[VIDEO NEWS] “Why we won’t give up on feminism”
-Baek Ji-eun, Seoul University’s student minority rights committee
-Yoon Won-jeong, President of Dongguk University Female Student Council
-Song Sae-bom, President of Yonsei University Female Student Council
-Park Ji-soo, Chairperson of Chung-Ang University’s Gender Equality Committee
-Kim So-yeon (assumed name), Korea University’s Women’s Committee
-Kim Young-eun (assumed name), Korea University’s Women’s Committee
1) Q: Gender equality is being realized well in our school.
2) No one says yes.
3) Q: Our school is doing a good job dealing with gender issues.
4) No one says yes.
5) Q: Gender problems at our school are much worse than they appear.
6) Everyone says yes.
7) Q: I think a female student council is necessary.
8) Again, everyone says yes.
9) Q: I have regretted becoming a feminist once in a while.
10) Four say yes.
11) Q: As an activist, I have felt threatened
12) Everyone says yes.
13) Q: What are some examples of sexism or misogyny that happen in your schools?
14) -“Too many.” –“Yeah, too many.”
15) “There were talks of making Sungshin Women’s University into a coed school.
16) And there were posts in Korea University’s online community that said
17) ‘Sungshin chicks are sheathes for our dicks. It can’t become coed.’”
18) “It was mentally hard on me, so I couldn’t read all of them.” - Young-eun (assumed name, Korea University)
19) “When the candidates for the Female Student Council were revealed, their names and photos began to spread on the internet.”
20) “’The candidate bitches should become public whores.’ Posts on the school community said things like that.” - Ji-hye (Hanyang University)
21) “One professor had female students come up to the front of the class, asked them their ideal types, then had the male students choose one each and have them form a team for a group project.”
22) “I heard something similar happens in hostess bars.” - Sae-bom (Yonsei University)
23) “I think every school’s feminist magazine has been called the ‘feminazi magazine.’”
24) "Once, a ton of copies of our school's feminist magazine were thrown out."
25) "We found about forty issues in the garbage, as if it was on purpose."
26) “That paper was also called a feminazi magazine. They call everything feminazi.” - Ji-soo (Chung-Ang University)
27) Q. What’s the most difficult part of being a feminist in college?
28) “Having to check myself constantly?”
29) “I know what I’m saying is right. But I have to word it very subtly.”
30) “Really, I have something that’s just on the tip of my tongue. But I also know that if I say that, I will be attacked.” - Won-jeong (Dongguk University)
31) “I don’t understand why they’re so interested in my parents.”
32) “What really was difficult for me during the election period was people cutting up my body, every part of my body into nanometers and commenting on it. I began to think that although I came up front as a candidate, to become a leader what mattered was only whether I passed as a woman, and that really got to me.” - Sae-bom(Yonsei University)
33) “I get tired, hurt and angry working in this community, but it’s not like I can leave it.”
34) “I have to stay among the members of this community for at least four years.” - So-yeon (Korea University)
35) “We can only say what’s totally ‘safe.’ And even if I do that, some male student I don’t know hates me for it.”
36) “Once I got this ‘love letter’ from an anonymous person, and it said ‘you’re famous among us as Hanyang University’s feminazi.’ Actually I was a bit proud. I was like, ‘Oh, that was fast.’ The letter said, ‘Hey, you did this in this lecture and that in that lecture,’
# just like a stalker. That was a little scary. I tried to laugh it off, but it scared me.” - Ji-hye (Hanyang Univesity)
37) Q. How can gender equality be realized within universities?
38) “To put it simply, I wish people would just listen.”
39) “We’re not even trying to exclude men, or trying to say they’re just evil We just want to talk about overcoming the conflict
# and about which direction we must go in. That’s all we’re saying. And it feels like I’m talking to a wall.” - Kim So-yeon (assumed name, part of Korea University’s Women’s Committee)
40) “I really thought we should have power. The young feminists and slightly older feminists should band together, and the currently existing feminist groups within universities should be well organized."
41) I hope they can speak with more power through that.” - Sae-bom (Yonsei University)
42) “For me, there’s only one reason we need gender equality. Because we are not yet equal. And if we want equality, we have to talk about equality, and about feminism constantly.” - Ji-eun (Seoul Universtiy)
43) “There’s a very famous feminist slogan: We are each other’s courage."
44) "I’m always reminded of that phrase. I gained courage to speak up through others, and others have gained courage through me. And I thought, another female student from Chung-Ang University might gain courage through me again, watching this interview. I think that’s what the Gender Equality Committee is all about.” - Ji-soo (Chung-Ang University)
45) The courage to say that a problem is a problem when you see one.
46) We are your courage.
Video sourced form JoongAng Ilbo
Directed by Choi Kyu-jin
Filmed by Kong Seong-ryong, Jung Soo-kyung
Produced by Cho Su-jin, Park Jong-hyun
Translated by Kim Hyo-jung
Edited by Matthew Silberman
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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