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Feminists Around the World: Feminism in South Korea · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Never told your production of iHeartRadio, And I guess we
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: need to do a timestamp, don't I March tenth and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: we missed, I guess technically saying anything about International Women's Day.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: So happy belated International Women's Day to all the people.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah out there history you know many things. There's so
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: many things. But you know, even though we're a little
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: bit behind, we're still trekking because what we do is
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: talk about women and talk about those who identify as women,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: non binary people, all the folks who identify as feminists.
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  Speaker 1: That's who we talk about. And today I thought we
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: would take the moment to talk about what is happening
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and all the different movements that is happening in South Korea.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I believe I've mentioned previously some of the things that
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: have happened there, but I thought we do a little
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: bit of a refresher first. We wanted to give you
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: some context. South Korea has been hit hard with anti
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  Speaker 1: feminist attitudes across the country the last few years, and
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  Speaker 1: even though government officials have talked about changed previously, many
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  Speaker 1: of the things have been ignored or outright spoken against
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  Speaker 1: just recently. Yes, and also just to note, as with
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  Speaker 1: many of these, is going to be some pronunciation difficulties,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: but we're going to try our best. Yeah, pronunciations difficulties
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  Speaker 1: and some hard issues content warning. Yeahhh. The current president,
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  Speaker 1: President Yunsuku, used a platform of anti feminism to help
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  Speaker 1: him win in twenty twenty two. He pushed an agenda
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  Speaker 1: accusing misandry and the use of gender equality policies as
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  Speaker 1: the downfall for the jobs market, according to the twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three report that was made by the Human Rights
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Watch organization QUOTE. During his campaign for president, President Yune
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: made frequent appeals to anti feminist male voters, blamed feminism
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  Speaker 1: for the decline in the birth rate, and pledged to
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  Speaker 1: abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which he
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  Speaker 1: is currently trying to dismantle. And Yeah. For a country
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  Speaker 1: that is at the bottom of the list of developed
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  Speaker 1: countries for the rice and safety of women, the latest
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  Speaker 1: shift in feminism isn't good news, as in fact, The
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  Speaker 1: Economist has ranked South Korea as the worst quote working
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  Speaker 1: environment for women. The ginger gap for the country has
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  Speaker 1: also helped keep the country at the bottom of this list,
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  Speaker 1: with a gap of over thirty one percent. Many attribute
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  Speaker 1: the sexist ideas as the reason for continuing discrimination, including
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  Speaker 1: that women could get pregnant and oftentimes due to their
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  Speaker 1: pregnancy or having children, they are forced to leave their jobs.
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  Speaker 1: And many experts have talked about how not having more
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  Speaker 1: women in the workplace is a misuse of amazing talent
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  Speaker 1: and that the South Korean women who have some of
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  Speaker 1: the highest educational attainment end up having the least amount
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  Speaker 1: of employment opportunities or job promotions and any positions in management.
