Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women's Rights Worldwide

by Hawon Jung

"Invigorating debut . . . [a] full-throated rallying cry." —Publishers Weekly

One of Ms. Magazine's "most-anticipated feminist books of 2023"

An eye-opening firsthand account of the ongoing and trailblazing feminist movement in South Korea—one that the world should be watching.

Since the beginning of the #MeToo movement, tens of thousands of people in South Korea have taken to the street, and many more brave individuals took a stand, to end a decades-long abortion ban and bring down powerful men accused of sexual misconduct—including a popular presidential contender. South Korean feminists know that the revolution has been a long time coming, between battles against its own patriarchal society as well as challenging stereotypes of docile Asian women in the Western imagination.

Now, author Hawon Jung will show the rest of the world that these women are no delicate flowers—they are trailblazing flames. Flowers of Fire takes the reader into the trenches of this fight for equality, following along as South Korean activists march on the streets, navigate public and private spaces where spycam porn crimes are rampant, and share tips and tricks with each other as they learn how to protect themselves from harassment and how to push authorities to act.

Jung, the former Seoul correspondent for the AFP, draws on her on-the-ground reporting and interviews with many women who became activists and leaders, from the elite prosecutor who ignited the country’s #MeToo movement to the young women who led the war against non-consensual photography. Their stories, though long overlooked in the West, mirror realities that women across the world are all too familiar with: threats of defamation lawsuits to silence victims of assault, tech-based sexual abuse, and criminal justice systems where victims’ voices are often met with suspicion and abusers’ downfalls are met with sympathy. These are the issues at the heart of their #MeToo movement, and South Korean women have fought against them vigorously—and with extraordinary success. In Flowers of Fire, Jung illuminates the strength and tenacity of these women, too often sidelined in global conversations about feminism and gender equality.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, History, Politics, Asia, Audiobook, Womens

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 7, 2023

Reviews

[Hikari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an impressively written and engaging book on the history of feminism in South Korea. There are 50 pages of references. Many of the challenges faced by women in South Korea seem to boil down to a conflict between worldviews: a human rights view which says women are the equal of men and a Confucian worldview which sees women as the skivvies of men. Funnily enough, the men at the top were quite happy with this Confucian system…

Some of the miseries for South Korean women that this book details:
- rampant sexual harassment and assault with minimal punishments. Until recently non-consensual sex wasn’t even considered rape.
- always having to check for spy cams including in your own home or any public toilet in case some man’s getting a kick watching you on the loo or changing clothes
- men being able to upskirt women anywhere with complete immunity and post all over the internet as the (usually male) judge agrees that they’re “sorry and won’t do it again” (yeah right) and that a conviction might “ruin their lives” (except what about the many lives they’ve already ruined…)
- being expected to spend at least 1 hour each morning just on a beauty regime. Men don’t need to do a thing.
- being expected to look a certain way with a body shape caused by anorexia style eating disorders being deemed the prettiest.
- being expected to do 100% of the housework/childcare even when they’re the breadwinner. Visiting in-laws being the absolute low point as even their mother-in-law views it as a chance to relax whilst daughter-in-laws are made chief skivvies
- workplace practices that expect women to resign once they’re pregnant and never rehire meaning mothers never get a chance to use their many talents/gifts/energy in the workplace
- a government that, over the past 50 years, has not respected women or children so has mandated contraception and abortion at will. Women are to have or not to have children as the state dictates rather than getting any ability to choose.
- a societal system which refuses to teach about sex or contraception, then expects the women to take responsibility for any children whilst never forcing the man to take any responsibility, then bemoans the abortion rate and the rapidly shrinking population as women choose not to have children.

Understandably, this list of grievances (and there are many more in the book) have caused much fury in South Korea. Many women in their 20s-30s are joining “no dating, no sex, no marriage, no child rearing” groups because their quality of life would decrease drastically if they were married with kids.

Whilst these grievances have led to a growth of feminism, the unity is starting to fragment as groups differ on the best way forward. One example is the fallout from one platform over whether they should continue to mirror pejorative terms back to men to mock them or was it starting to go too far. As such the book ends on an uncertain note - will new laws be passed/enforced which promote equality and support women or will recent elections on an anti-feminism platform undo some of the recent reforms?

The book lets itself down at the very end by taking a hard line stance against anyone holding a gender critical view. There are feminists on both sides of this debate. In the UK, for example, gender critical views have been deemed worthy of respect in a democratic society in several recent court cases. If the presentation were more balanced on this topic, I’d give the book 4 stars.

Despite this, a rousing and well written call to action. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The title, Flowers of Fire, was inspired by the Korean word bul-kkot, which literally translates to “fire flower” and refers to flame. In South Korean society (and elsewhere), women are often treated like flowers: pretty objects of desire to be seen and not heard. But these women have found ways to flare against the everyday sexism they experience, so I chose Flowers of Fire as a metaphor of their ongoing struggles—and their indestructible hope.”

