Disclaimer: I wrote this review as part of KCC Indonesia's K-Literature competition. As I did not win, I decided to upload the book review here.
Book Review: Kim Ji-Yeong, Born 1982
Women’s Struggle against Social Perception
‘Kim Ji-Yeong, Born 1982’ is a book that brings the issue of gender equality in South Korea. The book started with Jeong Dae-hyeon, Kim Ji-yeong’s husband, observation on Kim Ji-yeong’s unusual behavior. Jeong Dae-hyeon realized during their drinking session that Kim Ji-yeong started acting and talking like someone else. Jeong Da-hyeon ignored her condition as Dae-hyeon deemed her behavior as harmless. However, Dae-hyeon found out later during the Cheosok holiday that Ji-yeong’s condition could become a problem after her confrontation with Dae-hyeon’s parents. After the confrontation, Dae-hyeon and Ji-yeong visited a psychiatrist to discuss Ji-yeong’s changing behavior and personality. The book then proceeded to narrate Kim Ji-yeong’s 34 years of life as a Korean woman and her struggles with unequal treatments through school, work, relationship, and motherhood. The book discussed important events in each of Ji-yeong’s phase of life—such as the most memorable event during her elementary school and her job-seeking phase. The book brought a comparison of women’s lives through important years in Korea’s history by narrating the life of Ji-yeong’s grandmother and mother in Ji-yeong’s early life. Although Ji-yeong faced gender inequality through her social interaction with the outside world, inequality became even more apparent and personal when she interacted with her family and husband. Due to the constant conflict with the whole situation she was in as a mother, Kim Ji Yeong then had a change of personalities. The book concluded the story with the narration of Kim Ji Yeong’s medical diagnosis from a psychiatrist.
‘Kim Ji-Yeong, Born 1982’ has boldly brought the issue of women’s position in Korean society through a narration of an ordinary woman’s life. The fact that Cho Nam Jo chose to write the narration through an ordinary woman’s perspective makes it easier for readers to relate to Ji-yeong’s struggles. This is because many of Ji-yeong’s highlights of life relate closely to other women’s life—such as the constant pranks from male students, studying far from home to receive a decent education, struggling with the job finding after graduating from a university, and the conflicts in bearing children when the mother’s career is at stake. The book tried to address many issues surrounding a woman’s life in South Korea however, there are three main topics that women all around the world can relate to. The three topics are sexual harassment, career, and motherhood.
In discussing the topic of sexual harassment, Cho Nam Jo brought the growing concerns of women's safety against sexual harassment in South Korea. Although South Korea has economically developed, women in South Korea have to constantly face the threats of stalkers and other direct or indirect sexual harassment by male inside and outside the workplace. The issue of stalking is described in a scene when Kim Ji-yeong got back from her cram school and a male student followed her—later he accused Ji-yeong to seduce him when Ji-yeong swore she didn’t even remember who the male student was. In the book, indirect sexual harassment happened when Kim Ji-yeong had to attend a dinner with their client. The client then jokingly asked Ji-yeong if she was a dageonjang girl (high-maintenance girl). The book then discussed how all the sexual harassment jokes which got brushed away could escalate into actions that hurt victims. It was narrated that a hidden camera was found in Kim Ji-yeong’s former office’s toilet stall. The problem then arose when the pictures circulated on the internet and the male colleagues who recognized the pictures did not take any legal actions to protect their female colleagues. In 2019, the issue of women’s safety—especially those who live alone—became a discussion after a stalker attempted to forcefully enter a woman’s house[1]. The case alone proved serious threats to women’s safety in South Korea. A hidden camera is infamously known as molka in South Korea—and it has been regarded as a crime. Although Cho Nam Jo wrote about the molka issue in 2016, it became an international issue in 2019 after two celebrities got caught in recording their intimate sessions and sharing the videos without consent[2]. The case triggered a question: how far can the South Korea government and society handle the growing cases of molka, specifically, and sexual harassment in general? Through this point, Cho Nam Jo had tried to expose the readers on how the harassment’s victims feel and the obstacles they have to face as a victim. It was best described in three different sexual harassment cases. In the stalking case, Ji-yeong became highly anxious and afraid of men after being blamed by her father for ‘inviting the stalker in the first place’. Secondly, in the case of molka in Ji-yeong’s former workplace, her colleague suffered from depression, anxiety, and shame as their private pictures circulated on the internet after their male colleagues refused to help them taking legal actions and instead of sharing the pictures to a wider audience. It should also be noted that these male colleagues did not want to acknowledge their involvement in the case by saying they did not install the camera in the first place. And third, in the case of Burberry man which Ji-yeong experienced during her school year, the underaged students had to endure a visual they should not be exposed to. As victims, their teachers denied their right to be protected from such incidents and when the students decided to take their safety on their hands, the teachers blamed and regarded them as the school’s embarrassment.
