Behind misogyny is enmity toward minorities, underdogs

Disabled activists sit in front of the National Police Agency in Seoul in protest of the police association over the recent Gangnam murder committed by a man with mental illness, Friday. They claimed not all mentally ill people are murderers, and that the Gangnam incident was a clear hate crime against women, demanding an apology from the police.
/ Yonhap

By Choi Sung-jin

"Chinese chaps are uncivilized cockroaches." "Are you disabled or something?" "Bag your face, you old bat." "Like a bitch in heat!"

These are typical expressions denouncing specific social groups and classes ― foreigners, physically challenged people, elderly citizens and women ― found increasingly frequently on the Internet.

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) reviewed 1,059 hate expressions in the first 11 months of last year, up 30 percent from a year ago, and demanded corrections to 833 of them. Most of these were words despising and ostracizing specific individuals and groups for racial, sexual, regional and physical reasons.

The recent murder of a woman by a male schizophrenic near Gangnam Subway Station has touched off a fierce social debate about widespread misogyny in Korea. Behind it, however, is hatred for social minorities and underdogs ― including migrant laborers, handicapped people and LGBT ― which watch for opportunities for eruption.

"In sociological terms, extremists are using hatred as a logic and mechanism to justify their ganging up on social minority groups, against the backdrop of intensifying neo-liberalistic competition which has led to individual resignation, moral collapse and spreading anxiety," said Professor Kim Ho-ki of Yonsei University on his Facebook page.

Another expert agreed. "Hatred for specific groups existed in the past, but these days some are expressing their abhorrence of social minority groups more strongly than ever," said Park Kwon-il, the author of "880,000-Won Generation."

"These attackers tend to think at a time when contradictory social structure makes their lives more difficult than before, women and migrant workers are receiving benefits beyond their abilities and qualifications at the expense of Korean males, and such perverse awareness seems to instigate their emotions of hatred more."

Meanest of all is the degrading of physically challenged people.

An ultra-rightists' blog, named "Ilbe" (Korean abbreviation of "daily best"), posted a table listing the commonalities of women and handicapped people, such as "depending on parents or the opposite sex," "benefiting from welfare organizations," and "not fulfilling four major duties of citizens." Ilbe members use the word "handicapped" as synonymous with "lacking" or "miserable" by, for instance, calling unhandy people "dexterity-handicapped" ones.

Loathing of disabled people is often seen in daily life, too. A crippled worker said: "One day, when I attempted to get aboard a bus on an electric wheelchair, someone said, ‘why should you be moving around like this during rush hour?'"

A total of 4,490 petitions involving physically challenged people, or 42 percent of the total, were filed with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea last year. Among them were complaints against landlords who, on knowing their would-be tenants were hearing-impaired, canceled leasing contracts, and restaurant owners who refused to let in blind people accompanied by seeing-eye dogs.

After it was learned the murder suspect, 34, was suffering from schizophrenia, some are even calling for the alienation of all mentally challenged people from society, regarding them as potential murderers. "The recent tragedy illustrates how state agencies' discriminatory perception against disabled people (that they could prevent such incidents by just resolving mental illnesses) has been spread to cause popular hatred of handicapped people," said Park Kim Young-hee, head of the Solidarity for Promoting the Elimination of Discrimination Against Disabled People.

No less serious is the abhorrence of sexual minorities.

Last Tuesday, the Christian Democratic Union of Korea (CDUK), a political party of conservative Christians, filed a lawsuit against Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon to suspend the execution of his permission for gays and lesbians to use the Seoul Plaza for a queer festival on June 11, saying "homosexual love is a form of corrupt sexual culture and a repellant act."

A lecturer at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies had to quit his job recently after students protested at his remarks in classes, such as "homosexuals are people who have acquired mental disease requiring treatment," and "100 percent of homos are AIDS patients."

Sexual minorities are exposed routinely to social hatred. According to a KCC survey in 2014, 92 percent of 200 teenage respondents said they had heard hate speech from other students, and 41.7 percent of respondents aged 20 or older said they had experienced alienation, cajoling and sexual violence at the office because of sexual identity problems. Organizations that hate sexual minorities are holding human rights forums under the slogan "treat and heal homosexuals."

"The anti-homosexual atmosphere has become stronger since 2007, when there was a social controversy over enacting a law aimed at preventing discrimination, and a conservative party took political power the following year," said Han Ga-ram, a member of Korean Lawyers for Public Interest and Human Rights.

Equally pitiable are many Koreans' treatments of migrant workers.

Sek al-Mamun, a Bangladeshi who migrated to Korea to work, received a phone call from a Korean who said: "Why did you come to others' land and work here, taking away the jobs of us Koreans?"

When al-Mamun said they were here at the invitation of the Korean government and Koreans are also working in other countries, the man said foreigners should not come to Korea, whether they are invited or not, and hung up.

The Bangladeshi also recalled hearing two Koreans standing beside him in a subway train saying: "I feel like killing all Muslims here."

According to a survey of 7,640 Koreans by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family last year, 31.8 percent said they would not get along well with foreign workers and migrants as neighbors, far higher than the comparable rate of 13.7 percent among Americans, 10.6 percent for Australians and 3.5 percent for Swedes.

"Many Korean employers use abusive words against foreign workers," said Park Jin-woo, secretary general of the Migrant Workers' Union. "If the workers report their employers to local labor offices, these employers say, ‘Are these the thanks for taking and raising you dogs?' not regarding them as humans."

There are also tendencies to treat migrant workers as "potential criminals." During parliamentary elections in April, CDUK said if the government pushes ahead with creating a halal industrial complex and allows 300,000 Muslims to live there, Korea will be a terrorism-prone country. According to government data in 2013, however, Koreans committed 3,637 crimes per 100,000 people, while foreigners committed only 1,585 crimes per 100,000 people.

Experts want systemic devices to prevent the spread of hate culture, by punishing hate speech against not only specific individuals but groups and classes, and enacting laws that stipulate additional punishment for hate crimes.