Expert blames sex crimes on women's clothing
By Kim Tong-hyung
Lee Yoon-seong, professor of medicine at Seoul National University and reputed forensic expert, says women’s revealing clothing is to blame for sex crimes.
In a lecture at the launch of the Korean Institute for Gender Equality Promotion and Education last December, Lee claimed there was a direct link between how a woman dressed and how much she was vulnerable to rape and other sex crimes.
“Absolutely, 100 percent of the sex crimes are committed by men. Men instinctively need they feel to spread their ‘seeds’ to produce healthy offspring,’’ Lee said, according to vernacular daily Hankyoreh, a disturbing comment that revealed his detachment from reality.
“If there is money on the street, somebody will pick it up. If there is a woman walking around with sexy clothing, there will be somebody who rapes her … I personally love watching beautiful flowers,” Lee said.
“If I am on the subway and a woman wears clothing that reveals her panties or there are girls who are dressed sexily, then of course I will look at them. Aren’t they dressing like that because they want to be seen?’’
This is amazingly wrong. Statistics show that women are more likely to be sexually assaulted by people they know. So wearing long sleeves would be unlikely to prevent a crime that predominantly happens in a victim or predator’s home.
It is disturbing that someone who many consider as Korea’s leading forensic expert was regressive enough to claim that some female victims simply had it coming.
After his comments belatedly generated a firestorm on the Internet, Lee defended his comments to Hankyoreh.
``I will not say that I didn’t say those things,” he said. “I was trying to make a point that, of course, the sex criminals did something wrong, but the women could have done more to prevent it.
``My claims are based on facts and the theories from evolutionary psychology. If some people were offended by it, then I can’t do anything about that.’’