In this fascinating and inspiring portrayal of the modern feminist movement in South Korea triggered by the phenomenon of #metoo, author Hawon Jung explores the legal, social and cultural changes in its wake, and the women who fought for them.

Jung credits the courage of lawyer Seo Ji-Hyun with starting the national conversation about #metoo when in 2018 she went public about her experience of sexual assault. A highly commended and well respected solicitor, Seo had lodged a complaint about been groped by a senior prosecutor in 2010. The investigation went nowhere and Seo reluctantly let the matter go until several years later that same man was promoted into the justice ministry and deliberately set out to ruin her career in revenge. In January 2018 a devastated Seo went public and her statement sparked a revolution.

Whereas South Korean women rarely made formal complaints about sexual harassment and/or assault, knowing that they would routinely be labeled a “flower snake”, and face both private and public shaming, in the weeks after Seo’s interview, nearly a hundred accusations of sexual misconduct were made against prominent men, exposing a similar pattern of misogyny, objectification, and abuse in nearly all corners of society, and women from all walks of life began to share their #metoo stories. A public event was organised in March 2018 in Gwanghwamun Plaza to allow ‘everyday women whose voices don’t make it to TV news’ to speak up and to listen, and ran for 2,018 minutes.

Hawon Jung explains how the ensuing movement stimulated some changes in government, law, workplaces, schools, and every day life. Seo, who feared the end of her legal career, was assigned to handle gender equality–related policies at the justice ministry and helped usher in several major reforms, including raising the age of sexual consent from thirteen to sixteen. The man who assaulted her was convicted of ‘abuse of power’, and was sentenced to two years jail but he was later acquitted in the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, progress is continually challenged by men who prefer the status quo of the patriarchy. Jung examines the practice of revenge ‘counter accusations’, the ubiquity of ‘molka’ and other digital sex crimes, and the rise in conservative men decrying ‘kimchi girls’—a widely used slur defining a woman as selfish and unreasonable. Conservative politicians rant about the country’s falling population rate, ignoring the fact that gender inequality is the most consistently cited reason for women shunning marriage and childbirth.

The book also touches on a number of related issues such as the fight for compensation for the ‘comfort women’ forced into the system of camps during World War II to supply sexual services to soldiers, the high rate of cosmetic surgery among South Korean women, as well as the open discrimination against homosexual and transgender individuals. South Korea, which still lacks an act formally banning discrimination in the public sphere despite several attempts, still has a way to go in the pursuit of gender equality, as do most countries.

Insightful, thoughtful and engaging, I found it really interesting to learn how South Korea’s feminist movement and issues echoes and diverges from those in west, and recommend Flowers of Fire.

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

South Korea is the world’s tenth largest economy, a tech giant that is home to Samsung, the top smartphone maker internationally, as well as some of the fastest internet connection speeds and densest high-speed railway networks on the planet. It is also a cultural juggernaut whose cinema (e.g., Parasite), television dramas (e.g., Squid Game), and music stars (e.g., BTS) have enormous social influence and huge global followings. But behind the facade of its economic, technological, and cultural dominance also lies a history of deep-seated gender discrimination that, despite all the country’s modern advances and reputation, has changed relatively little over the years.

Written by Hawon Jung, Flowers of Fire is a powerful account of the sexism that is still, unfortunately, part of South Korea’s culture, and of the feminist activists who are fighting to change it, the title of the book taken from the Korean world for a flame, 불꽃, literally fire-flower.

It starts with the Korean #metoo movement and the inequalities in the workplace, including the pernicious effect of the 회식 (hoesik) culture of near-compulsory after-dinner drinking and the positive discrimination used by many employers when assessing entrance exams ... in aid of men. To quote just one telling anecdote/statistic:

Samsung Electronics, the flagship corporation of the Samsung group, announced a list of 221 employees newly promoted to executive positions. The regular reshuffle for 2018 was hailed by the media for promoting a far greater number of women than before—more than triple the year before!
The year before had two. For 2018, there were seven.

It makes for a great companion to 82년생 김지영 (Kim Ji Young, born 1982 in Jamie Chang’s English translation), which Jung describes her as a novel chronicling the life of an ordinary South Korean woman that became a blockbuster, selling more than 1.3 million copies in South Korea and becoming a rallying cry of the feminist movement at home and beyond.

While Kim Ji Young, born 1982 read at times more like an academic paper (though with a very neat metafictional justification) this at times reads more like a novel, the type of popular non-fiction that uses anecdotes to make its point. But it does so rather less clumsily and more compellingly than most in the genre, taking us powerfully, movingly and at times tragically into the stories of those involved.

Another literary connection, and a key moment in Korea’s #metoo campaign comes from the poem 괴물 (Monster) by 최영미 which was published in 2017 but really gained attention in 2018. It begins and ends (in the author’s translation) referring to a famous male poet by a pseudonym (the author of the poem declined to name who he was, although it became clear, as her point was that the issues were structural not just specific to one individual):

Don’t sit next to En
the poet K warned me, a literary novice
he touches young women whenever he sees one
…
every time he is named a frontrunner for the Nobel prize in literature
I tell myself that I shall leave this country if he happens to win it,
I no longer want to live in this shitty world.

