Korea sees rising hatred against women

Women commemorate a woman killed by a man in a hate crime near Gangnam Station in Seoul in 2016. Korea Times file

By Kim Se-jeong

On Oct. 21, a young woman sent a tweet warning women they could be randomly spread with something near Gangnam Station in Seoul.

"A group of men are gathering in the street behind CGV near Gangnam Station and they're spraying an unidentified substance on young women who are walking alone. Please be careful and retweet this."

The tweet was retweeted more than 1,000 times, with replies like "It's certainly tough to be a woman."

According to the police which looked into the case, the group of men were salespersons engaging in a marketing event on the street and the tweet misinterpreted the situation.

Although it turned out not to be anything nefarious, the incident revealed women's constant fear of attack amid prevalent misogyny in Korean society.

There are plenty of examples of hate crimes against women in Korea.

One of the most remembered examples happened near Gangnam Station in 2016.

On May 17, 2016, a 23-year-old woman was murdered in the bathroom of a singing room near the station by a 34-year-old man. Speaking to the police, the man said he didn't know the victim but was motivated by his hatred of women.

The incident made hate crimes against women public, triggering debates and soul-searching among women.

In August this year, in another incident, police investigated a male university student for spitting on women intentionally in the street.

In June, also, the police investigated a 32-year-old man who broke the cheekbone of a woman he randomly encountered at Seoul Station. What's interesting about this story is that the police investigation failed to prove hatred against woman as his motivation, drawing huge outrage from women in Korea.

These hate crimes also polarized Korean society which doesn't see men and women as equal.

"I believe I can be a target just because I am a woman," a 25-year-old woman in Seoul said of these incidents. "I am super careful when I walk home from the subway station at night. It's quite sad but this is the reality."

Statistically, crimes against women are on the rise.

According to police, assault cases against women rose from 45,306 in 2015 to 52,876 in 2019. But the police have no statistics on hate crimes against women, which women's groups deplore as a lack of awareness and sensitivity about the issue.

Experts said hate crimes against women are clearly more frequent and that actions are needed to make Korean society more integrating.

Chang Mi-hye from Korea Women's Development Institute said: "Some men who feel like being losers in the society tend to commit crimes against women who are considered weaker than them. These crimes are the way they express their rage."

Bae Sang-hoon, a former police officer who is now a professor at Seoul Digital University, said something must be done: "In the past, notorious murders started with spraying liquids and throwing soup at random women and they enjoyed the victims getting frustrated. We need to take action to discourage men from committing these hate crimes. If nothing is done, the scale of their crimes can grow."

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