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  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of conversation about what's happening, but
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  Speaker 1: the discrimination isn't just due to career in business. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the biggest stigmas against women are based largely on
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  Speaker 1: looks and unrealistic beauty standards. South Korea's makeup and beauty
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  Speaker 1: brand and industry has become an international market, and much
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  Speaker 1: of the advertising is about being the perfect woman, and
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  Speaker 1: that includes complexion of skin all of that. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: women with short haircuts are often targets of harassment and ridicule,
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  Speaker 1: ridiculing them saying that they're lesbians, and even if they are,
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  Speaker 1: I don't understand why that's the thing, but they continue
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  Speaker 1: to harass them for that, to the point that many
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  Speaker 1: women have run away, and it has kind of become
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  Speaker 1: a symbol for women and feminism to have that short haircut.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, even if you're an Olympian with a short haircut,
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  Speaker 1: you're not protected. They will come after you as well,
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  Speaker 1: and we've seen that happen. But with all of that,
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  Speaker 1: not so great news comes those who do bring some
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: light to this. As much backlash feminism may have gotten,
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  Speaker 1: it can't be denied that there are those who are
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  Speaker 1: pushing forward. South Korea had one of the most successful
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  Speaker 1: me too movements in Asia, holding many officials accountable for
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  Speaker 1: their harassment in the workplace. That includes them losing jobs,
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  Speaker 1: being taken off of political seats, all of that, so
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  Speaker 1: some things are happening. In twenty nineteen, South Korea had
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  Speaker 1: a escaped the corset movement, where women publicly rejected the
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  Speaker 1: Korean beauty standards. Activists and photographers like Jeong Bora have
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  Speaker 1: done several exhibitions to quote destroy the socially defined idea
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  Speaker 1: of a woman, which is what she told NPR. And
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  Speaker 1: after the stabbing of a woman in twenty sixteen, many
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  Speaker 1: women came to other in movements to spread awareness of
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  Speaker 1: the wide prevailing harassment, including the practice of murka or
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  Speaker 1: filming women in bathrooms or upskirt shots, where most of
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  Speaker 1: the predators are men and oftentimes are released with little
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  Speaker 1: to no consequences. And all the while, a woman who
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  Speaker 1: took a picture of a and who often left a
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  Speaker 1: classroom naked after modeling nude for art school, posted it online.
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  Speaker 1: She was charged with jail time. Right, it was really
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  Speaker 1: significant because nobody had been given this type of a sentence,
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  Speaker 1: but because this man, who always known for publicly flashing
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  Speaker 1: women in the after leaving class, was mad that it
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  Speaker 1: was posted, and so the judge gave her a harsh
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  Speaker 1: sentence of actual jail time, and movements like these are
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  Speaker 1: still happening, including the four B movement. According to different reports,
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  Speaker 1: four B may have started many years ago, but the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of its popularity may have come around twenty sixteen
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  Speaker 1: with the original idea of the hashtag no marriage lifestyle,
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  Speaker 1: which became a little more complex, becoming more like boycotting
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  Speaker 1: men and reproductive labor altogether. So the estimated number of
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  Speaker 1: participants have been skewed from five thousand to fifty thousand people.
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  Speaker 1: The title four B is a breakdown of the four
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  Speaker 1: nos or B the wording Korean, which represents as the
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  Speaker 1: following b sex, no sex, beach youll's son, no child rearing,
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  Speaker 1: bon nay, no dating, and bijun no marriage to men.
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  Speaker 1: So there's idea is that there's been no sex, no
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  Speaker 1: child rearing, no dating, and no marriage to men, no
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  Speaker 1: heterald sexual marriage to men essentially. And in this movement,
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  Speaker 1: there were two women, Jung Say Young and Buck Hanna
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  Speaker 1: two who were the ones behind the hashtag no marriage movement,
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  Speaker 1: And obviously this idea has become more popular with their
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  Speaker 1: outspokenness of the movement. I believe they have a YouTube channel.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's still going, but they did anyway.
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  Speaker 1: And then the novel turned movie Kim Jong born nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty two has brought a lot of awareness to the
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  Speaker 1: movement as well and kind of started in a new wave,
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  Speaker 1: not thinking that this this will happen in like twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: So it's been recent. Yeah, And the four movement could
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  Speaker 1: be seen as the counter movement of the Ill Bay,
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  Speaker 1: which came out around twenty fourteen and is in an
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  Speaker 1: anti feminist group that assumes that women are gold digging
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  Speaker 1: shall humans that benefit from additional rights and privileges, like
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  Speaker 1: not being required to serve in the national military. The
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  Speaker 1: FOREBE movement is about women finding emotional and financial independence
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  Speaker 1: from men, advising women to save money on not buying quote,
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  Speaker 1: self fashioning labor, to be able to live independently in
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  Speaker 1: the future, and many of the four B women feel
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  Speaker 1: this lifestyle is the only way to have autonomy in
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  Speaker 1: South Korea and to push back on the misogyny of
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  Speaker 1: the country right and even if the women in the
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  Speaker 1: country may not follow all the ideas of the FOREB movement,
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  Speaker 1: many feel similarly about the idea of marriage within the country.
