The Gangnam Station Post-it Note protest in Seoul, South Korea was organized in response to the murder of a 23-year-old woman inside a public toilet by a 34-year-old man in Seoul, on May 17, 2016, [1] also known as Seocho-dong public toilet murder case.
The protest was held just at the exit of Gangnam metro station where the wall was filled with post-it sticky notes and many chrysanthemum flowers. Seong-min Kim justified the reason behind his killing was that he felt disregarded by women his whole life, and the courts ruled in his favor. Protestors demanded justice and claimed that the killing was based on gender-based discrimination. However, the police gave a statement that there was a mental stability in the man and highlighted that the motives behind the murder was not prejudice against a certain gender but an experience from the mental disorder. The motive was further reinforced by an article from The Korea Herald . The man was reported to have been admitted to hospital for treatment on his mental illness. [2]
The “Gangnam Station Murder Case” (also called the Seocho-dong public toilet murder case) occurred in Seoul [3] on May 17 in 2016. A 34-year-old man, Seong-min Kim, hid in a gender-neutral restroom for more than an hour inside a karaoke bar near Gangnam station, an expensive area in the city, and stabbed a woman entering a toilet four times with a kitchen knife at around 1 am. [4] [5] [6] The surveillance cameras showed that before the incident, there were men going in and coming out of the restroom unharmed. Finally when a woman went in, she was attacked by the murderer. [5] He was later arrested by the police. [7]
On May 22, the police announced the results of the investigation as a motiveless crime by one with a mental illness, not a hate crime. On June 1, comprehensive measures against violent and motiveless crimes were announced. [8] On July 10, the prosecution too announced that the case was not a hate crime. [9] On Oct. 14th, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Kim to 30 years in prison, and the judicial procedures were concluded. [10]
Immediately after his arrest, Kim stated during police examination, “I have often been ignored by women and committed crime because I could not take it anymore.” [11] The police remarked that this was a motiveless crime by one who had a mental illness, schizophrenia, who had not been taking his medicine since he ran away from home in March. [8] [12] Since the announcement, the conflict between those who agree that the crime is without motivation and those who think it a gender-based hate crime had intensified.
The difference in the viewpoints on the case also appeared in the media . In analysis of the articles of political conservative journals Chosun and Dong-A and the progressive journals Kyunghyang and Hankyoreh, this murder case was reconstructed differently at each side. <Chosun> and <Dong-a> reported it as a murder case of mental illness in the unsafe public space of the toilet. In contrast, Kyunghyang and Hankyoreh reported the story as a female hate crime, a result of daily violence against women. Causes and solutions of this occasion were explained differently on each side.
With regard to the incident's cause, conservatives pointed out carelessness about the management of mental illnesses and about gender-neutral toilets. And the solution was also seen in the management of mental illnesses and the improvement of public toilets. The focus was on social conflict and confusion caused by different perceptions or ignored the characteristics of gender violence implicated in the case to define it as motiveless crime.
The progressive side attributed the murder to the sexist culture perpetuated in Korean society.
Violent crimes are not very common in the country however statistics from government data had indeed shown an increase in the number of reported sexual violence cases has increased that year. The 2015 U.S. State Department report showed that South Korea had scored high on the category of its safety - calculated based on the number of crimes the occurred and ranked extremely low on the category of upholding gender equality. [5] Statistics have shown that physical abuse is pervasive in the country, and, according to a study in 2014, the percentage of the number of women that has been physically abused by their partner went up to 50 percent. [12]
Since May 18, information about the case had spread through SNS such as Twitter, and the people gathered to memorialize the victim at Gangnam station 10th Exit and wrote messages on Post-It notes, and attaching them to the exit. The memorial spread to Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon, Bucheon, Ulsan, Cheongju, and Jeonju. During the two months from May 18 to July 15, the number of Post-It notes reached 35,340. [13]
City | The Number | |
---|---|---|
1 | Seoul | 21,454 |
2 | Busan | 5,471 |
3 | Daegu | 3,214 |
4 | Gwangju | 583 |
5 | Daejeon | 1,646 |
6 | Bucheon | 654 |
7 | Ulsan | 1,199 |
8 | Cheongju | 434 |
9 | Jeonju | 695 |
The Number of Offline Cases | 35,350 |
In addition to the Post-It protests, debates and sexual violence filibuster were held in each area, and the existing group-centered movements changed into voluntary participation and practice of individuals through self-awareness and empathy. Afterwards, a team from Kyunghyang Newspaper collected and analyzed 1004 Post-It notes. The Korean Womenlink recorded 42 stories from the speakout at Sinchon Plaza, and the Seoul Foundation of Women & Family collected, archived, and preserved most Post-It notes as data.
