Korean women's discontentment with Korean men: Korea Herald writer

The writer says that it would be lamentable if Korean men inherited their ancestors' flaws and incompetence.

SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - These days, young Korean men and women criticise each other and clash over controversial issues such as feminism and women's mandatory military duty.

Korean men argue that if women want to "earn" equal treatment, they should serve in the army, just as men are obligated to do.

Korean women find such a notion unmanly and repulsive. As a result, Korean young men and women find each other "extremely abominating", as they well put it.

Recently, a historian revealed that the famous 16th-century Korean poet Heo Nanseol-heon left a sad will when she committed suicide at the age of 26.

In her will, Heo wrote that she was miserable all her life because of two things: One was that she was born in Joseon, which is today's Korea, and the other was that she married a Korean man.

In her time, the chauvinist male-dominated Joseon society harboured relentless prejudice against woman writers. Her own mother-in-law was no exception. She burned her daughter-in-law's precious manuscripts of poems and writings.

Yet her husband, who was a typical mama's boy, neither defended nor protected his wife.

As a result, Heo had to end her life in disillusion in her mid-twenties due to her inconsiderate, irresponsible husband, not to mention her cruel mother-in-law, who ruthlessly abused her daughter-in-law.

The times have changed now. Today, Korean women writers enjoy enormous popularity among ardent readers, both domestic and overseas. Besides, Korea is no longer a male chauvinist society.

Husbands in the younger generation now treat their wives with respect. One can even find quite a few henpecked husbands in today's Korean society.

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/korean-womens-discontent-with-men-korea-herald-writer