The #MeToo Movement in South Korea
By Ashley Kim
The #MeToo movement launched over a decade ago in the United States and was popularized in October 2017 when Alyssa Milano and other celebrities began to share personal stories regarding sexual violence. The movement spread extremely quickly, with the hashtag being used more than 200,000 times within a day of Milano’s tweet (BBC). How has this movement prevailed in other countries, especially in East Asian countries engrained in Confucian values such as South Korea?
In the conservative Confucian society of South Korea, sensitive topics such as sexual assault are often avoided and silenced. Due to these cultural norms, the movement failed to gain much traction for months, until January of this year. During a televised interview, a prosecutor named Seo Ji-hyeon kindled th...
