Living as a Young Woman in South
Korea ⑳ The difficult position of a ggwon-femi
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By Gorae
Published Dec. 13, 2016
Translated by Marilyn Hook
※ Editor’s note:
To begin a new feminist discourse in 2016, Ilda has run a twenty-part series on
“Living as a Young Woman in South Korea.” The series received support from the
Korea Foundation for Women’s “Funding for Gender-Equal Society.”
Male seniors who have the powers of both age and gender
Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to be a person who
helps others. Up through high school, I was trapped by college entrance exam
preparation and couldn’t really get involved in the activities I wanted, but in
university I started to look for meaningful activities. In my second year, I
joined a club for showing solidarity with cleaning staff at our university. Taking
part in the struggle to increase meal reimbursements for them that began that very
same year was my first encounter with social activism. I’ve been involved with
it since then. I haven’t been doing it for a long time, but meeting and working
with the other people who do it has changed me a lot.
Within activist organizations, there is usually a
hierarchical structure of “juniors” and “seniors” based on age and time active
in the organization. Male seniors who have the authority of both age and gender
have caused both large and small problems within the organizations.
Male seniors who ask female juniors to lend an ear while
they complain about not having any outlet for their sexual desires. Male
seniors who ask, “Are you two dating?” if you call a senior “oppa[1].”
Male seniors who, when they’re angry, slam doors open and make everyone
anxious. Male seniors who argue during meetings and then push their chairs in with
a bang. Male seniors who get drunk and grab female juniors’ hands. Male seniors
who freely massage female juniors’ shoulders, caress their hair, or, when
talking together, touch their arms. Male seniors who say that the most
important thing about the student body president is that he or she be
attractive…
And even though most of the people causing sexual
discrimination or sexual harassment problems in activist organizations are men,
most of the organizations’ leaders are also men. The male leader of one group
that I am a part of said in reference to this, “Men are socialized to be
leaders. That’s why women have some difficulties leading.” If that’s true, then
we, as people working to make an equal world, should be taking aggressive
action to support women in becoming leaders. But this kind of project was
always pushed aside. It was common for feminist seminars and activism to get
cancelled or scaled down, supposedly because another issue was more urgent.
When participating in demonstrations, I’ve seen male
protesters tell women to go to the back of the crowd so that they don’t get
hurt, or order them to the front. The reason for the latter is that male police
officers have orders not to make physical contact with female protesters, so
the protest leaders send them to the front like hostages. I’ve heard that some
women’s Internet communities see this and say that ggwon-chung[2]
use women as meat shields. Though this isn’t the case universally, it isn’t
entirely wrong either, so I couldn’t really say anything in return.
Whether protected or used as hostages, women in this area
are required to become tough. The activists who have been judged “mentally weak”
or told they are “whiny” or “emotional” are all women. I’ve also been judged
this way. In this atmosphere, I started to hide my femininity more and more,
and began to adjust to this patriarchal and authoritative culture. The
discomfort that I report and the concerns I raise about sexual violence are
usually called “emotional” and “private” things and met with incomprehension or
demands for concrete examples and impossibly detailed explanations.
 |
| Even within organizations calling for social reform, men and women are not on equal footing. |
The social activism field as I imagined it was a
community of people striving for equality. So when I first encountered
authoritarian culture and anti-feminism in activist organizations, I was
baffled and depressed. But I had entered this space of my own accord in order
to put into practice the things that I believe are right, in order to make a
world in which all people can be happy, and I still wanted the recognition of
the people I was working with. So I tried to become a person whose mentality
was strong (heedless of her surroundings). And I made an effort not to be hurt
by the cruel remarks that passed by my ears.
When we went to do volunteer work in a rural area and the
local residents only sought male students to move heavy loads, I stepped forward,
saying I could do it too. I think I believed that the way to be treated the
same as men was to be able to carry heavy loads like them. There was even a
time when I used to go around saying to the other women that if we wanted to be
treated like the men in the various areas of struggle, we had to build up our
physiques. I advised them to eat heartily and work out.