A group of young women, led in part by Yoon-ha Park, one of the initiators, started a Facebook page named "Gangnam 10th". The protest were no longer restricted to posting Post-Its but went further to marches in the city. Park believed that the existence of prejudice against women is clearly evident in the Korean community and hoped that the protests could remain as corroboration. [2]
Not everyone supported and participated in the memorials and outpouring of sympathy. A person wearing a ‘Pink Elephant’ mask came up with a picket with the content, “The carnivore is not bad, but animals who committed crime are bad. Korea is the first in security in the world, but we should make safer Korea by harmony between men and women.” It meant that women were the food that feed animals, that is, sexually objectified, which enraged people, and the protester fled. Others argued that the memorial site had become misandric, the abhorrence of each other should stop, and the focus should be on preventing the recurrence of this case through a union of men and women. Some criticized and attacked women for making men potential perpetrators. [14] Apart from the Pink Elephant Kim, a number of Korean animated movies have mocked the value of the "over-feminist" movement evident in the protests. [12]
This incident has also led to a discomfort in men being categorised as potential criminals. [12] A counter-protest started by Korean men broke out when national protests and discussions centered around misogyny existing in their community. When BuzzFeed News went for a visit to the Gangnam station entrance, the "Don't hate men" protest had broken out again. [2]
This Post-It protest was a challenge to and a frame-shift for the interpretation of events. Instead of a motiveless crime caused by mental illness, it was called femicide based on gender-based hate, and it changed the frame of interpretation dominant at the time.
Post-Its has emerged as a medium in a series of tragedies and memorials in Korean society such as Sewol Ferry disaster and this Gangnam station murder case. Recently, citizens used these notes as a means of collectively expressing their feelings and opinions. An anonymous participant who sympathizes with the need to commemorate and to communicate would briefly stop by the space and write down briefly their momentary thoughts and emotions. Post-Its are a way of expressing a personal story in handwriting, a means of expressing empathy at memorials centered on the younger generation, and a tool of symbolizing solidarity at rapidly spreading memorial.
The most important feature of the Post-It note is that it is short and autonomous like the text on the SNS, and its fluidity. It is also characterized by propagation, and archival traits. As such, it has the advantage of capturing the participant's feelings at a particular moment.
Chrysanthemum flowers that were left together with the notes serving as a symbol of mourning in South Korea. [2]
There are reasons why Gangnam station 10th Exit became remarkable. First, it had spatial specificity. The murder case happened near it, a place where many women have gone, go, or will go. The station is not any metro station: It is a site of various kinds of consumption, eight kilometers long and a back-street nightlife space. A high number of people aggregate here, so it is considered relatively safe. The fact that the murder, targeting a woman, happened so close to it is a testament to a society in which all places are still gendered and safety may be gender-based.
Next, through this incident, many women examined their anxieties and fears in their daily lives, reflected upon their own experiences, and pulled from their unconscious that the unstable feelings led to the experiences of actual violence. So the 10th Exit became a place to remind them of painful memories and to share experiences of violence.