En선생 옆에 앉지 말라고
문단 초년생인 내게 K시인이 충고했다
젊은 여자만 보면 만지거든
...
노털상 후보로 En의 이름이 거론될 매마다
En이 노털상을 반는 일이 정말 일어난다면
이 나라를 떠나야지
이런 더러운 세상에시 살고 싶치 않아

Other chapters cover a history of the Korean feminist movements in the 20th century, the fight against digital sex crimes, particularly 몰카 and the pushback against societal norms on women's bodies from abortion rights to plastic surgery.

This is a balanced account, to the extent that balance is possible in the face of such societal bias - the author is not afraid to highlight when some of the feminist movements went (understandably) too far, how rather devastatingly some of the movement’s male allies turned out to be predators themselves, and the challenges that trans-gender rights have presented (sadly TERFs appear to be present here as well).

I was particularly interested to see the author's link between the societal issues and South Korea's disastrous demographic profile - and one where different groups have deduced different remedies, although what's clear is that many women are simply opting out of marriage and having children due to the issues the book highlights.

Jung also observes that:

South Korea’s reality also represents a unique case wherein a well-run nation that has achieved great economic, technological, and political advances has seen its patriarchal values changing at a surprisingly slow pace, challenging the widely held belief that women’s overall status in society tends to improve in tandem with such progresses.

and offers several suggestions as to why, which I might crudely summarise as an unfortunate conflation of the legacy of traditional Confucian culture, the legacy of aggressive masculinity and hierarchical culture of a militarised dictatorship, and, more recently, the outsized political influence of US style right-wing conservative churches.

And the book ends with a chapter I suspect the author had not expected, and certainly hoped not, to have to write - the backlash against the tiny advances made by feminism in the 2022 Presidential Election leading to the victory of a candidate who declared, despite all evidence to the contrary, that systematic sexism no longer existed in South Korea and made abolition of the gender-equality ministry a key pledge, leading to a large shift to the right particularly amongst young men (in a by-election a year earlier, 73% of male voters in their twenties in Seoul voted for a similar candidate).

But as she observes with a note of hope, in her iconic 1991 book, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, American journalist Susan Faludi wrote that backlash against women’s rights “returns every time women begin to make some headway towards equality, a seemingly inevitable early frost to the brief flowering of feminism."

Recommended - a vital if disturbing read.

[Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave a great detailed overview on the me too movement in South Korea. It was very interesting and I learned a lot. Made me angry and made me sad. Personally I also found it interesting to learn about feminist movements through a lense that is, for once, not US- or European-centric.
I would rate this somewhere between 4 and 5 stars but bumped it up to five because I think it will stay with me for a while.

[Bon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a standout piece of intersectional feminist nonfiction and analysis, given South Korea's unique place as an advanced nation, yet retaining outdated Confucian and patriarchal social norms. Many issues intersect in a way unique to the country - the ongoing struggles against spycams with transphobic bathroom bills, preference for male infants in the 80s with a gender imbalance and stagnant birth rate today, a perpetual military draft with rejection of transmasc recruits.

Even as a longtime consumer of Korean media, student of East Asian relations, and global news consumer, a lot of this was still surprising, saddening, and horrifying. It's well-researched and well-cited, with a lot of interviews with primary sources, and wide-ranging. Revenge porn, explicit internet chatrooms, workplace gender discrimination, social ostracization of single mothers, timelines of birth control approaches, there's a lot of interesting and enlightening material.

I highly recommend this to diversify feminist research, and for an informative, intersectional look at women's movements in South Korea - but if you can, do the print or ebook. I'm docking points for the disappointing audiobook; some surnames, global nations, and other words were pronounced strangely, and the inflection given to quotations sounded odd as well.

[Kaycee Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a rollercoaster ride between outrage and upliftment! I was horrified by the atrocities depicted but encouraged by the action and solidarity they inspired.

[Elisatlfsse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flowers of Fire is a powerful book that recounts the many fights of Korean women since the outcry of Seo Ji-Hyun on national television in 2018, but also of those who preceded her in the 20th century. I'm literally gobsmacked by this book, and I honestly find it difficult to review it because there is so much important information that I just want to buy my copy and read it all over again to make some annotations.

For a young woman like me, who has been a lover of South Korean culture for ten years now, I found this book eye-opening on many levels. If some of the cases reported in the third and fourth chapters, with Goo Ha-Ra, Sulli, or the Burning Sun case involving famous singers Seungri (BIGBANG) and Jung Joon-Young (FT-ISLAND), were already known to me and many of my fellow K-culture lovers out there in the world, other cases remained unknown. I believe that such a novel like Flowers of Fire can offer many insights into the dark side of Korean society and its industries, of which K-pop and Kdramas are part, and help young people who find an interest in them to be aware of the consequences they have--on bodies, on gender equality, among many other things that Jung Hawon develops remarkably well in her long essay.

