Park's gender card not catching on
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By Kim Tong-hyung
Park Geun-hye, conservative candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, is desperate to sell herself as the first female president in a country struggling to eliminate its gender apartheid at home and work. She would be more convincing if she manages to separate from the macho politicians dominating her camp.
As the Dec. 19 polls loom, Park and her opposition challenger Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party (DUP) are kicking up their competition for attention to another notch.
This is also the time when they take a bunch of pop music hits and turn them into addictive campaign songs they hope would stick with voters. And Park’s touch with music seems to be catastrophic.
One of the funniest moments in a presidential race devoid of humor came on Wednesday when Park’s camp quickly retired a song made from ''Shabang Shabang,’’ a hit from unrelated male singer Park Hyun-bin, whose value as a celebrity depends on being cheesier than a Pizza Hut floor.
Saenuri’s remake of the song was criminally cringe-worthy. Anyone who thought that lyrics like ''Geun-hye’s a beauty, she’s so sexy’’ or ''her face is V-shaped, her plans are S-shaped’’ (‘S-line’ is often used here to describe a glamorous female body) would go down well with female voters probably shouldn’t be involved in shaping strategies for a presidential candidate.
Shabang Shabang is most famous for its chorus where the singer yelps ''she’s killing it’’ (as in sexiness). Saenuri’s songwriters turned this into ''Park Geun-hye’s killing it.’’ The song’s release stirred a storm of opinion on Facebook and Twitter, forcing Park’s camp to discard it.
The damage in public relations was already done. It’s mind-boggling to think how little thought Park’s helpers invested in their decision to use a song that women’s groups had already denounced as offensive.
''This is just the latest of sexist language produced by Saenuri Party, whose lawmakers are responsible for previous hits like 'Park Geun-hye, flower of all flowers’ and 'I prefer the young ones.’ It’s fortunate that the logo song was canned, but I am concerned about their mental state,’’ said DUP spokesman Park Yong-jin, also unrelated to the Saenuri candidate.
The campaign song fiasco highlights the dilemma of Park, who is trying to recast herself as a champion of working mothers and underprivileged women from a party that has been accused of essentially disregarding them.
Empowering women socially and economically is a critical issue for the country where softening economic growth rates, microscopic birthrates and a workforce aging in dog years have been fueling apocalyptic talk about the future.
Increasing the labor participation of women by improving their freedom to set a work-life balance would be critical and this requires reshaping of the old Korean corporate culture defined by long working hours.
Government figures confirm that women in their 30s are dropping out of the workplace at an alarming rate. The pay gap between men and women also remains wide, so when couples discuss how they are going to afford childcare, it’s normally the wife who stays at home.
However, the slew of government policies aimed at helping working mothers in recent years has yet to work as prescribed because companies have made it clear they won’t budge until the moment they are absolutely forced to.
Large businesses in particular have been steadfastly opposing the calls for changing working conditions and hours. They are represented by lobby groups like the Korea Employers’ Federation, which go as far as to argue that government efforts to boost births and strengthen family-friendly policies at the workplace would prevent companies from hiring women.
Park insists that having a female president will benefit the lives of ordinary women. Her party’s track record, however, disputes that.
Saenuri, under the watch of President Lee Myung-bak and party leader Park, has consistently put corporate leaders before women in the past five years, using the old-and-tried ''populism’’ and ''socialism’’ cards to short-circuit the discussions about welfare and work-life balances.
The party is now scrambling to talk up women issues and throw out a slew of ideas and promises. But after it dumb-downed these issues for so many years, the current efforts look like putting lipstick on a pig.
It remains to be seen whether female voters will be convinced by Park’s double move. Park, the daughter of late military strongman Park Chung-hee, whose legacy as a successful economic strategist is marred by records of political oppression and bloody civilian suppression, is indeed a woman. That doesn’t mean that she has ever been one in political and social terms.
In her past 14 years as lawmaker, Park has produced 15 draft bills. Not one of them was related to improving the social status of women and eliminating discrimination at the workplace.