62% of actresses, female film workers sexually harassed: survey

By Cho Se-yong, Park Si-soo

Six out of 10 actresses and other women working in the film industry have fallen victim to sexual harassment by their male colleagues, a survey showed, fueling the #MeToo campaign that is shaking Korean society to its core.

The Korean Film Council and the Women in Film Korea revealed this based on a survey of 749 workers, including actresses, female writers and film crew members. The figure compared with 17.2 percent of male respondents who claimed to have been sexually harassed.

“We were all bystanders,” actress Moon So-ri lamented, announcing the results at a conference on women’s human rights in the film industry at the Korea Press Center on Monday. “This (survey) shows how rampant sexual violence against women is (in the film industry) and we have done nothing to fix the problem.”

Moon attended the forum as a guest speaker.

“All workers in the film industry must accept that they were victims, perpetrators, or bystanders of sexual harassment,” she said, calling on victims to come forward and speak out to make the industry free from sexual violence.

Shim Jae-myung, CEO of filmmaker Myung Film, echoed her view, saying Korea’s film community is “more hierarchical than Hollywood. And this is why the victims have had a harder time revealing their problems.”