[Cho-Lee Yeoul’s Editorial] Park Heejung’s Must You Be So Overly-Sensitive at Work?
By Cho-Lee
Yeoul
Published: December 5, 2012
Translated by Marilyn Hook
There are some moments in our lives that last in our memory
as historic events. One moment that I
remember vividly is related to an incident that formulated our society’s
concept of workplace sexual harassment.
In front of the Seoul National
University chemistry lab, on that day
◀ A civil suit brought the “Seoul National University professor
sexual harassment incident” to the public’s attention. The first trial resulted
in a decision for 30 million won compensation, which caused quite a stir in
Korean society. © Park
Heejung
In August 1993, a teaching assistant at Seoul National
University, who was not rehired after being sexually harassed by a professor,
made her story of pain and injustice known to the world through handmade
posters. In October of that year, the student council and women’s groups banded
together to file a civil suit against the professor, the university, and the
state, whose responsibility it was to oversee the public university, and this
incident--and with it, the concept of workplace sexual harassment--entered the
public consciousness in earnest.
After the first trial resulted in a verdict that the side of
the defendant, Professor Shin, pay 30 million won (about 37,000 USD at that
time) in compensation, an appeal quickly followed. At the end of a 5-year battle,
the Supreme Court ordered the defendants to pay 5 million won (about 4,200 USD
at that time) for the crime of “damage to personhood and dignity.”
In 1994, I was a freshman in university, and I went to the
front of the SNU chemistry department laboratory in which the appeals trial’s
on-scene inspection of the site was underway. The student council was holding a
rally condemning the professor’s abuse of his authority, and closer to the area
of the inspection, feminists were demonstrating with picket signs.
At that time, not only was there no law regarding workplace
sexual harassment, there was no social consensus on the meaning of the
professor’s actions toward the teaching assistant and that they were
problematic. Instead, the pervading mood treated the case as much ado about
nothing, wondering what the big injury was that justified a lawsuit, when he
hadn’t raped her or physically hurt her.
But the feminist activists at the site were letting us know
that this incident was not a disagreement between two individuals, it was
sexual violence that took advantage of rank and a serious crime that deprived a
female laborer of her right to work. They were calling on the judicial branch
to deliver a just decision.
School officials who had come out to the area of the
inspection ridiculed the activists, saying, “Ajumma*, why don’t you go home
and make dinner?” These “ajummas”
changed history. After the Supreme Court handed down its verdict in 1998,
sexual harassment was outlawed as part of laws dealing with sexual
discrimination and equal employment, and a system making preventative education
compulsory was created.
The victim, whose journey was long and
difficult; the people who supported her; her attorney, Park Won-soon; and the
feminists who supported the case for years, spread discussion about workplace
sexual harassment, and worked together to create countermeasures--these
people created a brighter future for us. One in which workers can make a living
more peacefully and safely, and women can claim equal rights with men.
People think they know, but they don’t
really understand
 |
| Ilda editor-in chief Park Heejung’s Must You Be So Overly Sensitive at Work? © Gilchatgi |
Now, as I read Ilda editor-in-chief Park Heejung’s graphic
nonfiction “sexual harassment story that everyone should read” Must You Be So Overly Sensitive at Work?
(publisher: Gilchatgi), thoughts about that historic time come rushing back--the
hopelessness I felt about what kind of place our society was, the sympathy I
felt and
support I gave for one woman’s pain and courage, and thankfulness
for the empowerment
gained through the passion and willpower of feminists
who strove to make a better society.
The book starts by depicting the Seoul National University
professor sexual harassment case. Ms. Park has said that she wrote the book
because “it’s been 15 years since the sexual harassment law was created, but
awareness of sexual harassment is still poor, and victims who speak up have to
go through a lot.”
The majority of South Koreans know that sexual harassment is
illegal, so why is it still a frequent occurrence? Why is it hard for victims
to make a complaint? Why do our citizens have to hear about sexual harassment
by politicians and public officials every year? Worse, why do our courts
produce unjust decisions that do not properly interpret sexual harassment law?
Must You Be So Overly Sensitive at
Work? answers these urgent questions. Through cartoons, it systematically explains
what sexual harassment is, its legal conception and social meaning, its effects
on individuals and communities, why it continues to happen, and how we can make
a workplace free of it.
