'Stop Femicide': Women return to streets to mourn K-pop stars' death

A protester holds up a "Stop Femicide" sign at Hyehwa in northeastern Seoul, where hundreds of women showed up to mourn K-pop idols Sulli and Goo Ha-ra's deaths. / Korea Times photo by Lee Seung-yeup

By Lee Suh-yoon

Masked and dressed in black, hundreds of women filled the street next to Hyehwa's Marronnier Park again, Saturday ― this time to mourn K-pop idols Sulli and Goo Ha-ra who committed suicide in recent months.

Protesters claim Korea's patriarchal society is responsible for the suicides, calling the deaths "social murders."

"Over the last two months, we lost two of our sisters. The Korean media blames these tragic losses on cyberbullying and trolling but that's not the fundamental cause," the organizers said in a statement. "Their deaths are clear cases of femicide."

Former f(x) member Sulli committed suicide on Oct. 14. Sulli, who openly revealed she suffered from mental health issues, was often swamped with hateful online comments for going braless or sharing her opinions about misogyny. The following month, Goo Ha-ra, former member of idol group Kara and a close friend of Sulli, similarly took her own life after a harrowing court battle with an ex-boyfriend who blackmailed her with revenge porn.

Masked protesters at Saturday's rally in northeastern Seoul / Korea Times photo by Lee Suh-yoon

The masked women-only rallies at Hyehwa and Gwanghwamun started in May last year, fueled by the country's #MeToo movement and anger against rampant voyeur videos ― also known as "molka" in Korean. The last rally took place in December 2018, drawing tens of thousands of women into the streets. Like previous rallies, the anonymous protesters were active on social media.

Participants painted their palms red for a "Stop Femicide" performance. One held up a sign reading: "Don't say my sister died by her choice. We will protect each other in this world where death is the only choice."

In more clear-cut cases of femicides, most notably the 2016 Gangnam murder, women expressed collective anger at how these were treated as exceptional, non-gender-related cases caused by mentally unstable individuals ― a common argument used by anti-feminist groups.

The justice system was also to blame, the women said, citing the low incarceration rate for gender-based hate crimes. In one shocking case in July, a male university student who beat his girlfriend to death received a suspended jail term after the judge deemed the act to be "accidental." Only 10 percent of 164 online sex crime cases the Seoul Central District Court ruled on between January 2018 and April 2019 handed jail time to perpetrators, according to a recent analysis by Uijeongbu District Court Judge Baek Gwang-gyun. Nine out of 10 victims of violent crimes like murder, rape and mugging are women, according to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

"The government should put forth measures that can realistically overcome femicide and gender inequality," organizers said.

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