I was really moved by Seo Ji-Hyun's fight and inspired by her courage to speak openly about her experience with sexual harassment. Her plea was the beginning of a long war against patriarchy, a war fought by young women who were also victims of sexual violence done by colleagues, friends, fathers, uncles, brothers, and even strangers. Jung Hawon lays out quite effectively the many forms sexual violence can take in Korea: from groping to spycams or even sextortion, public spaces have proven to be very threatening for women in the past few years. Even in their own houses/flats, they saw their privacy taken away from them and posted on pornographic websites. The perpetrators were rarely charged and let out of the police stations with little to compensate for the victims' trauma (admitting that money can repay the mental health issues women were left with).

What I found even more important in this book is the last chapter (My Body), which targeted the case of many transgender and transexual Koreans out there. In the West, young generations who discover feminism often think that it is an ending point that will eventually solve every issue related to gender equality, rarely knowing that feminism ignites other reflections concerning LGBTQIA+ people. I thought it extremely helpful to include these discussions in the book, only to make people aware that what is considered the core of today's conversations when it comes to gender equality is still a lot behind in other developed countries like Korea or even Japan and China.

There would be so many more things to talk about in this book (abortion laws, for instance!!!), yet I know this review will not be enough to cover them all. So I'm going to stop there and let another person find the opportunity to discover Jung Hawon's lines. On my part, I will recommend it to every person that is interested in Korean or even East-Asian feminism, as well as those women still fighting out there, marching in the streets or trying to find the power to do so.

An IMMENSE thank you to BenBella Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy and review it.

[Kamila Kunda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to Hawon Jung’s “Flowers of Fire” audiobook for over 10 hours in anger and disbelief. I knew that the position of women in South Korean society is low (in the gender gap index South Korea is ranked 105 out of 146 countries) and I had an idea of what it means in practice from numerous films, kdramas and books. But learning about the enormous scale of misogyny, lack of legal protection and corruption (including moral corruption) affecting girls and women overwhelmed me.

Jung outlines the history of feminist movements in South Korea and analyses various areas, in which women’s lives are impacted and which Korean feminists address. Spycam porn, prevalent sexual harassment and violence, discrimination at school and workplace, online sexual abuse, derogatory language often used to talk about women, reproductive rights, institutional impunity, lack of rights for trans women are the main issues discussed in this fascinating and engrossing, brilliantly researched book. Full of personal stories of women who persevered and fought for their rights, women who were the trailblazers of the #MeToo movement in South Korea, it often reads like a crime novel in which some perpetrators get punished at the end. Jung tells such stories, showing how reporting sexual assaults eventually brought justice to some women (men often call women who report such cases “flower snakes”) and how powerful solidarity among women can be, empowering them and giving them confidence.

However, still a lot needs to be done, especially when it comes to the change of the mindset of many Korean men, whose level of disrespect towards women admittedly shocked me often while reading this book. From appeals to take away medals from the greatest Korean archer An San because she has short hair and thus must be a “man hater” (!) to numerous online forums where men share tips on how to cause violence to women, from lowering girls’s exam results by universities so that they don’t get admitted to banning wearing glasses by women (but not by men) at work - a lot must still improve. Hawon Jung presents progress that’s been made and gives hope for better future for extremely resilient South Korean women.

[Pezi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, the rage. I listened to the audiobook and my phone was in danger of being thrown against a wall from time to time.
It was very interesting to hear about feminist movements in another country, also because most of my knowledge so far was very USA and european centric. The similarities and differences were fascinating and the book felt very well balanced and researched.

[❄️BooksofRadiance❄️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5🌟

[Helen | readwithneleh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through the lens of South Korea’s feminist movement and its activists, FLOWERS OF FIRE by Hawon Jung provides a powerful account of the prevalent and deeply rooted sexism and misogyny of Korean culture. The book is broken out in four parts—beginning with South Korea’s #MeToo movement with a brief background on women’s role in Korea’s history, moving into the unbelievable amount of sex crimes and the courts equally absurd but unsurprising leniency towards its male perpetrators, and finally exploring women’s rights to our own bodies, including abortion and the inclusion (or exclusion, depending on which side you’re on) of trans women.

I could honestly write a very long review about all the things that infuriated me. But I will spare you and myself the rant, because mostly it all stems from the same source: Korea’s deeply Confucian patriarchy. From the laughable leniency the courts grant male perpetrators to the government’s history of exploitation of women’s bodies for population growth/control, the misogyny runs deep. And while misogyny isn’t an exclusive Korean experience, the consequences of it are, I think, unique to Korea. Historically, Korea has always had a strong foundation of Confucian beliefs, especially in the ideals of righteousness. A manifestation of this in Korean culture is “chae myun” or saving face. This, coupled with South Korea’s economic boom and its global recognition for their technological innovations has turned the country into a “Republic of Molka”—a nation with pervasive and technologically advanced molkas and other digital sex crimes but outdated legal system and sexist mindset to combat it.

