All posts filed under: Liberté, égalité, fraternité

ARTE – Tous les internets – En Corée du Sud, les femmes à l’avant garde de #MeToo

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Alternative title: Sind die Südkoreanerinnen der #MeToo-Bewegung einen Schritt voraus? / Les sud-coréennes sont-elles à l’avant-garde de #MeToo?   I had the honour to speak and share my research with Ann-Marie Kornek, a journalist specialising in technology and social issues at ARTE. Covering topics such as molka (spycams used for illegal porn), Soranet (the porn hub which hosted a number of illegal activities including illegal porn), and power harassment/rape (involving 2017 presidential candidate Ahn Hee-Jung and internationally acclaimed filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk), the episode explains what has been happening in Korea in the past three years, and what has changed (and is still changing). Kudos to the team at ARTE for their research, and for going through the graphic images of molka videos. I particularly appreciate how Korean names and words are written and spoken accurately (I’ve heard my share of Kim Young-Ooon and Zamzoong). Link to video ARTE: https://info.arte.tv/fr/en-coree-du-sud-les-femmes-lavant-garde-de-metoo  Youtube: https://youtu.be/0LyicbDm6Qg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/touslesinternets/videos/1796628110643850/?t=251 Twitter: https://twitter.com/lesinternets/status/992076098346381313

#MeToo in Korea: Professor Resigns Following Student Protest (SBS News)

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Featured image and video clip by SBS News About 2,800 students at Ewha Woman’s University occupied their campus this Thursday (29 March) chanting pop singer Younha’s hit song “Comet” (혜성), casting light with their cellphones, and waving purple balloons. The following day (30 March), one of the a professor had resigned. A week ago, the #MeToo movement took to universities across South Korea. Accusations quickly surfaced against two professors at the College of Music and at the College of Art (one specialising in orchestral music and the other in sculpture), for having harassed not one but several students. Ewha students organised a taskforce which led to the mass protest on Thursday. Students also carried on the tradition initiated at the Gangnam Murder – using Post-Its to voice their anger. Post-Its in the video are seen to state phrases such as “You’re not a professor, you’re a sex criminal” “Don’t cast dirt on our music. Stop making music” “Out with sex criminals” “I don’t want to learn anything from you” “Go! To jail!” “Let this crime …

How healthy is South Korea’s LGBT community (literally)?

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Dr. Seung-sup Kim of Korea University’s Department of Public Health Sciences and his team have been investigating the mental and physical health of LGBT individuals. The two-part project, entitled “Rainbow Connection” is a groundbreaking, comprehensive research into the LGBT community. For now, a journal article entitled “Health disparities between lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults and the general population in South Korea:  Rainbow Connection Project I” is available (on the LGB of LGBT), with a sample of over 2,000 individuals. A monograph on Part II, focusing on transgender health, is planned for publication in March 2018 (Korean). Key findings (numbers rounded to nearest digit): Lesbian and bisexual women reported poor health 1.80 and 2.24 times more frequently than women overall, while gay men and bisexual men do not show statistically significant differences; As compared to the general population, bisexual women showed the biggest difference in both mental and physical health issues, followed by lesbian women, bisexual men and gay men LGB adults, both women and men, reported significantly higher prevalence of musculo-skeletal pain (back pain, upper and lower …

“For Vagina’s Sake” (2018)

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“For Vagina’s Sake” is a documentary where women of all ages from South Korea and beyond gather to discuss what it means to menstruate, how to menstruate well, and why it has been taboo to discuss an everyday event. The film also shows the ingenious ways women have dealt with menstruation and menstruation products. Kim Boram, a first-time director, wanted to find the answers to a simple question: “Why do we use different menstrual products?”. Throughout her two-year shooting period, Kim learns how different women use different products: the sanitary pad reigns supreme in South Korea, while a Dutch woman has never used a pad but instead has used tampons since her first bleeding, one woman has not had her period for years thanks to an IUD, and others discover the menstrual cup. Women of different ages talk about how they dealt with or currently deal with their own periods. Older generations of women in South Korea tell youngsters how they used to deal with cloth pads: soaking the in their own urine, which also …

