Lee Gahyeon’s Gender Prism: Tak Hyun-min Must Go
By Lee Ga-hyeon
Published: July 2,
2017
Translated by:
Bongsoo Park
※ Editor's note: The “Gender Prism” column
focuses on the voices and perspectives of feminists in their 20s and 30s. The
writer, Lee Ga-hyeon, is a member of Fireworks Femi-Action.
The "government
with gender sensitivity" keeps getting embroiled in controversy
President Moon
Jae-In has been promoting himself as someone with keen gender sensitivity since
before he was elected to the office. Once elected, Moon announced that his
administration would practice “gender-equal governance.” He has occupied the
office for less than two months, but the people are disappointed already: Moon has
failed to deliver on his promises and the people question the wisdom of an administration
that appoints to public positions candidates who have track records of
denigrating women in public and private.
For one, there is
Ahn Kyeong-hwan, Minister of Justice-designate and former chairman of the National
Human Rights Commission of Korea. Ahn turned out to be a fraud and a criminal
who, when he was young, forged his then-girlfriend’s stamp to register their
marriage without her consent. This despicable act was made public when the fact
that the woman had filed for an annulment was discovered. His abusive and
misogynistic views on women are evinced in his recent publication What Are Men (November 2016), particularly in comments that read
as justification for buying and selling sexual services.
Ahn says a number
of inappropriate things about women in this book. Consider these statements,
for instance: “Young women’s bodies are the fountain of youth and vitality. It
is only natural that men wish to dip into that fountain to get a new lease on
life.” “Women are a necessary accompaniment to libations. This is the universal
culture of drinking.” “My wife, just like all Korean mothers, is so occupied
with rearing young children that she does not give any thought to her husband’s
sexual needs.”
Ahn eventually
recused himself from consideration for the position, but the Moon administration’s
personnel problems did not abate. Another of the administration’s designees,
Tak Hyun-min, revealed his true color as a certifiable male chauvinist pig. Tak
was an adjunct Professor of Journalism at Sungkonghoe University before he was
designated as Chief Administrator-designate in the Office of Secretary to the
President. The books he published between 2007 and 2012 shamelessly display his
discriminatory and disparaging remarks about women. Tak writes:
“A woman who asks a
man to put on a condom makes him doubt if she is a willing partner,” “As a man,
I feel like a victim of terrorism whenever I see flat-chested women wearing
revealing tank tops,” and “If you’re already scantily-clad, don’t bother with underwear”
These quotes are from The
Guide to Men's Minds
(2007).
“Because I was not
in love with the woman to whom I lost my virginity, I couldn’t care less about
her. My friends and I shared that woman,” “Husbands are more likely to be
unfaithful than wives because, unlike wives who stay home and experience little
personal growth, husbands are out in society where they have ample
opportunities to meet improved women.” These are from The More You Speak, The More Liberated You
Will Be (2007), which Tak
co-authored.
“I feel sorry for lonely
and pathetic women. I am self-sacrificing when I am willing to act as an oppa[1]
for them.If I appear to be a jerk or a macho man, that’s because my sexual
identity is very clear. I wish to be a man to every woman, except to my
mother.” These are from Mentions
of Tak Hyun-min (2012).
How could we
entrust the position of Chief Administrator in the Office of Secretary to the
President to this man who insists that men should ditch the condoms despite a reality
in which women bear the consequences of unprotected sex and are criminalized
for ending unwanted pregnancy, this man who blames husbands’ infidelity on their
wives’ lack of personal growth, and says without hesitation that he wishes to
be every woman’s oppa? Many feminists
have been making clear demands that Tak be removed from the consideration. The
Moon administration remains silent on this matter, which is costing it
credibility.
Who is the scummiest
scumbag?
An online petition
for the removal of Tak is circulating. The petitioners, “People with Common
Sense Who Demand the Removal of Tak”, have announced that they will make a
public statement about the petition in front of the [presidential] Blue House
if Tak is not removed by midnight on July 5, 2017.
 |
| Fireworks Femi-Action gathered in front of the Blue House on June 23, 2017 to hold pickets and demand the removal of Tak. © Courtesy of Fireworks Femi-Action |
The members of
Fireworks Femi-Action gathered at the Blue House on June 23, 2017 to publicize
our demand for Tak’s removal. We read out loud our manifesto “Get Rid of Tak
the Sex Maniac” and held pickets to further publicize the cause. When photographs
of this event were posted online by a media outlet, over 300 comments were
posted below it. Most of them were supportive of the Moon administration. These
responses may be divided into two categories of excuses: “Boys will be boys”
and “Sack the true swines [Hong Jun-pyo and Chung Woo-taik] first.”
