54th Meeting - Gender Conflicts among Young Koreans

Date: 17 September, 2021

Place: Zoom

Participants: Vivien, Matthew, Aditi & 100선생

We only had 4 participants, but it was one of the most exciting meetings. I thank Aditi for leading the discussion! - <100>

<Meeting summary by Aditi>

백선생님, Aditi, Matthew and Vivien were the members present in this meeting. The theme for this meeting was the ‘Gender Conflict in Korea’. Aditi had prepared some slides regarding the topic and shared them with the group.

The first section of slides was about feminism in Korea. Aditi presented some information about feminist movements in Korea, such as the #MeToo movement, as well as the emergence of radical feminist communities like Megalian and Womad. Subsequently, she presented data about women in their 20s and their thoughts regarding feminism.

This was followed by a discussion about why women of this age in particular identify strongly with the feminist movement. This prompted some members to comment on the phenomenon of 이대남 in Korea, which was the theme of the second half of the meeting. Aditi presented data about these men in their 20s and their thoughts about their position in society. The data showed that these men think of themselves as a disadvantaged minority, which raised a lot of questions amongst the members.

We discussed possible reasons for this phenomenon, including the rise of a more progressive culture that is (on the surface) more positive towards woman, in turn possibly angering men. The general consensus, however, was that it is a complex problem, with a lot of factors of play. This point was highlighted by bringing up the content of Kim Youngmi’s lecture on the social and structural reasons behind the gender war in Korea. All in all, this meeting was very productive in terms of the ideas raised and the information discussed.