Feeling a sense of freedom created by the struggle led by
women
As a person who had become a kind of “honorary man,” the
Internet trend of women “mirroring” male netizens’ misogynistic speech back at
them came as a big shock. The MERS Gallery site and Megalia, and now Womad,
have started to reveal the presence of women that didn’t seem to be visible
before, started to make their voices heard. Through mirroring, they’ve started
to point out the misogyny that used to seem as normal as air and found a freer
alternative.
I was confused. Inwardly, I found Megalia’s language,
which so exactly explained my life, gratifying, but I couldn’t use it myself.
Even as I thought that the language they use and the feelings they express are
justified self-defense, I never said out loud that I support Megalia. I think I
was afraid of something. Of thinking from a woman’s point of view again, of
speaking up as a woman. I think I was
scared that all that I had worked to build up in the activist world would
crumble.
But since the appearance of Megalia, when female
activists gather, they’ve talked about Megalia and shared the discomfort they’d
been hiding. And by sharing our worries and developing an awareness of the
issues, we’ve begun to change.
In April of this year, I joined labor party feminists to
help with candidate Ha Yun-jeong’s National Assembly election campaign as part
of a “feminist camp” of supporters. After fierce discussion, we decided to
campaign on free menstrual products and a law preventing hidden cameras. Most
importantly, we filed a constitutional appeal against the current election law
that limits the campaign activity of unmarried candidates (by allowing the
spouse or direct descendant of the candidate, or one person that the spouse
designates, to distribute the candidate’s business card). This law was recently
decided to be partially unconstitutional (the part allowing the candidate’s
spouse to designate another person). If you’re curious about this, do an
Internet search for Ha Yun-jeong! We really did a great thing.
 |
“Are we press conference women?” Fireworks Femi-Action, which was born from Megalia and the memorial space of Gangnam Station’s Exit 10. ⓒ Gorae
|
And then, last May, a woman was murdered in a building near Gangnam Station. To die for the sole reason of being a woman, on the busiest street in the Republic of Korea… I had usually liked to be out late at night, but I really felt that I could have been the victim of this murder, and that I was lucky to be alive. Led by women online, people started leaving memorial sticky notes on Exit 10 of Gangnam Station. The women who gathered in front of Exit 10 felt sadness, fear, and anger. Because of this incident, they began to express their anger in their own words.
That was the first time I’d seen women step forward and take action on a women’s issue. The female activists I had been working with saw this and started to get excited. We had been talking about feminism within our organizations, but had always seen it treated as less important than other issues. We thought the moment for a feminist struggle had finally come, because while countless women had been murdered during our lifetimes, this was the first time that there had been such a reaction to it.
So we ggwon-femi[3]
decided to unite and do something. Having only participated in activism
directed and led by men, we were excited to do everything ourselves. We went to the public stage set up at Exit 10
and spoke, and, in the press conference style that we - as activists - are good
at, we denounced the crime as not a “random” murder but a misogynistic one.
We soon made the name “Fireworks Femi-Action.” These
firework-like women organized a “Take Back the Night” demonstration like the
ones that another feminist organization had been holding. We held a “Top Armpit
Hair” competition and talked about bodily liberation, and, while beginning a
campaign to abolish the law against abortion, first began to speak about sex
and sexuality. I felt more of a sense of liberation and self-efficacy than I
ever had before. I believed that these were truly my issues, and I was happy
that I could talk about them and engage in activism related to them.
Looked down on as feminists and ridiculed as ggwon-chung
And yet – unlike what we felt, the women’s site that has led the
mirroring movement on the Internet saw us as ggwon-chung. Ggwon-chung
are targets of criticism. They say that now that feminism is becoming popular,
activists want to get a piece of the pie, that we will throw them away after
using them, that we are actually being controlled by men behind the scenes, and
that we are “honorary dicks.”