Some of the
responses in the first category argue thusly: “Were you born yesterday? Men
have always been like that.” “Men have nothing but sex in their heads.” “Did
you not know men and women are built differently?”
On the surface,
they appear to demean men. What they really mean, however, is that men behave
like that because of their “natural” sexual needs and therefore women must stop
making a fuss about it. This line of argument says it’s all right for men to
leer at women as if they were pieces of meat, rate them based on their physical
attractiveness, “share” a woman with friends for sex, and refuse to wear a
condom during sex. How is it that such
an uncivilized person is a candidate for a civil service position in this
republic?
Many feminists came
out to the Blue House in that sweltering summer heat because they sought to
bridle the absurd conventional wisdom that perpetuated the sexist behaviors.
The argument premised on the male libido has been used to perpetrate violence
against women, and we wanted to show that we would no longer abide it.
Those who argue
that “Hong Jun-pyo and Chung Woo-taik must go first!” seem more excusable than
the first group of responses. This second group argues:
“Did you try to get
rid of Hong Jun-pyo and Chung Woo-taik when their sexual misconduct was
reported? [You didn’t, so] Were you scared then, but not now? “There is a man
who used a sexual stimulant for pigs for attempted rape. There is also a man
who hoisted drinks infused with woman’s panties. And then there is a man who
simply wrote down what average men are thinking. Which one is a true swine?”
When asked who is
the scummiest scumbag among Hong Jun-pyo, Chung Woo-taik, and Tak Hyun-min, we can
only say, “All of them.” The conservative male politicians who have been
assaulting and harassing women with their words and actions normalized a
culture of rape in Korea, and Tak’s complicity contributes to and further
perpetuates this culture of sexism. The Moon administration must resist lowering
itself to the level of right wing politicians.
 |
| The members of Fireworks Femi-Action protesting in front of the Blue House on June 23, 2017. © Courtesy of Fireworks Femi-Action |
The government
of gender equality does not need an oppa
Tak enjoyed the
limelight when kindred souls welcomed his machismo with cheers, but now, as the
designee of a public position, he says, “Oops, sorry!,” and wants to get off
scot-free. We say, “Hell, no.” Public officers serve at the pleasure of the
people and must be answerable to the public. We owe it to the next generation to
bring Tak to justice and make sure no chauvinistic pig will ever set foot in
the door of public positions in the future.
Hong Jun-pyo, the
Liberty Korea Party nominee for the 2017 presidential election, in effect
confessed in his 2005 memoir that, when he was in college, he tried to help his
housemate have sex with a woman by securing him a rape drug—a sexual stimulant
for a pig. Although, according to the memoir, the drug was useless and no rape was
committed, there was a public uproar over this unscrupulous behavior during the
2017 campaign. Feminists and Moon Jae-In supporters alike condemned Hong. When
president-elect Moon took the oath of office a few months later, however, the
same supporters who denounced Hong responded differently to Tak-the-sex-maniac.
They turned on feminists, calling them “feminazis” and asking, “Who put you up
to this?”
Male progressive
activists have a history of sexually assaulting their fellow female travelers
and then claiming, when the women spoke up about it, that the accusations were
a ruse cooked up by right-wingers to tar and feather their cause, thus
re-victimizing the women. This history was documented in Jeon Hee-kyung’s 2008
publication I Don’t Need an Oppa, an
indictment against the patriarchal progressives of the 1980s. It saddens me
that not much progress has been made in this regard since the 1980s, and I
still need to tell a man like Tak Hyun-min in this century, “I don’t need an oppa.” The non-violent impeachment of
Park Geun-hye in 2016 is a giant step forward for democracy. But how much
progress are we making when it comes to the treatment of women? Will women’s
humanity ever take priority in this country? We eagerly await the Moon
administration’s answer.
[1] Oppa: here referring to a
term “used to flirt and show affection for an
older guy not related to” the female user. (Dramafever.com)
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