At the book’s publication party at Redbooks, a social
science bookstore, on the 16th of last month, Ms. Park spoke about
the importance of sympathy. Many people think they know about the problem of
sexual harassment, while in reality, they don’t understand it, because they
can’t put themselves in the victims’ shoes. In her opinion, this is the true
reason why social awareness of this legally-prohibited behavior is poor and why
it keeps happening.
She began to feel
there was a problem when
she saw the frequency and
typical course of incidents of sexual harassment
during the course
her work at Ilda, and so
Ms. Park wrote and
drew a book “that can increase understanding
of sexual harassment.” She said that one advantage of the informal cartoon
style is that people “can read [about it] through people’s stories, people who are just like them,
so they can sympathize. Even though it is a
difficult subject that
can cause discomfort, it can be entertaining and easy to read about when
conveyed
through detailed reproduction of incidents and the conversational style of
cartoons.
This book
points out that when judging whether or not sexual harassment has occurred, we
must look not at the action but at the situation, and explains the
misconceptions and biases that many people have about sexual harassment. The
backdrop against which sexual harassment by public officials occurs, the
additional kinds of violence [emotional, social] that victims suffer, records
of small actions that change the world--I think this is information that
probably even experts, who know the law better than average people, need to
study anew.
The importance of spreading awareness
of sexual harassment
 |
| The publication party on Nov. 16th at Redbooks © Ilda |
When looked at from the
perspective of the dignity of human equals, sexual harassment can seem very
simple and clear. Why sexually harass a coworker, a junior, an employee? When a
worker who’s been sexually harassed asks for help, why does the employer take
disciplinary action against the victim instead of the perpetrator? Why do
coworkers take the perpetrator’s side and criticize the victim? Doesn’t everybody know these actions are
wrong?
The problem is that ideas of what
is “wrong” are different for different people. Or rather, that a sense of “the dignity of human equals” is not yet
widespread. Old customs still deeply-ingrained in our society are based on the
premise of the inequality of men and women, and are tainted by the social
customs of treating women’s bodies and souls as worth less than men’s.
Therefore, even though there are laws against sexual harassment, women who make
a complaint about being sexually harassed are automatically branded “abrasive
and overly-sensitive.”
When a court ruled that a 2004
incident in which an elementary school vice-principal ordered a female teacher
to pour alcohol for the principal at an office dinner was “not sexual
harassment,” controversy ensued. A teacher with 7 years of experience
contributed a column about office-party culture to Ilda, and reading her simple
wishes for school-staff culture made me sick at heart.
She wished for other teachers to
stop trying to demonstrate their loyalty by stationing young female teachers
next to the principal and vice-principal, and to stop pressuring others to pour
alcohol, to drink, and to go with the group to a second location, for sexual
harassment education to be given greater weight, for people to put themselves
in the victim’s shoes when sexual harassment becomes an issue, and that though
a drinking party for fun isn’t bad, for people to respect each other so that no
one becomes uncomfortable.
Since women have begun to advance
into the public sphere, the idea that female workers are not “office flowers”
but workers, just like male workers, has been advocated countless times. That
the concept of workplace sexual harassment exists and has become even this
well-known is the result of the sacrifices and effort of many people. Their
courage has been the force that has uprooted the customs and conventional
wisdom of gender discrimination--but we are not yet at the end of this journey.
If we want the idea that “sexual
harassment is unacceptable” to truly gain widespread acceptance, we must put in
extra effort to learn about sexual harassment in order to break down outmoded
traditions.
Park Heejung, the author of Must
You Be So Overly Sensitive at Work? and my colleague, is a person who has faith
in people’s potential to change. When incidents of sexual harassment, discrimination,
or violence occur, she is a person who talks about not only supporting the
rights of the victim to resolve the issue, but also giving the perpetrator an
opportunity to apologize and to self-reflect.
As
the author wishes that the book “helps initiate conversation about sexual
harassment in your domain,” I also wish for a more equal society, and hope
this: that in a time in which many workplaces still face the threat of sexual
harassment, many people gain the chance to learn and to broaden their awareness
of sexual harassment.
*Ajumma: “middle-aged woman” or “married woman”
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