There are a lot of facts, figures, firsthand accounts, and resources in this book. I annotated the hell out of it (it’s mostly just curse words) and I can probably list out a lot of facts that I think the general, non-Korean audience would find enlightening and valuable. But that would be A LOT. Instead, I’ll list out a few things that will put into perspective how deep the patriarchy runs. Obviously, this is only the tip of the iceberg, so please pick this up and rage with me.

- South Korea is “one of the few countries where defamation is an offense punishable with a jail term”. This strict libel law along with the court’s history of leniency for male perpetrators (especially if they have a job or a family) largely prevents victims from speaking out. They fear of being sued and having to pay an exorbitant fine or jail time even if they are telling the truth. Contrarily, nearly half of the sexual assault cases are dismissed by the court and if convicted sentencing is generally a slap on the wrist.
- After the Korean War, the South Korean economy was in shambles and relied on cheap, labor-intensive exports that were 80% women, half of them being teenagers. These women helped grow South Korea’s economy from “$320 million in 1967 to $10 billion in 1977—3,000 percent in just a decade”. While they were being hailed as “industrial warriors” these women were paid far less than men and were looked down upon as uneducated “factory girls”.
- In order to make up for the lives lost in the Korean War, the South Korean government passed an abortion ban in August 1962, treating women’s bodies like “national assets”. And after coming into power in a coup, Park Chung Hee used the same logic to initiate his population control policy— by mandating female contraceptives and the legalization of abortions.
- In March 2022, a man with no political experience won the presidency on a campaign of mens-rights and anti-feminism. A survey showed that “80 percent of men in their twenties consider themselves victims of serious gender discrimination” and President Yoon leaned deep into that sentiment.

If you pick this book up you will see, time and time again, that the belief that women and their lives are dispensable and insignificant compared to a man’s has not only been written in Korea’s history, but it is still prevalent to this day.

This book isn’t perfect. Some areas felt redundant, especially on the topic of molkas. And I also wished the chapter on TERFS and discrimination of trans people was longer and with more elaboration, but I did appreciate her calling out the transphobia among some feminists in Korea. Overall, this is a great book to pick up if you are interested in Korea. In fact, if you listen to K-pop or watch K-dramas, please pick this up. This book will provide so much context for you.

As I was reading this, I wanted to scream and throw this book across the room multiple times. There’s a reason why it took me awhile to pick this book back up after my initial attempt a year ago. But nonetheless, I’m really glad I read this. Now, I just don’t know how to reconcile the rage and longing I have for my own culture.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted review copy. All opinions are my own.

[Sophia Turull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another library roulette book but I think everyone should read this. It put so much perspective on the freedoms and rights I have just by living in the US. It was wild to me that the last few chapters were about things happening in 2022 and these women were still facing so much backlash. Will be thinking about this book for a long time.

[Nicolas Lontel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flowers of Fire est un des essais les plus difficiles que j'ai eu à lire de ma vie. Pas difficile dans le sens d'un texte hermétique ou qui demande de comprendre toutes les références qui sont nommées, difficile dans le sens de la dureté des sujets abordés, son accumulation et le peu d'espoir qui est offert dans l'essai (bien qu'on en a des bribes ça et là). Parallèlement à cet essai, je lis aussi un Bonheur viril de Françoise d'Eaubonne qui semble être presqu'une illustration fictive de ce que je lis dans l'essai. Je pense que c'est la première fois que j'ai dû arrêter de lire un essai pendant quelques jours avant d'y revenir parce que c'était beaucoup trop violent à prendre tout d'un coup.

Contrairement à ce que je pensais initialement, ce n'est pas vraiment une histoire du féminisme en Corée du Sud, on passe deux chapitres de 4-5 pages dessus, mais c'est surtout un résumé des luttes et manifestations des dernières années (disons depuis 2010 environ). Ces luttes sont montré à travers les témoignages de différentes activistes, militantes, etc. qui raconte toutes leurs histoires en lien avec un ou plusieurs événements d'importance en Corée du Sud. Ce qui rend l'essai difficile à lire, c'est cette accumulation de témoignages qui dure deux, trois chapitres, avant de passer à un prochain, qui traite tous de violences, et pas simplement d'une ou deux formes de violence, on parle vraiment de toutes les violences possibles et imaginables, mais aussi de violence que je n'aurais honnêtement jamais crû possible. Il y a tellement de sujets traités dans ces témoignages que j'ai battu mon record de « tag » dans Zotero avec 51 marqueurs qui vont de #metoo aux violences envers les femmes en passant par les avortement sexo-sélectif, les caméra espion, les stérilisations forcée, la transphobie ou encore la torture.

Beaucoup des témoignages ne se finissent pas nécessairement bien non plus, plusieurs laissent entrevoir une belle solidarité entre les femmes et la nécessité de poursuivre les luttes et de trouver un espace de sororité intéressante pour la suite des choses (ce qui m'a beaucoup fait réfléchir à l'épisode 12 de Woo, l'avocate extraordinaire où l'avocate perd son procès, mais pas espoir et continue sa lutte avec des femmes qui ont trouvé un espace de solidarité et d'accueil. C'est assez réaliste sur justement le peu de gains des femmes dans le système de justice sud-coréen).