The most memorable part of the book is the fact that throughout the 4 out of 6 chapters, Cho Nam Jo pointed out the elephant in the room and the first problem: women in Korean society faces discrimination from not only men but also fellow women. This is painfully shown during a scene where pregnant Kim Ji-yeong was riding the subway after office hours to go home. In the packed subway, after an injured lady talked to Ji-yeong about the young people’s lack of senses, a young woman wearing a university hoodie arose from her seat and bumped to Kim Ji-yeong. She then proceeded to say, “Someone who is trying to earn money and riding the subway during pregnancy still dares to have children?” Other scenes which showed the elephant in the room included Ji-Yeong’s mother-in-law’s stubbornness to cook meals during Chuseok although Ji-yeong was struggling with the post-partum depression, even when there was an option to buy meals from restaurants; Ji-yeong’s grandmother favoritism towards Ji-yeong’s father, and brother while ignoring Ji-yeong’s mother sacrifices towards the family; and Jeong Dae-hyeon’s aunts who assumed that Ji-yeong was the sole problem of their childless marriage while sparring Jeong Dae-hyeon from any suspicions. Cho Nam Jo successfully portrayed how women have to live in a certain way to prove their identity. These expectations are then mirrored to how society views women in the job market: women are not a sustainable resource for a company compared to men as they have to take over the house works. This assumption was described in some parts in the book such as Ji-yeong was not chosen as part of the planning team despite her achievements at work, Kim Eun-sil’s position in the company deemed as vulnerable due to her marriage and motherhood, and Ji-yeong’s psychiatrist perception towards his pregnant colleague. These perceptions against women, according to Cho Nam Jo, are hard to break as women have been labeled with expiry dates when they joined the job market compared to their male colleagues. Women in South Korea, according to Cho Nam Jo, actively compete with men in academics and skills to keep up with South Korea’s rapid economic development. It is, however, hard to keep up with the competitiveness when women realized they could easily lose in the race due to gender bias in companies.
The most crucial and critical topic in the book is perhaps the part in which Kim Ji-yeong and Jeong Dae-hyeon decided to have a baby to keep up with their families’ expectations of a married couple. While it is true that some women have maternal love, it also should not be ignored that some women do not have maternal love. Thus, pregnancies are not supposed to be something to satisfy society’s expectations. The absence of Ji-yeong’s maternal love could be seen from the way Ji-yeong was not ready to have a baby and her anger towards people who did not warn mothers-going-to-be about the hardships she would face physically and mentally. For women, the existence of babies in their life does not only affect their bodies but also their whole life as a human—their career, social, and health. In Ji-yeong’s case, pregnancy forced her to quit her career which triggered her mental instability as she perceived her worth as a human decreased rapidly. A study in 2012 described the phenomenon of women unable to re-enter the job market after marriage as a threat to South Korea’s skilled workforce[3]. The study concluded that social pressures and perceptions play the biggest part in the crisis—predicting that there will be a shortage of skilled workers in Korea’s future if the root causes are not taken care of. Motherhood, according to Ji-yeong, ruins her physically and mentally. Ji-yeong described motherhood to ruin her wrist, devalue her, and put her in an identity crisis. Among all other topics, this is a highly sensitive topic which Cho Nam Jo brought up fearlessly. Through Kim Ji-yeong’s experience as a mother, readers who might have a different perspective on children's bearing can become more understandable with those who do not want to have a child.
Furthermore, the most interesting part of Cho Nam Jo’s writing about molka in 2016. In 2020, Cho Nam Jo’s implicit warning about molka and sexual harassment is proven to become real through the Nth room case. The question that came to mind after reading the book and news then: how will the government and Korea society change their perspective towards sexual harassment?
