By Yi Whan-woo
The Swedish Embassy in Korea hosted the fourth Swede Talk, a series of monthly lectures aimed at sharing Nordic views on various topics, on April 26.
The lectures have been organized to mark the 60th anniversary of Sweden-Korea ties this year.
The April 26 talk took place under the theme, “A male perspective on feminism” and attracted experts from the two countries. Among the guests were Shahab Ahmadian, producer and project manager of Swedish feminist organization “Man,” culture critics Choi Tae-sup and Ehwa Womans University professor Sohn Ji-ae.
On April 25, Ahmadian also joined NORDtalks co-organized by the embassies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
The three-part NORDtalks shares Nordic views and experience on global challenges through a discussion among experts and audiences.
The April 26 talks were the second in the series, including the one in January and a forthcoming one in June.
Under the theme titled, “Welfare, gender equality and quality of life,” the speakers talked about how women were being treated and how gender equality could be improved.
Seo Ji-hyun, a female prosecutor who helped fuel the #MeToo movement in Korea, shared her experience of sexual harassment and demotion.
“My dream is living in a world where the #Metoo campaign will be a distant memory among our children's generation, who will enjoy full gender equality and a world free from sexual abuse, she said.
Ahmadian pointed out that the patriarchy system worked for men and that everything masculine and dominant was rewarded.
“We can stop talking about gender equality from the victim's perspective and understand that men have a key role to play if we want to change,” he said.
Also joining the talk was Jaakko Kuosmanen, an adjunct professor at the University of Helsinki. He is also a member of the Finnish Prime Minister's Office Foresight Steering Committee and a former research fellow at Oxford University.
He explained the recent Finnish experiment of basic income and underscored the importance of experimentation without fear of failure.
“We don't know our full potential before we experiment with ourselves by interacting in the external world,” he said. “But ultimately, our happiness is not dependent on whether or not we fail in particular instances. Instead, it is dependent on whether we learn from our failures.”
Meanwhile, the Swedish Embassy in Korea said it would join the 2019 Seoul Queer Festival on June 1.