In all, it should be interpreted as a sign to face gender discrimination and the society to reform as a whole, not as a demand for heavy penalties for one perpetrator or as an expression of aversion to men. [11]
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people frequently experience violence directed toward their sexuality, gender identity, or gender expression. This violence may be enacted by the state, as in laws prescribing punishment for homosexual acts, or by individuals. It may be psychological or physical and motivated by biphobia, gayphobia, homophobia, lesbophobia, and transphobia. Influencing factors may be cultural, religious, or political mores and biases.
Violence against transgender people includes emotional, physical, sexual, or verbal violence. The term has also been applied to hate speech directed at transgender people and at depictions of transgender people in the media that reinforce negative stereotypes about them. Trans and non-binary gender adolescents can experience bashing in the form of bullying and harassment. When compared to their cisgender peers, trans and non-binary gender youth are at increased risk for victimisation, which has been shown to increase their risk of substance abuse.
Yoo Young-chul is a South Korean serial killer, sex offender, and self-confessed cannibal. After he admitted to the murders of multiple people, mostly prostitutes and wealthy old women, the Seoul Central District Court convicted him of 20 murders, although one case was dismissed when it was identified as being committed by another serial killer, Jeong Nam-gyu. Yoo burned three and mutilated at least 11 of his victims and admitted that he ate the livers of some of them. He committed his crimes between September 2003 to July 2004 and was apprehended on 15 July 2004. Yoo explained his motives in front of a TV camera saying "Women shouldn't be sluts, and the rich should know what they've done."
Femicide or feminicide is a hate crime which is broadly defined as "the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female", with definitions varying based on cultural context. In 1976, the feminist author Diana E. H. Russell first defined the term as "the killing of females by males because they are female." A spouse or partner is responsible in almost 40% of homicides involving a female victim. Additionally, femicide may be underreported. Femicide often includes domestic violence and forced or sex-selective abortions.
Gangnam District is one of the 25 districts of Seoul, South Korea. The term Gangnam translates to "South of the [Han] River". Gangnam District is the third largest district in Seoul, with an area of 39.5 km2 (15.3 sq mi). As of the 2017 census, Gangnam District had a population of 561,052. There is a high concentration of wealth in the district, with prices for an apartment as of 2020 nearly double those in the rest of Seoul. Gangnam District is part of Gangnam School District Eight, along with the Seocho District. This district shares half of Gangnam-daero Gangnam Station area with Seocho District, which is one of the most crowded places in South Korea.
The Nonhyeon-dong massacre was a mass murder that occurred in the Gangnam-gu ward of Seoul, South Korea on October 20, 2008, when 30-year-old Jeong Sang-jin (정상진) set fire in a goshiwon and slashed several women with a sashimi knife. A total of six people died in the incident and seven more were injured. Jeong was sentenced to death on May 12, 2009.
Corrective rape, also called curative rape, as well as homophobic rape, is a hate crime in which one or more people are raped because of their perceived sexual orientation such as homosexuality or bisexuality. The common intended consequence of the rape, as claimed by the perpetrator, is to turn the person heterosexual.
The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is among the highest recorded in the world. Police statistics of reported rapes as a per capita figure has been dropping in recent years, although the reasons for the drop has not been analysed and it is not known how many rapes go unreported. More women are attacked than men, and children have also been targeted, partly owing to a myth that having sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV/AIDS. Rape victims are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS owing to the high prevalence of the disease in South Africa. "Corrective rape" is also perpetrated against LGBT men and women.
The history of violence against LGBT people in the United States is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals (LGBT), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of America. Those targeted by such violence are believed to violate heteronormative rules and contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBT may also be targeted. Violence can also occur between couples who are of the same sex, with statistics showing that violence among female same-sex couples is more common than among couples of the opposite sex, although male same-sex violence is less common.
