Links to other sites on the Web
Men and Women, who are the real sexists?
10109 D-1
Lee, Won Suk
Thousands of years of time has flowed since the greatest creation of God was completed, the creation of mankind. As humans adapted to various environments, the single root, which are humans, started to bear into different fruits. These fruits became different races, colors, tribes, religions and above all, different sexes. At last, Men and women were created. Although we were born as equal beings, we developed different traits. ��Difference�� between the two sexes started to break the two sexes apart. Because of this ��difference,�� we have grown into two totally different branches and now, this difference has become what we call now ��discrimination.��
Discrimination of women has become a global issue. Numerous countries, including Korea, are experiencing controversies and are coming up with new measures. But the questions is, ��Are women of Korea really being discriminated by men?�� First of all, women declare that the reason why they don��t serve in the military is because of their physical weaknesses. And still, there are so many public services they can take part in spite of their weaknesses. Having nothing to say, they try to excuse themselves again by mentioning physiology and pregnancy. It might be a reasonable cause in a domestic view, since men don��t experience these things. But these excuses are not reasonable globally because all women of the world experience physiology and pregnancy and these women still have the duty of military services. Above all, even after serving for military services, foreign women posses a higher childbirth rate than the Korean rate. Even after possessing the lowest birthrate out of all the OECD countries, Korean women still make excuse of pregnancy. In contrast, men have no choice but to serve for their country for at least a year. And still, they don��t complain as much as women. How is it possible for women with common sense to say that Korean women are being discriminated? Women in Korea have lived such bliss lives and it is time for them to be aware that they aren��t the ones who are being discriminated but instead, men are.
Another argument women raise against men is that they receive less payment then the amount men receive. But have they worked reasonably enough as men have? I think not. First of all, the purpose of having a job differs. For men, attending a job is a sacrifice. Not only do they work for themselves but to satisfy their wives and to raise their kids. On the other hand, for women, jobs are only known as self-realization. Furthermore, men work approximately 3 hours more a day in average than women do, and Korean men��s working hours are ranked 1st out of all the OECD countries. Also, while women serve in basic statuses such as secretaries, men work in higher statuses in more difficult situations, like being a CEO and having the whole company��s faith on their shoulders. What��s more is that when women face difficult tiring works, they pass it on to men as if it is obvious that men should do the hard works. Despite all the ��laziness�� Korean women showed, they still complain until this day that they are being discriminated from men in payments.
Far beyond all the facts in a domestic vision, in a global vision the OECD has announced equality of men and women of Korea 4th out of 162 countries. On the contrary, Canada, France and the United States, the countries we thought as the ��lands of the women,�� were not even close to the 10th. How was Korea able to receive such a high score? One fact is that Korea is one of the two countries that own Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. But unlike their name, they describe men as pathetic and women as superior. They also perform absurd things like requesting 1 trillion won for their private uses. Also, Korean women have rights no other country��s women have. First of all, menstruation holiday only exists in Korea, while women of other nations attend jobs even when menstruating. Next, sexual intercourse under the pretense of marriage exists only in Korea and Taiwan. But still, Taiwan��s is monetary penalty while Korean��s leads to imprisonment. And still there are many more. Korea has supported numerous right and privileges to women and there exists barely and rights or privileges for men neither domestically nor internationally. Can it still be said that there is discrimination among women?
Not only in the OECD countries, but women around the whole world of hundreds of countries have fought for impartiality of sex and left results that are still remembered today. On the contrary, women of Korea just complain but show no results. The one complaint they raise is about the discrimination they have experienced in the time of Chosun. But how was the contemporary flow of the world? American women had neither the property right nor the right to vote until the 19th amendment was past in the 20th century. They were treated as ��the property of men�� just like Chosun women. But at least Chosun women had the property right. Also, women of other countries erased their first names to change it into their husband��s, when Chosun women were allowed to keep their last names as their possessions. As more time passed, Korean women emphasized the fact that they were being discriminated by comparing themselves more and more to the women��s advantages of foreign countries, and still, they mention neither of the disadvantages foreign women posses nor the advantages Korean women have. Is it true that Korean women are suffering from discrimination from the past and the present? Or is it just their greed of desire for more power?
Following the flow time and change of history, Korean women make reference to the pain they have undertaken after the period of Chosun, the period under the rule of Japan imperialism. The most representative case is the military sexual slave. It is true that Korean women have suffered not only from being treated like animals and working as slaves, but also experiencing horrible things like rape and sexual harassment during wars. But have they thought of what kinds of situations men were in at the same time? Men were crawling and bleeding in the war fields, killing and being killed by enemies and were being valued more poorly than an insect��s life. They��ve suffered something more than women have, called ��death.�� Furthermore, even the majority of the men who have returned from the war have suffered physical and mental disabilities. Can women say they are being discriminated for not getting the compensations for their mental abuses when men have lost more during the wars and are receiving less? Also, not only the past but also present women prostitutes have monthly gains of 700,000 won from the government. But what do men from the contemporary war receive? Men gain 200,000 won of support from the government monthly. And still, women who experienced discrimination are still capable of attending various jobs when men from the war have no capability but to sit at home as a ��disabled.��
Moreover, while men and boys were forced into recruitment into wars, for women, it was a matter of choice. Women may say it is obvious because of the fact that men are stronger than women physically. But is it right to argue over whether to serve for your country or to not when your country is in danger? Do Korean women know that during the Second World War, 500,000 American women fought for their country? Do you think that 15-year-old boys entered the war because they were strong enough? Did they know any better of death than grown up women did? I think not. Protection of home country is an essential duty for all men and women, and the young boys who died in the middle of the battlefields had neither the strength nor the knowledge women possessed. There weren��t any Korean women who dedicated their lives to deliver food supplies and messages for the army, but there were numerous amounts of them in foreign countries. After all the things women can do, but which they haven��t done, can you still say women are being discriminated? Is it so obvious that women don��t have to go to the army and serve for their country? Can it still be said a universal fact that women are the ones who are being discriminated but not men? So many questions, but none of them can claim that women are being discriminated. We are in need to think over the fact of female discrimination, or maybe, ��male�� discrimination.
In conclusion, Korean women advocate that they are being discriminated by men, but in reality, they are the ones who are discriminating men. They show no respect for the men who fought for the country and neither do they show thanks that they are being treated better than foreign women. Even though Korean men and our country are supporting money, laws, facilities and many other privileges for women, they just keep on asking for more and more, and their greed seems endless. Before women ask something for their country, they must do something for their country.
Work Cited
Books
�� Nijole V. Benokraitis, Modern Sexism: Blatant, Subtle, and Covert Discrimination, Prentice Hall, 1994. 11. 1
�� Barbara Allen Babcock, Sex Discrimination and the Law: History, Practice, and Theory , Aspen Publishers, 1996. 10
�� Cynthia B Lloyd, Sex, discrimination, and the division of labor, Columbia University Press, 1975
�� �庴��, �������� ȥ������ ������, ������, 1997. 12. 30
Periodicals
�� John Tierney. ��The Complaint Gap.�� NY times 2006. July 15
�� Reuters. ��Woman��s place no longer at home in S.Korea textbooks.�� Washington post 2006. September. 17
Internet Resources
��
Darby Larson. ��Gender Discrimination: A Rebuttal��
Miscellaneous. 2004. February
http://eclectica.org/v8n2/larson.html
��
http://www.coeffic.demon.co.uk/descrim.htm
��
N. Onymous. ��Anti-Male Discrimination in the Workplace��
International Ex-Fetus Association. 2004. November 22
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6708/workdisc.html
Links to other sites on the Web
