By Michael Breen
Foremost among the sounds which I have come to associate with the regular weekend protests against President Park Geun-hye are the amplified cries and chants of women protest leaders addressing the crowds.
It may be a false impression, or it may just be that they impress me more, but it seems to me that the female activists and entertainers at the microphone outnumber their male colleagues.
And that makes me wonder, why are more women not rallying around the first female President?
The immediate response to this question is usually that, yes, misogyny is an issue in Korea and you would expect women to back a female leader, but in this scandal the gender of the President and the gender of the protestors is irrelevant. She has offended everyone equally, conservative and progressive, young and old, men and women.
But within that picture, there are small and inconvenient truths.
One is that, among the 4 percent who the polls tell us still support the President, are some very intelligent pro-democracy people who believe that misogyny is the hidden driver of the public reaction to the scandal.
They believe that not only is the President a victim of this misogyny, but that so is Korean democracy.
As an unknown percentage of just 4 percent, these feminists represent a small number. But if they and the other 4-percenters – not of the overall population, mind you, but of adult voters – were to declare independence, they would be as large as the population of Bahrain or of Estonia.
But there is another reason not to dismiss them. That is because there is a lot of truth to the argument about the role of misogyny.
For men who have read thus far and now find themselves groaning, all I can say is, ask women about misogyny and remember that it is not just a matter of rights enshrined in law, but in social attitudes and freedom of fear. Thank you for your kind attention.
As I was saying before I interrupted myself, this issue has been run up the flagpole by commentators during the past few weeks, but it has been tugged down again as inappropriate. Just as everything is not a North Korean plot – the thinking of another portion of the 4 percent – so everything is not a plot against women.
But hold on. What is this scandal that has led to the impeachment of the President all about? It is not about lawbreaking, at least not yet because the investigations are not complete and the courts have not yet ruled on criminality. (It is entirely possible the President may be declared innocent. It is even possible that her friend Choi Soon-sil may be found guilty only of peripheral offenses that came up during the investigation.)
The scandal is political, which means it is about the ethics of power, not the law. It has inflamed political passions. The particular offense that sparked it all was the identification of a close confidant of the President who allegedly recommended two or three people for presidential appointments, edited some presidential speeches, and used her connections with the President to set up two foundations to promote Korean culture with chaebol sponsorship.
This sounds dodgy and you don't have to be a misogynist, male or female, to object to it. But what if the confidant had been Park's former professor? Would we have protested? What if said professor had degrees from Seoul National and Harvard? What if she were a he? What if he was her brother? Would these be mitigating factors? You tell me.
Let's be honest. We are where we are because the nation thinks that Choi Soon-sil is, as one female professor who does advise presidents put it to me, a "ddeokboggi ajumma." She's like the lady in the market, wearing several layers under her apron, at the steaming food stall.
If there's a deeper offense than being a woman, it's being low class and operating above your station, and that is why the women are yelling at Park and her friend too.
Michael Breen is the CEO of Insight Communications Consultants, a public relations company, and author of "The Koreans" and "Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader."
Foremost among the sounds which I have come to associate with the regular weekend protests against President Park Geun-hye are the amplified cries and chants of women protest leaders addressing the crowds.
It may be a false impression, or it may just be that they impress me more, but it seems to me that the female activists and entertainers at the microphone outnumber their male colleagues.
And that makes me wonder, why are more women not rallying around the first female President?
The immediate response to this question is usually that, yes, misogyny is an issue in Korea and you would expect women to back a female leader, but in this scandal the gender of the President and the gender of the protestors is irrelevant. She has offended everyone equally, conservative and progressive, young and old, men and women.
But within that picture, there are small and inconvenient truths.
One is that, among the 4 percent who the polls tell us still support the President, are some very intelligent pro-democracy people who believe that misogyny is the hidden driver of the public reaction to the scandal.
They believe that not only is the President a victim of this misogyny, but that so is Korean democracy.
As an unknown percentage of just 4 percent, these feminists represent a small number. But if they and the other 4-percenters – not of the overall population, mind you, but of adult voters – were to declare independence, they would be as large as the population of Bahrain or of Estonia.
But there is another reason not to dismiss them. That is because there is a lot of truth to the argument about the role of misogyny.
For men who have read thus far and now find themselves groaning, all I can say is, ask women about misogyny and remember that it is not just a matter of rights enshrined in law, but in social attitudes and freedom of fear. Thank you for your kind attention.
As I was saying before I interrupted myself, this issue has been run up the flagpole by commentators during the past few weeks, but it has been tugged down again as inappropriate. Just as everything is not a North Korean plot – the thinking of another portion of the 4 percent – so everything is not a plot against women.
But hold on. What is this scandal that has led to the impeachment of the President all about? It is not about lawbreaking, at least not yet because the investigations are not complete and the courts have not yet ruled on criminality. (It is entirely possible the President may be declared innocent. It is even possible that her friend Choi Soon-sil may be found guilty only of peripheral offenses that came up during the investigation.)
The scandal is political, which means it is about the ethics of power, not the law. It has inflamed political passions. The particular offense that sparked it all was the identification of a close confidant of the President who allegedly recommended two or three people for presidential appointments, edited some presidential speeches, and used her connections with the President to set up two foundations to promote Korean culture with chaebol sponsorship.
This sounds dodgy and you don't have to be a misogynist, male or female, to object to it. But what if the confidant had been Park's former professor? Would we have protested? What if said professor had degrees from Seoul National and Harvard? What if she were a he? What if he was her brother? Would these be mitigating factors? You tell me.
Let's be honest. We are where we are because the nation thinks that Choi Soon-sil is, as one female professor who does advise presidents put it to me, a "ddeokboggi ajumma." She's like the lady in the market, wearing several layers under her apron, at the steaming food stall.
If there's a deeper offense than being a woman, it's being low class and operating above your station, and that is why the women are yelling at Park and her friend too.
Michael Breen is the CEO of Insight Communications Consultants, a public relations company, and author of "The Koreans" and "Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader."
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