misogyny
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S. Korea Has a Female Foreign Minister. But "Women Are Still Inferior."
Segye Ilbo reporter Kim Ye-jin was having dinner on Sep. 14 with fellow journalists covering the foreign ministry. A high-ranking ministry official was also present. This wasn’t unusual; it’s typical for journalists reporting on government ministries to dine with officials. But unusually, Kim wrote about the
50,000 Won for Loose Dogs, Public Smoking, and Death Threats
On Aug. 10, a South Korean broadcast jockey (BJ) live-streamed his quest to track down and “kill” a female YouTuber. But he’s not the only one being criticized online — netizens are just as angry and taken aback by the police who handled the case, by fining the jockey a
Ppira: Women's Bodies as Bait in Propaganda War Between Two Koreas
A woman with curled up hair and enamel white pumps flashes her legs in an archetypal Marilyn Monroe posture — wind blows from below, ballooning up her flowing dress, which she pushes down just before revealing too much. “Who’s stopping you?” “If you run, it takes just five minutes!
Please Don't Walk Away Next Time You Hear a Scream
Imagine this. After a late evening golf practice, you light a cigarette and walk into the parking lot. Then, you hear a scream of a woman and see a pair of legs sticking out of one car. What would you do? On June 24, a woman surnamed Kim was abducted
We Need to Tak about Hyeon-min
In a chapter of “A Manual for the Male Mind,” author Tak Hyeon-min provides a succinct bit of mansplaining. He recommends the old-fashioned pull-out method during intercourse as a means of birth control, his point being that since using a condom impedes the formation of “a next-level emotional rapport,” women
Where Are All the Women in South Korea's Democracy Protests?
Moon Young-me was one of the five million South Koreans estimated to have come out onto the streets in June 1987. She was bare-faced, wearing no makeup or fancy clothing. That was the norm for the student protest culture at the time. She was a 21-year-old history major, a transfer
What If Snow White Was Fat?
Snow White steps into the room and takes her robe off after a long day. Two dwarfs, accidentally entering the room through a magic teleporting mirror, hurriedly hide under a sofa, leering at her as she undresses herself. She goes on to take off her red heels, in an oddly
More Than Fat
In one comedy sketch, an overweight woman wearing sparkling jewelry and a comely black dress scarfs down food. A man acting as her manager yells, “Min-kyoung, wake up! How many times have I told you to lose that weight? How can you call yourself a woman and not make the
Murder at Gangnam Station: A Year Later
Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the murder near Gangnam Station in Seoul, South Korea. Nearly a thousand people — mostly in the younger generation — silently marched across the streets of Gangnam, paying tribute to a 23-year-old woman who died in the hands of a stranger in a public
Meet S Korea's "Feminist" Grandpas
Handmaids are a rare breed in the Republic of Gilead, where most women are barren. The purpose of their existence is to reproduce. If these few fertile women shirk their duty to breed, they face immediate execution or, worse, are banished to “The Colonies” to die slowly of radiation poisoning.
The "Mrs. Kim" Cliché: Hyundai Motor's Ads Patronize Women
Kim-yeosa, or “Mrs. Kim,” is a widely known term in South Korea. It’s used to demean female drivers — often those of older generations — who are clumsy on the road. “There goes Mrs. Kim,” one might say, when a female driver doesn’t abide by
Twitter User Flags 'PedoFILA' Controversy
An old advertisement is suddenly going viral online in South Korea. Keywords: “pedoFILA” and “sexualization.” Against a pink background, dotted with strawberry patterns, “Strawberry gelato” is written in playful cursive lettering. By the way, this ad is not for a new flavor of Baskin Robbins. Underneath the script, a sneaker