'Our lives are not your porn': South Korean women cry out against 'spycam porn'

Participants hold up protest signs at one of the biggest rallies against the country's "spycam porn epidemic" at Gwanghwamun Square, downtown Seoul, Saturday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Suh-yoon

By Lee Suh-yoon

Seated in massive columns across the gate of an ancient palace Saturday, tens of thousands of young women, clad in red, sang and swayed to a tune from the musical Les Miserables, with a slight twist to the lyrics.

"Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry women!" they sang, waving their red and white signs in sync.

The verse may have perfectly spoken for the 70,000 women, who poured into Gwanghwamun Square despite a record-breaking heat wave, as they protested widespread "spycam pornography," and urged the inactive government to step up efforts to deal with the illicit filming crimes.

The women's message was simple: we will not tolerate being "second-class citizens," and "our lives are definitely not your porn."

A sign at the women's protest against "spycam porn" at Gwanghwamun Square on Saturday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Suh-yoon

Spycam pornography – known as "molka" in Korean – has established itself as its own genre of porn here, featuring "upskirt" photos from subway stairs or secretly filmed clips of unknowing women in public bathrooms or motel rooms.

"How many preparatory materials do we need to just go to the public bathroom?" shouted one masked protestor on the podium, referring to the silicon sealeants some women carry around to cover hidden camera holes in bathroom stalls.

The protestors' anger was not just directed toward a few peeping toms; they called out the country's misogynistic culture for actively disseminating and consuming these illicitly filmed clips as porn.

"The person who takes it, uploads it, sells it, views it — they should all be investigated and strongly punished!" the protesters chanted.

Over 6,000 spycam cases are reported to the police each year. Over 80% of the victims are female and the perpetrators almost always male. Only about 3 percent of the perpetrators, however, are arrested, according to National Police Agency records.

Almost all the protestors wore masks, mindful of the fact they could face online harassment for participating in the protests. Though they had anonymously met online, they greeted each other warmly behind their masked faces, referring to each other as "sister."

This was the fourth anti-spycam protest here. The number of participants has also multiplied since the first took place in May, fueled by the #MeToo movement and outrage over the police's exceptionally swift response to an illicit filming crime against a male nude model at Hongik University, something many claimed was missing in cases involving female victims.

Since the first rally held by Hyehwa Station, the focus has shifted from the police to the judicial system itself.

A sign at the women's protest against "spycam porn" at Gwanghwamun Square on Saturday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Suh-yoon

"What is this country but a nation of molka if it lets the spreader of illegal spycam films get off the hook for just 50,000 won ($44)?" said one woman who shaved her head at the rally as a symbolic gesture of escaping sexual objectification by men. "Is a Korean woman's life worth just 50,000 won?"

Another protestor held up a sign that read: "A tiger leaves his pelt after death, while Korean women leave behind molka" — alluding to spycam porn circulated even after a victim's suicide, subcategorized as "posthumous work" and sold for higher prices.

President Moon Jae-in also came under fire at Saturday's protest regarding his comment during a Cabinet meeting last month that "there was no gender bias" in investigations of hidden camera crimes.

Protestors called for a public apology and demanded that Moon follow through on his campaign promise to be a "feminist president" with concrete measures.

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