The legacy of Kim Bo-mi, South Korea’s first openly lesbian student president

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  Interview with Kim Bomi, 26 December 2015 Video from HuffPost Korea This is a follow-up post to my previous post on Kim Bo-mi’s election at Seoul National University (November 2015). Kim, the first openly lesbian student president at Seoul National University and in the country, discusses her coming out prior to launching campaign activities as both a symbol of resistance towards the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” atmosphere in South Korean society as well as to be true to herself. Her primary concern before making the decision to come out to the public was on how her family would be impacted by her decision, since everyone, not just her friends and family, would be able to know that she was lesbian. But in the end, Kim decided that it was worth taking the risk. She hoped that her example would encourage those who wanted to be true to themselves, while acknowledging that those who chose to keep their private lives private should have the right to do so – and it seems that she has …

Seoul National University Elects Country’s First-Ever Openly Lesbian Student President

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Kim Bomi with HankyorehTV (23 November 2015) Seoul National University (SNU), the mecca of Korean higher education and a source of admiration/grief for many high school students, has been home to QIS (Queen in SNU) since 1995. Their website has a roughly translated English version, and is mobile-friendly. Kim Bo-mi, a 22-year old at the Department of Consumer Science, ran unopposed and was elected with 86.8% of votes on a turnout of 53.3%. Kim has previously served as Vice-President of the Student Council (VP). She came out four days before the voting period (16th- 19th November), to much press coverage and public appraisal.  She and incoming VP Kim Min-seok (Dept. of Political Science and International Relations) campaigned for the following items To ban human rights violations, i.e. sexual assault and harassment To ban Protestant organisations from evangelising inside the campus To promote basic civic knowledge, i.e. CPR To recognise male students’ absences caused by army drills as justifiable Kim Bo-mi campaigned this August and September for the dismissal of two SNU professor accused of inflicting sexual violence on …

Millennial South Korean Feminist Movements – Press List

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“They say it’s a shame to be living in this strange country” “But we who fight are not ashamed of anything” (Picture from Womenlink) Here is a list of material covering millennial South Korean feminist movements. As a researcher, I am trying to compile a comprehensive list of academic literature, verified news articles and noteworthy opinion writing, and art projects on this topic. Please let me know if you feel something else should be added to this list at iamemilysingh@gmail.com 1. On Movements (Megalia, Womad, and others) Haengdonghaneun Megalia (Megalia in Action) 행동하는 메갈리아  (Anonymous, 6 Sept 2015 – 4 Dec  2015) http://timetree.zum.com/123516 Korean Feminism Reins In the Collective Power of the Internet  (Emily Singh, 8 Jan 2016) https://realkoreans.com/2016/01/08/korean-feminism-reins-in-the-collective-power-of-the-internet/ Megalia: South Korean Feminism Marshals the Power of the Internet (Emily Singh at Korea Exposé, 29 July 2016) https://koreaexpose.com/megalia-south-korean-feminism-marshals-the-power-of-the-internet/ “Megalia” seonghyang ttara womadeu, ladism deungeuro bunhwa (Megalia Splits into Groups Such As Womad And Ladism) – Retrieved from archive.fo ‘메갈리아’ 성향 따라 워마드·레디즘 등으로 분화 (Kim Seo-yeong at Kyunghyang Daily, 8 July 2016) https://archive.fo/20160724175513/http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201607082152005&code=940100#selection-1613.0-1613.27 In Defense …

South Korea and Racism. Again.

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Sam Okyere talks about racism in South Korea Just because you don’t know it’s called “being racist” doesn’t mean you’re not being one A couple of years back, I wrote about racism in Korea. Recently, Ghanaian-born South Korean TV star Sam Okyere’s JTBC interview has got South Koreans thinking about the issue of racism once again. Okyere’s experiences of racism, optimistic outlook, and integration in South Korean society echo those voiced earlier by Stanley Hawi in 2015. Racism exists in South Korea. There’s no denying this (There is racism in every society, no matter how”educated” or less “educated” their general population may be on the issue). It manifests itself in different ways: Here in South Korea, white women are labelled whores, because they are sexually liberated, so I, also a man, deserve to have a go at them. Korean women who date white men are seen as sluts, because they remind me of the government-sponsored whores we leased to the GIs. South Asian women are seen as subhuman, because we bought you, and thus you are a living doll, to …