I did a radio interview last week for KPCC, a station in Southern California. As always with these things, there is a lot I didn’t get to say but I am glad I got to intervene and resist interpreting the phenomenon as somehow a “cultural” thing. It sounded like the interviewer wanted to hear that South Korean men are so sexually repressed or depraved (like Japanese men?!?) that they resort to spycam. This is way off the mark and typical of how Korea and Koreans get exoticized.
These ongoing protests are part of a diverse and vibrant feminist mobilizations that include not only LGBTQ rights, #MeToo, and efforts to decriminalize abortion, but also the growing public outrage against widespread misogyny and violence against women.
Have a listen online. It’s only 13 minutes long. https://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2018/07/09/63312/as-south-korean-women-protest-spycam-porn-we-look/
[caption] As South Korean women protest ‘spycam porn,’ we look at what is driving the phenomenon. Photo description: Large crowd of women protesters. One is holding up a sign reading, “My life is not your porn.”