Je pense que des gens qui s'intéressent aux mouvements et manifestations féministes à travers le monde aurait avantage à lire ce livre, s'intéresser un petit peu à l'anti-féminisme et la misogynie et les formes extrêmes qu'elles peuvent prendre si on n'est pas vigilant·es. Ça peut aussi être une lecture choc pour faire réaliser des choses à certaines personnes qui pensent que ce n'est pas si pire ou qu'on a fait beaucoup de progrès depuis.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am at a loss for words after setting this book down, and very conflicted about whether it’s a blessing or a curse that I have been given all this new knowledge and information after having lived in Korea myself for a few years. While I was aware of some events in this book (I clearly remember the Park Won-Soon case airing on the news relentlessly), there is so much more that I think would’ve greatly altered how I interpreted many of my experiences in the country.

Most of all, I have the utmost respect towards the author Hawon Jung for not only compiling this information and these interviews, but also for the incredible writing throughout this book. I found myself so engrossed in the interviews, stories, and flow of information that I could hardly set the book down — a high indicator of a skilled wordsmith. I love how Jung has a clear purpose in every section of this book, but also how she gives space to the countless interviewees to tell what happened to them and let those stories speak for themselves. It’s heartbreaking and incredibly hard to read what so many of these women went through, but there’s no doubt that having this additional platform to yell into the world about the things society would rather have them keep silenced is immeasurably important, not only for the individuals but for the continued fight for equality as a whole.

There’s so much more I could praise about this book, but I’ll leave it there. In short, I highly encourage anyone remotely interested in the topic to immediately add this book to the need-to-read list. I would give it a score much higher than 5 if it were possible.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you have the option, I would not read this in audio book form as it was just not good lol

Aside from that, I still didn’t super enjoy this. The author is a journalist, and her writing style reflects that of a “letter to the editor” or editorial column. Chapters would end abruptly, like the end of an article and information is spoon-fed to you. The tone also kind of rubbed me the wrong way but I can’t explain exactly what it was that bothered me.
The feminist movement in Korea is very nuanced and I was hoping for a more detailed explanation as to why it is viewed differently within Korea compared to feminism in other countries. She touches on it a bit but if I were to ask another Korean about it they might have a different point of view or opinion on the matter.
If you’ve never heard about Korean feminism and want to learn more it’s an okay place to start, but it’s not the top resource…I appreciate what she was trying to do, especially if you know nothing about feminism in Korea, it just doesn’t stick with me.

[Mai H.]

Non-fiction November TBR

Women's History Month TBR

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and BenBella Books

[eileen robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

10000% will be recommending this to every man and woman I know. This book was so incredibly heartbreaking, eye opening, and deeply hopeful. I’m so mad at men and so proud of women.

[✩☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

South Korea’s reality also represents a unique case wherein a well-run nation that has achieved great economic, technological, and political advances has seen its patriarchal values changing at a surprisingly slow pace, challenging the widely held belief that women’s overall status in society tends to improve in tandem with such progresses.

jung opens her book with a nod to toni morrison's call to write the book "you really want to read [...] but hasn't been written yet", noting the dearth of english language accounts of the emerging feminist movement in south korea. like jung, i've often wished for such an account; surprise is more often than not the response i get when i talk about the low status of women in south korea. my own knowledge is based on autotranslated papers and news articles, so it hasn't been the easiest to point people in the direction of more comprehensive information on the subject. in my experience, the average (non-east asian) woman's impression of the country is entirely colored by kdramas and kpop; through this lens, korean men are perceived as "offering alternatives to toxic masculinity" (actual quote from a paper i read in university), presumably because they wear make up and jewelry on stage.

this is of course a far cry from reality.

in this book, jung covers an impressively broad range of topics from the #MeToo movement to the spycam epidemic to south korea's punishing beauty standards. her journalistic style - a blend of factual reporting, anecdotal accounts and interviews - makes this a very accessible and engaging read, even if it sometimes leaves you wanting for more depth.

if you've kept up with any (actual) feminist writing in the recent years, none of these topics will be news to you. still, no matter how low your expectations of men are, the scope of male violence in this book is stomach churning. from male politicians publicly praising the #MeToo movement while raping women behind closed doors to organized criminals coercing girls as young as 12 into sexual slavery, there's no end to the depravity.

what's most upsetting is how long, hard and tirelessly these women have fought merely to have the crimes against them acknowledged. ten years of trying to have a man prosecuted for rape, only for him to get away with a guilty verdict that comes with a fine or a sentence of a few months - and that's what counts a success in south korea! it's the most blatant statement on how little women's lives are valued.