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  Speaker 1: With the possibility of the current government dismantling the progress
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  Speaker 1: that was made earlier, such as abolishing of the Ministry
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  Speaker 1: of Gender Equality and Family, many women are turning away
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  Speaker 1: from the idea of family and children altogether. The birth
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  Speaker 1: rate for the country has been the lowest in the world,
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  Speaker 1: and the government really is not helping the situations, so
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  Speaker 1: with things like the National Birth Map, which many women
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  Speaker 1: see as an offensive tool that treats people with uterses
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  Speaker 1: like livestock and yeah, there's been a lot of programs
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  Speaker 1: to try to incentivize women getting pregnant is interesting and
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  Speaker 1: with the many challenges organizations like for B faces as
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  Speaker 1: the terrifying misogynistic environment that the government seems to be fostering,
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  Speaker 1: they have challenges within the group as well. They seem
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  Speaker 1: to be more focused on the issues as a single
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  Speaker 1: issue of gender, and we know that could be a
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  Speaker 1: problems women specifically just SIS women and not always being
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  Speaker 1: inclusive on the trans community. Again, this is a newer
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  Speaker 1: organization that we're talking about, so I'm not really sure
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  Speaker 1: the bigger picture, and maybe for those in South Korea
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  Speaker 1: or involved in the activism can let us know. But
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  Speaker 1: there has been talked that there feels like there's an
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  Speaker 1: exclusionary part to the trans community, you know, and if
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  Speaker 1: we learned anything from history, focusing only on an issue
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  Speaker 1: instead of looking at the intersectionality of these issues will
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  Speaker 1: lead to more problems and very little actions. So hopefully
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  Speaker 1: they will kind of come together and see that understanding
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  Speaker 1: that it is not just a single thing, but in
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  Speaker 1: order to dismantle it, you have to dismantle all of
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  Speaker 1: the things. So right, all right, right, But there is
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  Speaker 1: a lot happening in the country as the marginalized community
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  Speaker 1: in South Korea continues to fight against the oppression which
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  Speaker 1: has been supported outright by the current government, and many
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  Speaker 1: are coming out to publicly show their support of the
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  Speaker 1: movements against the suppression. In twenty twenty two, protests occurred
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  Speaker 1: throughout the country to show the people's disapproval of President
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  Speaker 1: Yun's actions and policies, and organizations like for b and
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  Speaker 1: HEYL which is Korean for Tsunami continue to advocate for
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  Speaker 1: the people in these communities. As the leader of Hayl
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  Speaker 1: Lead told MPR, what makes me hopeful are my fellow
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  Speaker 1: feminist friends seeing women like me who have short hair
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  Speaker 1: with no makeup and women's rights protest that show that
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: we are not alone. Yeah, and we will continue to
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  Speaker 1: watch what's going on because I feel like a lot
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  Speaker 1: of the countries are going through similar things at this
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  Speaker 1: point in time with our government. Yeah, and we're no
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  Speaker 1: strangers to seeing what's happening feeling those oppressive ideals as well.
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  Speaker 1: But we wanted to keep a tabs on what's going
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  Speaker 1: on and hopefully there'll be some good news. There always
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  Speaker 1: typically is, even if it's full's dark. Yes, it's always
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: look for the lights, you know that, you know the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: whole thing I try, Yes, yes, well, yeah, well, we'll
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  Speaker 1: definitely check back in on this and if anybody is
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: participating in this, there's more about this in South Korea
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: or were on the world. We would love to hear
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: from you. You can email us at Steffandia Mom Stuff
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: at momsa podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Mom Never Told. You can also find us on YouTube.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Thanks as always too, our super producer Christina, our executive
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: producer Maya, and our frequent contributor researcher TikTok TikTok or
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: extraordinaire Joey. Yes, yes, yes, thank you' all, Yes, and
• 11:09
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• 11:11
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• 11:14
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