MeToo Movement In Korea

MeToo Movement was started by Tarana Burke to encourage the victims of sexual harassment or sexual violence to speak out their experience, so that they can get sense of empathy and bring the public recognition. The movement spread throughout the world and impacted many countries. South Korea – among the East Asia countries – brought the largest number of media news and the public interests of MeToo Movement. (Fig.1)

(Fig.1) 664,991 social media posts founded about Korean MeToo Movement in between Jan 28th – Feb 27th. (source: 시장경제)

The movement continuously possessed on the headline of press several weeks and the disclosure relayed from all levels of society including press, religion, education, entertainment, politics, etc. Interestingly, there are some notable factors of the East Asia’s cultural characteristic – the grade of rank in every social dimension, and belated study and recognition of woman’s rights – that converged with MeToo Movement and it diverged from western MeToo Movement.

Development of Movement

The MeToo Movement in Korea gained the spotlight on January 29th, 2018. Prosecutor Seo Ji-hyeon exposed her experience of sexual assault within the prosecution department at JTBC. [1]
The disclosure incurred the public anger since Seo Ji-hyoen accused the perpetrator and tried to resolve within the prosecution department before she stood in front of the screen. However, it was pigeonholed by high-level prosecutor and also ministerial level. Press captured the circumstantial evidence that the prosecution – that supposed to deal with the justice – downsized the illegal acts, so it triggered further rage of the public. After the event, more disclosure of victims came out reporting man of eminence such as playwriter Lee Yountaek, poet Ko Un, and director Kim Ki-duk. President Moon countenanced MeToo Movement on Feb. 26th and the movement spreads out from all levels of society quickly.
Jo Min-ki, who is professor of Cheongju University and also actor, was accused with sexual assault suspicion by his student. Before the accusation, Jo Min-ki and his daughter showed up on the family-entertaining television program and beloved by many people. So the mass media companies featured this news competitively. News dealt about not only Jo Min-ki’s suspiction, but also his wife and daughter that put up on the headlines, and every single online news had thousands of comments about the family. On March 9th, Jo Min-ki committed suicide before the appearance to the police.
After that, it resulted many controversies with MeToo Movement, and the movement undergoes another phase of change.

Controversy

Along with this timeline, there are some backlash of movement and brought several controversies to the public.

Second assault
The second assault is any type of acts that disparages victims and dampens their willingness to fight. The assaults are usually made by digging up the victim’s personal information and releasing on the internet and commenting negatively using the perspective of assailant. Negative comment usually doubts ‘Why wouldn’t the victim accuse the crime at that time? Wouldn’t there be other reasons behind it?’ and describes victim as ‘gold-digger’. Another type of the second assault is to charge the victim with false accusation or with libel and slander. Even if it is true, one can be sued and punished for the libel and slander unless the claim is for the public interests. The second assault causes another agony to victims and their family.
Lynching
Lynching on suspects was made by the people’s court – not by the jurisdiction. This usually happened on the internet starting with the press framing the suspect as a perpetrator. The news on internet spreads out quickly and public gets negative perception on the suspect. So, before the refutation materials come out, the public strongly criticize the suspects and their family. (Jo Min-ki case) Moreover, regardless of the presumption of innocence, the public opinion may influence on the prosecution and police investigation.
False Accusation
False accusation is the reporting of a sexual assault where there are no assaults happened. As the one being reported as sexual perpetrator, he/she instantly becomes isolated from the society and loses their credibility of speech.

Conclusion

What are we fighting against?
During the research of MeToo Movement, I have seen many disclosures ended up creating the conflicts between man and woman on the internet comments. The continuous conflicts of sex are expected since the proportion of victims were mostly woman and the targets of false accusation were mostly man. However, as described previously the essence of the movement is to make a voice against the power related sexual assault. The violence of authority does not distinguish the gender. Moreover, assailant has potential to threat or to oppress physically and mentally by charging victims with defamation, giving disadvantage for work promotion, etc. (Fig.2)

(Fig.2) Prosecutor Seo Ji-hyoen case. She got transfer appointment 3 times within 4 days. (source: MBC news)

Therefore, Korea needs to get out of the man-versus-woman frame and needs to have a broader viewpoint on the movement. Korea is currently pulling up the oppressive and hierarchical structure in the society. During this extraction procedure there exist innocent suspects from the malicious disclosure and there exist victims of the second assault and public lynching by cyberbullies. However, it should be considered as pressing out the pus deeply rooted. The procedure is painful, sometimes makes an inflammation, and scars. Would it be better if we stop the movement and neglect the social illness because it makes the inflammations? I believe what Korea need is the ointment to victims and the encouragement to add momentum on MeToo Movement.

References

JTBC. (2018, Jan). ‘[Interview] ‘Disclosure of sexual assault in prosecution’ Prosecutor Seo Ji-hyoen’. Retrieved Jan, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjHcQhmfIVo
시장경제. (2018, Mar). ‘[데이터N] 들불처럼 번진 ‘미투’, 비트코인보다 10배 관심 많았다’. Retrieved Mar, 2018, from http://www.meconomynews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=11946. Big Data Analysis.
이나영. (2018, Mar). ‘미투 운동’을 대하는 언론의 자세’. Retrieved Mar, 2018, from http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Journal/ArticleDetail/NODE07406755 Title translation: ‘Stance of Press About ‘MeToo Movement’’
곽효정. (2018, Apr). ‘사회복지, 권력, 그리고 미투(#MeToo)’. Retrieved Apr, 2018, from http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Journal/ArticleDetail/NODE07407990 Title translation: ‘Social Welfare, Authority, and MeToo’
MBC. (2018, Apr). ‘”서지현 검사, 나흘간 3번 발령” … 인사보복 정황’. Retrieved Apr, 2018, from http://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2018/nwdesk/article/4577086_22663.html Title translation: ‘”Prosecutor Seo Ji-hyoen, get transfer appointment 3times within 4 days” … evidence of retaliation’