The Itaewon Burger King Murder took place on April 3, 1997 when 22-year-old Hongik University student Jo Jung-pil was stabbed to death at Burger King in Itaewon. Arthur Patterson, 17 at the time of the incident, was the main suspect. Patterson and his friend Edward Lee were arrested but they were released by the Supreme Court in 1998 due to lack of evidence and Patterson was banned from travelling to South Korea. In October 2012 it was announced Patterson will face extradition by South Korean police after a DNA test indicated traces of Jo's DNA, when Lee's didn't.
Gender inequality in South Korea is any unequal opportunity or treatment men and women face in South Korea. Gender inequality in South Korea is derived from deeply rooted patriarchal ideologies with specifically defined gender-roles. While gender inequality remains especially prevalent in South Korea's economy and politics, it has improved in healthcare and education.
Crime in South Korea is one of the lowest in the world.
Feminism in South Korea is the origin and history of the movement of feminism or women's rights in South Korea.
The Seocho-dong public restroom murder case, commonly known as the Gangnam Station murder case or the Gangnam Station femicide occurred at the public restroom of a karaoke bar in Seocho-gu, Seoul, South Korea on 17 May 2016. Kim Seong-min stabbed to death an unspecified woman he had never met before, and later claimed that he did so out of his hatred for women as they had ignored and humiliated him all his life. The police later refuted his claims and said the incident was not a hate crime against women, as claimed, but one driven by mental illness. On 13 April 2017, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea finalized the sentence of 30 years in prison for the murderer Kim Seong-min.
Megalia was a controversial radical feminist online community based in South Korea. It was launched in 2015 to protest the language policy of the South Korean Internet forum DC Inside, which some users deemed discriminatory against women.
The Burning Sun scandal, also known as Burning Sun gate, was a 2019 entertainment and sex scandal in Seoul, South Korea, which involved several celebrities, including Korean idols of popular K-pop groups, and police officials. It was the largest scandal to hit the K-pop industry. The allegations of sex crimes added to the country's "epidemic" of what is called molka, a Korean word for the online distribution of unconsented sex videos taken of women, and the scandal became fodder for political parties, who argued over how to handle it.
Molka is the Korean term for hidden cameras or miniature spy cameras secretly and illegally installed, often in order to capture voyeuristic images and videos. Molka is an abbreviation of mollae-kamera, which means a sneaky camera. The expression has been originated from the homonymous title of a Korean prank TV show, which existed from March 1991 to November 1992. This makes the term denote prank and spy camera at the same time.
The Hyehwa Station protests were a series of feminist protest rallies held mostly in 2018 at Hyehwa Station in Seoul, South Korea. The protests, which started on 19 May 2018, were against sexism, misogyny, and hidden camera voyeurism, and aimed to spark reformation of the judiciary system, particularly its handling of sex crimes, which organizers believed favors men. The protests were the largest feminist protests in South Korea, reaching 110,000 demonstrators by December 2018. Not all protests were held at Hyehwa Station; some were also held at Gwanghwamun Plaza. Further protests were held throughout 2019 following other high-profile sex crimes, including the Burning Sun scandal.
Domestic violence in South Korea is the mental, physical, verbal or sexual abuses or crimes of violence committed towards a victim in a domestic setting of marital relations and cohabitation. Domestic violence describes violence towards a domestic partner, towards children and between siblings. According to the Domestic Violence Survey of South Korea in 2010, elder abuse was estimated to be 10%, physical abuse accounted for 2.2%, emotional abuse 9%, economic abuse 1.2%, and neglect 2.5%. Marital violence has been the most prevalent form of family violence in South Korea. One out of six couples in South Korea had more than one episode of physical violence from their spouse.
South Korean military laws and procedures discriminate against sexual minorities, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals, who serve in the military. At the time of enlistment, recruits are categorized based on their physical and mental health. Sexual minorities can be marked as having a “mental handicap” or “personality disorder,” which determines their status and duties as personnel. They can also be institutionalized in a mental facility or be dishonorably discharged. Military personnel have reported experiencing harassment, violence, and forcible revealing of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.