Despite the strong points that Cho Nam Jo brought up in the book, there are some weaknesses in the book as well. As there are many points of injustice and inequalities that Cho Nam Jo eagerly wanted to show, Cho Nam Jo left some important things with no explanations. First, there is an imbalanced point of view during Kim Ji-yeong’s marriage with Jeong Dae-hyeon. Readers only got to understand Jeong Dae-hyeon’s character through Kim Ji-yeong’s narration—leaving a gap room to understand Jeong Dae-hyeon’s perspective on Kim Ji-yeong’s mental struggles. Jeong Dae-hyeon attitudes towards Kim Ji-yeong left a bitter taste and questions such as: does love exist? Is it love or a sense of responsibility in the growing pressure from society? In a scene when Kim Ji-yeong was stalked, the woman who helped Ji-yeong said “there are still many kind men out there.” Thus, what was the standard of being a good man amidst the misogynic Korean society? The book failed to address what kind of—at the very least— men and women relationship that could be called fair and just? The next point is when Ji-yeong described she had to share her portion of things with her sister when her brother got a whole portion of things. After reading through the book, it became confusing because the mother was supposed to be fair with her children. Who was the decision-maker to divide how much the girls could get? Was it her mother, grandmother, or father? It became important who gave the girls their portion in things to know how deep inequality can run in a house with three generations. In the part where Kim Ji-yeong’s mother underwent an abortion, Cho Nam Jo came up explaining that South Korea categorized having girls as a credible reason to get an abortion. However, Cho Nam Jo left no historical explanation of how, when, and why this rule can be legalized in the first place—stating that ‘just because the law wants it, then it is there’. There is also no follow up explanations of whether the law on abortion due to a gender still exists in South Korea or not—especially when there is a chance to explain it during Ji-yeong’s anxiety to welcome her daughter. The biggest question that the reader got from the book is when Cho Nam Jo wrote that Kim Ji-yeong overcame her trauma through a call to the woman who helped her. After reading all the pages, it became a questionable sentence as Cho Nam Jo described Ji-yeong to struggle to overcome the trauma in the first place. There was no process of how Ji-yeong healed herself—what factors played a part in her healing? Did she only need words of encouragement in the first place? How did her family react to her trauma? How did her family help her overcome the trauma especially when it was obvious that Ji-yeong was scared to even to her brother? How long did Kim Ji-yeong have to suffer through her trauma? The other point is when Kim Ji-yeong narrated to attend all-girls high school. In the previous section, Cho Nam Jo went into detail on how gender-specific schools changed to mixed schools due to education needs. Then, what was the reason for Kim Ji-yeong to suddenly attend an all-girls school? Why did she not choose to attend a mixed school? Were there any specific reasons for that? The reader found it confusing when there is no explanation of this decision after the author wrote that schools underwent a merger to make sure Koreans receive an education.
In some parts which needed legal explanation such as the stalking or Burberry man incident, there was no explanation of what are the legal consequences for these acts? What is the data towards the stalking incident? How many women are reported? How many are not reported? When Cho Nam Jo discussed the career sustainability of Korean women, it became a wake-up call of how severe the condition is in South Korea however, due to the non-existent of comparison data in the sexual harassment topic, it somehow becomes a message that ‘a normal daily occurrence that cannot be measured’.
Despite the book was published in 2016, there seems to be no to lack of improvement on women's conditions—especially in South Korea. Cho Nam Jo’s writing four years ago has become a silent proof that if there are no specific and significant actions towards the alarming social conditions, the condition can worsen for women in South Korea.
REFERENCES
FRANCE-PRESSE, AGENCE. “K-Pop Stars’ Gang Rape, Spycam Jail Terms Cut.” The Jakarta Post, 2019. https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/05/12/k-pop-stars-gang-rape-spycam-jail-terms-cut.html.
Patterson, Louise, Seong O. Bae, and Jung Yeon Lim. “Gender Equality in Korean Firms: Recent Evidence from HR Practitioners.” Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 51, no. 3 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7941.2012.00045.x.
Suh-yoon, Lee. “‘Stalked for Rape’: Fear Grows among Women Living Alone.” The Korea Times, 2019. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/07/251_269930.html.
[1] Lee Suh-yoon, “‘Stalked for Rape’: Fear Grows among Women Living Alone,” The Korea Times, 2019, https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/07/251_269930.html.
[2] AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, “K-Pop Stars’ Gang Rape, Spycam Jail Terms Cut,” The Jakarta Post, 2019, https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/05/12/k-pop-stars-gang-rape-spycam-jail-terms-cut.html.
[3] Louise Patterson, Seong O. Bae, and Jung Yeon Lim, “Gender Equality in Korean Firms: Recent Evidence from HR Practitioners,” Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 51, no. 3 (2013), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7941.2012.00045.x.
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