another section details male hypocrisy surrounding the law on abortion. jung astutely notes that women's wombs are treated as "taps, to be turned on and off according to national interest", outlining the historical abortion mandates followed by the sudden policy reversal that came with plummeting birthrates and the rising influence of evangelical christianity in the country.

it's not all doom and gloom though. jung maintains a deft emotional balance, interspersing her accounts of male violence with testimonies from women. as harrowing as their stories are, it's also moving to hear them describe the transformative impact of feminist consciousness on their lives - the release of being able to articulate the wrongness governing their lives, the relief of being able to voice their hurt, the joy of sorority.

sadly, some of the book's final chapters are a startling disappointment. after several hundred pages of detailing the immense scale of societal assault on women, jung goes on a bizarre tangent about "TERFs", which she sums in this appalingly stupid paragraph:

The hostility reveals a rise of women who, holding that misogyny is sex-based oppression, define womanhood as being “biologically female” and do not consider transgender women as women. Instead, they assert that trans women endanger and “erase” biological women in some public spheres, most notably women’s restrooms. Commonly called trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) or “gender-critical” feminists, they claim that sex is fundamentally biological, not socially constructed, and thus cannot be changed, a view described by its critics as essentialist.

this position that sex is "changeable" is completely nonsensical in light of the three hundred preceding pages detailing the numerous ways in which patriachal forces oppress women through the specifics of their biology. she then goes on to inanely criticize protests against spy cam for being "women only" and that "its trans-exclusionary undertone was not widely understood in South Korea at the time" (because of course women gathering to protest rampant and near-ubiquitous sexualization must actually be some nefarious attempt at male exclusion). of course, she immediately runs out of ways to make this subject relevant to the south korean context and brings up lia thomas, as if it could not be more obvious that this is a western strain of discourse awkwardly grafted onto an entirely different cultural context.

this is easily the most poorly researched part of the book - jung groups transitioned people together with gay and bisexual people as sexual minorities (a fairly common term in east asia). i can understand the conflation in the sense that most trans people in asia are simply gay or bisexual people trying to live their lives without persecution in societies that render their existence impossible either way. yet even though most of what she cites are statistics around homophobia, including the military ban on consensual gay sex, conversion therapy camps for homosexuals and sting operations where gay men were tracked over dating apps, jung focuses instead on two anecdotes of male transitioners- one barred from serving in the korean military and another applicant to one of the few women's universities in the country. she then compares facing ruthless homophobic persecution within the military to males being excluded from one of the few female only universities in the country before launching into the aforementioned tangent about "TERFs".

presumably jung's intent was to outline the complexities and limitations of the feminist movement. but it's fascinating (translation: irritating) that both times she chooses to do this by bemoaning feminism's "exclusionary treatment" of marginalized men - gay and trans. if her concern was for the treatment of sexual minorities within feminism, a more salient topic would be the treatment of korean lesbians — multiple marginalized as they are by sexism and heterosexism.

but lesbians are not mentioned once in the entire book.

lee-kim sou yoon wrote in her 2015 paper on lesbians and feminism in korea - "the story of myself, a Korean lesbian, who is definitely a "a woman" and homosexual, wasn't left out by mistake" but deliberately ignored. she goes on to write "that is why there is the irony that feminists could be so interested in sexual minority groups and yet do not care about lesbians - these feminists cannot understand the difference between lesbians and sexual minorities as a whole." it's a more succinct critique of the final section that anything i could write.

the book closes on a note of uncertainty. this is a movement that is still unfolding and the backlash has been intense (in line with the general rise of antifeminism globally). the current ruling party campaigned on the specific platform of antifeminism — and won. the future for women in south korea seems uncertain, but it's also apparent there's been a paradigm shift, options open to women that seemed unthinkable before, a collective bravery keeping them buoyed.

We can’t go back to the past now. We’ll keep marching forward.

[pears ✧ ☽ ☼ ଳ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woah this was so good.

[Lotti U · Rating 5 out of 5]

100000⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Victoria Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

happy women’s history month. we keep marching forward

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful read! I'm inspired by the women of South Korea, they've endured so much and made so much progress.

When Trump was reelected, the Internet blew up with talk about women participating in the 4B movement like how women of South Korea were, and I think now that I've read this, the situation isn't dire enough for us to do that. South Korea has a culture where it's okay to comment on women's looks, have no sex based discrimination protections, and have sexism baked into the law and corporate policy. That's not even to mention the injustice that victims of sexual crimes face. I thought the American justice system was bad, theirs is worse. Saying that someone who filed 400+ illegal spycam videos was a first time offender and that's a reason they should be spared jail time EXCUSE ME??? The fact that cameras have to make a shutter sound by law because of the rampant spycam culture and the fact that when tourists come in their phone is automatically put to have the camera make a shutter sound....

I feel like everyone could learn something from this book, whether South Korean, American, man, woman or otherwise. I liked the part about politics near the end where all these young men and influencers said that women have an advantage in society now and they're trying to overcome (?) outdo (?) beat (??) men because of the support the government gives them when in reality, it could be farther from the truth. Women are just on more equal footing now, but still a far far way from equality. Sex crimes are still rampant, abortion access still funky, pregnant women still discriminated against.

