Ed Custom or crime?

A promotional board established in honor of the Lee Youn-taek at an elementary school in Busan is taken down Monday after sexual abuse allegations erupted against the famed theatrical director. Yonhap

Past standards are not excuses for sexual misconduct

Two cultural luminaries have become the center of public indignation in light of the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse of women that is quickly spreading to all corners of Korean society.

The first is Lee Youn-taek, a famous theatrical director and writer. The other is the poet Ko Un, the local media’s longtime favorite candidate for a Nobel Prize in literature.

Much like Hollywood’s sexual predators such as Harvey Weinstein who ignited the #MeToo movement, the two have attained exceptional power and fame and have enjoyed god-like status in their respective fields for years.

Of the two, one could say that Lee has acted more responsibly, given that he at least made a public apology for the sexual abuse allegations while Ko has been mostly silent about them. But a closer look at Lee’s press conference will highlight a complete lack of knowledge about what is wrong with his perverted behavior.

When faced with claims of his habitual demand for massages from women around him, he said, “Now, I feel that the massages were wrong, but back then, all men and women were doing it,” Lee said.

His explanations only fueled public outrage as he blamed a past “custom.” In a similar vein, Ko blamed different standards on sexual conduct between the past and today’s Korea.

In a media interview after the sexual abuse allegations, Ko admitted that there was some physical contact among people at a gathering. “It happened during a dinner about 30 years ago during a year-end party organized by a publisher. I did not intend to sexually offend anyone. But if my actions then are categorized as sexual harassment by today’s standards, what I did was wrong. I am regretful about it.”

They have both alluded to an outdated misperception about women still held by many Korean men, particularly among the older generation ― that it is no big deal to abuse and belittle women and perceive them as something beneath them rather than give them due respect as a colleague and a human being.

It is intolerable that they are trying to make excuses by referring to old standards. What is deemed wrong today was wrong back then, too.

Lee’s theater troupe is to be disbanded and Ko is set to move out of a residence funded by the city of Suwon as part of the city’s efforts to promote its cultural status. But putting a break on their professional lives does not make their past mistakes go away. As with all sexual predators, they should be held accountable for their actions.