We can’t really say anything in rebuttal, because they
are pointing out real problems in the activist world. I was an honorary man, activists that I saw did watch to see what issues were coming up in society and join in,
and it’s true that feminism was always put on the back burner. And it’s true
that in most activist organizations, men are the leaders and have the greatest
responsibility and authority.
Being criticized as ggwon-chung
by women who I believe are on the same side as us, I reflected on my past
as someone who accepted the patriarchy of the activist world and attempted to
win recognition within it. But at the same time, I was hurt that there was no
mention of the female activists who, while victims of this patriarchy, had also
engaged in feminist activism within that world, pointing out this or that
issue.
Being denigrated in activist organizations by comments
like “feminists aren’t good at being part of organizations” or “feminists are
all talk”, and criticized by online feminists who say that “ggwon-femi are controlled by men within
the activist world” or that we “plan to exploit feminists” – my heart became full of mixed emotions.
 |
| An event held by Fireworks Femi-Action, pointing out that the Gangnam Station murder was not random but an act of misogyny. ⓒGorae |
Feminists from the activist world, speak up
Even with the anger and sense of unfairness that I’ve
been suppressing for so long in activist organizations, I haven’t left that
world. This is because of the “ggwon-femi”
that I’ve worked with and have exchanged comfort and support with. When I’ve
doubted myself in this world, I might have quit immediately without my friends
that told me that I wasn’t the problem. I’m so thankful to the female activists
who stand beside me and defend our position stoutly, and I think that I must do
the same.
And because of the social atmosphere in which women are
calling for human rights for themselves and because there are ggwon-femi fighting the feminist fight
within the activist world, I think that the activist world can also engage in
some self-reflection. The number of people within this sphere who agree with
the need for feminist activism is increasing. As women slowly gather and move
forward one step at a time with feminist activism, the share of male activists
who support them have been a great source of strength.
While studying feminism, I’ve come to think that the
leftist movements that oppose capitalism also need to fight for the abolishment
of patriarchy. Will gender discrimination disappear just because all labor
becomes considered valuable? Just because our society becomes a little more
equal so that housework and care work are better compensated than before, will
men voluntarily become providers of care?
Before, I had never had the courage to ask these kinds of
questions, and there was no one who could answer them. But now, as I read
feminist books, I’m slowly gaining the necessary language. I’m increasing the
number of things in society and in my activist community that I need to
question and fight against. When gwon-femi
like me search for a language to explain themselves, they find an opportunity
to affirm and to love the selves that they’ve been denying, and I think that
this will give them the strength to slowly but surely destroy the patriarchy of
the activist world.
At a supporters’ event for an activist organization, we
made a set of tips for enjoying the event in a more equal way and distributed
it with the food and drink menu. We made posts on social media sites about
discrimination we’d faced while engaging in activism as young women. These
days, in order to encourage self-reflection in the activist world, we are
making newsletters and handouts about how to respect female activists, young
activists, and minority activists. We are going to pass them out at rallies,
and I’m curious how the recipients will respond to them.
The community of people engaging in social activism has to resemble
the society we are striving towards. We need to be more gender-equal than other
areas. That’s why I think activists need to put effort into self-reflection and
development. I want the activist men I know to read a lot of feminist books,
attend feminist lectures, listen to what women say, and participate in feminist
movements led by women. I believe that if they do that, we’ll be able to create
a gender-equal organizational culture and then a gender-equal society. In the
future, other ggwon-femi and I are
going to continue working to abolish gender discrimination both inside and
outside of the activist world. The more we connect with each other, the
stronger we become.
* Original article: http://ildaro.com/sub_read.html?uid=7696
[1] A term that young women used to address an older male relative,
older male friend, or boyfriend.
[2] A derogatory term for social activists that roughly translates to “activist
bugs.”
[3] A derogatory term used by some feminists (particularly those in
Megalia) to describe feminists who are part of and seem more concerned with
other social justice movements.
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