Also the part about South Korea's abortion history was WILD. I had never thought abortion protestation could be anything other than religious zeal, but abortion access was literally a public policy. Also the part about how IUDs were tested on SK women before released by the FDA in America SICKENS me. The role of America in South Korean history in general is an abomination and on behalf of Americans everywhere, I'm sorry.

10/10 would recommend!

[Shania]

🤏🤏🤏🤏🤏🤏🤏

I was radicalised a long time ago and I continued to read feminist literature ever since then but somewhere between the theories and the fictionalised accounts, my rage became sanitized, I lost touch with the situation on ground and I am glad I read this book. South Korean women are paving the way for women of the modern world to live life on your own terms by rejecting what their conservative society demands of them. Their government, like most governments used women's bodies as tools for policy, playing with laws to increase and decrease population whenever they felt like it without caring for the consequences it would have for women. Now the nation's fate lies in the hands of women who are prioritising their well being and belief systems in the face of adversity. The government is begging women to have more children, but it's too little too late, the country hasn't changed their ways, especially after they elected President Yoon. The men's rights activists can scream all they want now but they simply don't have a future. The 4B movement is so radical and revolutionary, I hope this inspires all of us.

I sincerely hope women in South Korea live safely, I hope trans women can live a long and healthy life alongside them, I hope their sense of community inspires us all.

And thank you to all the women around the world that came before me, I stand on the ground you fought for and I hope to nurture this ground for the women that come after me.

[kex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprehensive and so, so thoroughly researched. Like I cannot emphasize enough how well researched this book is. I also can’t even begin to imagine the amount of time and effort it would require to write a book like this because Jung really does her due diligence to interview so many different voices, and in a way this book serves as a symbol of the feminist community in South Korea because I very much feel that there are just as many of their words in this book as there are Jung’s own. I don’t think this book necessarily told me anything I didn’t already know, unfortunately (not on the part of Jung but rather the fact that such horrific crimes are commonplace knowledge for so many women) but it was helpful to see everything synthesized in one place. Major topics include discussions of sexual assault and legal discrimination, digital sex crimes, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ issues (specifically transphobia), gender discrimination in the workplace, and the history of women in organized protests. Really helps contextualize a lot of the headlines that do gain traction internationally like the 4B movement or the Burning Sun scandal.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very clear and concise account of the changes that have been achieved by South Korean women. Sexual assault, abortion, spy- and toilet-cams, beauty industry, and ways women are changing their own lives to stay single and avoid bearing children are covered with first person interviews and historical context. Informative and highly recommended.

[marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book focuses on recent developments in the South Korean feminist movement, such as the grassroots campaign against spycam and other nonconsensual sexual abuse material. The writing is succinct and easy to follow. However, while it offers a blow-by-blow account of what happened, it fails to provide deeper analysis. On top of that, the chapters are short and tends to end abruptly. Still, it's a good starting point if you want to learn about various feminist movements worldwide.

[Korea Herald Books Podcast · Rating 5 out of 5]

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we talk to Hawon Jung, author of “Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea’s Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women’s Rights Worldwide.”

We discuss why “feminism” is such a loaded term in South Korea, the #MeToo movement, digital sex crimes, deep-rooted patriarchal gender norms and how the women’s rights movement here connects to other movements in Asia and beyond.

Hawon is a former Agence France-Presse correspondent who is currently based in Germany as a freelance journalist. She has over a decade of experience covering the two Koreas, K-pop’s rise and the #MeToo movement, for which she was shortlisted in the 2019 awards for Editorial Excellence by the Society of Publishers in Asia.

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, or suggestions for other Korean books you’d like us to review or discuss. Tweet us (Beth @_paperfetishist / Naomi @ngnaomi) or leave a message on The Korea Herald’s Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram page. You can also email us at bethhong@heraldcorp.com or ngnaomi@heraldcorp.com.

[Stormaloo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great read for anyone curious about Korean’s feminist movement. It's divided into four sections covering various topics like the #MeToo movement's impact globally. The author provides lots of references to back up her points, making it well-researched. By the end, readers will have a better grasp of past and present issues in Korean society and how women are working to overcome them.

[Corvus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very focused on the sorts of feminist efforts one might call "above ground" or "mainstream" in that they were very focused on laws as solutions and made up of many stories from accidental feminists. It taught me a ton about many of the things women in South Korea face though, some similar to what I have seen and experienced in the USA, and some unique all their own. Some of it was so sickening and infuriating I felt the misandry of my youth bubble to the surface. I really would have liked more underground and lgbtq based movement history. Given how divergent the above ground stuff is, I am sure there is amazing organizing creativity and successes that I am missing out on through ignorance. This book is worth reading for sure, though.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed reporting of the feminist movements in South Korea and how that has affected the modern political landscape. I really appreciate how approachable this nonfiction is. The author balances reporting individual stories and the larger political and social movements.