survivors’ stories. The users would get angry together, and try to comfort each other, stating, “It shouldn’t be a common thing in this society.” The bamboo forest continues to utilize its anonymous platform so that people can report easily without having to reveal oneself if they are uncomfortable.

Going back to Seo’s interview, she emphasizes that sexual violence is never the survivors’ fault. “I want to encourage every survivor to know that it is never your fault that it happened; it took a long time for me to realize and process this.”


Hyunseon Kim | Reporter

hkim204@masonlive.gmu.edu

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