This section was so incredibly bleak. I had no conception of how widespread the problem of spycams was (is?) in South Korea, nor had I heard of the popularity of livestreams of sex slaves being subjected to violence and rape.
Somehow, I think I had gotten the impression that the rise in young male anti-feminist incels in South Korea was a reaction against the South Korean feminist movement in the wake of #MeToo. I hadn't realized how incredibly misogynistic (and truly, truly so--not in the flippant way that word is so often used) the culture was. I can't imagine growing up never, ever feeling safe from voyeurism and exploitation, even in my own home with the blinds drawn. It makes me so much more sympathetic to South Korean women who embrace 4B.
I was also shocked by the leniency that child pornography is met with in the South Korean legal system (and muted response from the culture at large). I often criticize the sexual culture in the US for seeing consent as the only determiner of sexual ethics, but at least we still uphold that bar, as low as it is, and still retain a broadly shared sense of repulsion at the sexual abuse of children.
Yeah, I'm really curious to know what people's theories are for why the spy cam epidemic didn't catch on to the same degree in the U.S. -- to the degree that Seoul train stations have to have massive billboards reminding women to take precautions and potential perpetrators of the (nominal) consequences.
I'm generally a pretty pro-urbanist, pro-density kind of guy, but I do wonder if this makes a case for the suburbs - or at least non-apartment living, where you're not living across the street from a high-rise of potential Peeping Toms with high-powered cameras. (Not that "move the suburbs" should be an adequate response to this!)
It's a good question, and I'm not sure of the answer. I do think Americans have a much stronger instinctive sense that we have a right to privacy, such that this would feel like even more of a violation here than it would in a less individualistic, more densely populated and collectivist society. On the other hand, a big part of the appeal for the men who consume molka seems to be the transgression of boundaries and the degradation of the women involved. Maybe a larger part has to do with the firm establishment of feminism in mainstream US culture before these technologies took hold?
I lived in NYC for three years, and this was not a big worry for anyone (including in a high rise with windows) because we had basic expectations of other people.
It's a bit like, how do you move through the day, knowing someone *could* unexpectedly punch you in the face? People mostly don't!
And if there's a sudden case, you want to crack down with minimal widespread publicity that mAyBe this is how men broadly are now working through their feelings about women / polarization of the issue.
I’m kind of glad I can follow this vicariously via sub stack. I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for this with three little girls and chronic sleep deprivation.
I would not discount the authoritarian politics culture of East Asia as being a major contributing factor to the prevalence of spy cams and the software to easily sift and target footage. China alone has generated huge demand for this kind of surveillance (and probably utilised a lot of South Korean manufacturing and market capacity) of ordinary citizens for ‘social cohesion’. South Korea is not that far out of an autocratic regime that fosters low trust society. The complete liberalisation and democratic reformation of South Korean politics and economy in the 1990s coincided with the rise of the internet and the beginning of the tech boom. I’m not surprised that the demand and normalisation of surveillance metasised into a particularly misogynistic bent. If the state has the right to spy on its citizens for “social cohesion” it’s only natural that men have the ‘right’ to spy on women for “social cohesion”..
That’s my theory and it’s probably mostly wrong. That’s enough of that rabbit hole for one day.
I too was wondering about what it is that led to spycams becoming such a massive problem in Korea.
I wonder if, despite the ubiquity of online porn in our own culture, that there was more of a lingering sense that it was depraved and not something you should be making yourself?
But then, there was some popular 80s movie that was basically about spying on girls in the shower, wasn't there? (Porky's?)
And there have certainly been plenty of high profile "sex tape" scandals.
I dunno, but this issue is clearly a massive betrayal of any sense of social contract between humans and between the sexes. I can see why South Korean feminism is so adversarial.
Yeah, "Porky's" (1981) famously had a plot point about sneaking into the girl's locker room, and "American Pie" (1999) had a subplot that revolved around the male characters surreptitiously turning on a webcam while a foreign exchange student was changing -- so I don't think the idea of non-consensual photography is exactly foreign to the American imagination!
Yet when then-ESPN reporter Erin Andrews had a peephole video taken of her by a stalker in 2009, he was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, and (outside very gross corners of the internet, I imagine) I recall public opinion being entirely on her side. I liked Serena's point - that while America relies on mere consent too heavily in constructing its sexual ethics, at least it does seem to mean it!
This section was so incredibly bleak. I had no conception of how widespread the problem of spycams was (is?) in South Korea, nor had I heard of the popularity of livestreams of sex slaves being subjected to violence and rape.
Somehow, I think I had gotten the impression that the rise in young male anti-feminist incels in South Korea was a reaction against the South Korean feminist movement in the wake of #MeToo. I hadn't realized how incredibly misogynistic (and truly, truly so--not in the flippant way that word is so often used) the culture was. I can't imagine growing up never, ever feeling safe from voyeurism and exploitation, even in my own home with the blinds drawn. It makes me so much more sympathetic to South Korean women who embrace 4B.
I was also shocked by the leniency that child pornography is met with in the South Korean legal system (and muted response from the culture at large). I often criticize the sexual culture in the US for seeing consent as the only determiner of sexual ethics, but at least we still uphold that bar, as low as it is, and still retain a broadly shared sense of repulsion at the sexual abuse of children.
Yeah, I'm really curious to know what people's theories are for why the spy cam epidemic didn't catch on to the same degree in the U.S. -- to the degree that Seoul train stations have to have massive billboards reminding women to take precautions and potential perpetrators of the (nominal) consequences.
I'm generally a pretty pro-urbanist, pro-density kind of guy, but I do wonder if this makes a case for the suburbs - or at least non-apartment living, where you're not living across the street from a high-rise of potential Peeping Toms with high-powered cameras. (Not that "move the suburbs" should be an adequate response to this!)
It's a good question, and I'm not sure of the answer. I do think Americans have a much stronger instinctive sense that we have a right to privacy, such that this would feel like even more of a violation here than it would in a less individualistic, more densely populated and collectivist society. On the other hand, a big part of the appeal for the men who consume molka seems to be the transgression of boundaries and the degradation of the women involved. Maybe a larger part has to do with the firm establishment of feminism in mainstream US culture before these technologies took hold?
I lived in NYC for three years, and this was not a big worry for anyone (including in a high rise with windows) because we had basic expectations of other people.
It's a bit like, how do you move through the day, knowing someone *could* unexpectedly punch you in the face? People mostly don't!
And if there's a sudden case, you want to crack down with minimal widespread publicity that mAyBe this is how men broadly are now working through their feelings about women / polarization of the issue.
I’m kind of glad I can follow this vicariously via sub stack. I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for this with three little girls and chronic sleep deprivation.
I would not discount the authoritarian politics culture of East Asia as being a major contributing factor to the prevalence of spy cams and the software to easily sift and target footage. China alone has generated huge demand for this kind of surveillance (and probably utilised a lot of South Korean manufacturing and market capacity) of ordinary citizens for ‘social cohesion’. South Korea is not that far out of an autocratic regime that fosters low trust society. The complete liberalisation and democratic reformation of South Korean politics and economy in the 1990s coincided with the rise of the internet and the beginning of the tech boom. I’m not surprised that the demand and normalisation of surveillance metasised into a particularly misogynistic bent. If the state has the right to spy on its citizens for “social cohesion” it’s only natural that men have the ‘right’ to spy on women for “social cohesion”..
That’s my theory and it’s probably mostly wrong. That’s enough of that rabbit hole for one day.
I too was wondering about what it is that led to spycams becoming such a massive problem in Korea.
I wonder if, despite the ubiquity of online porn in our own culture, that there was more of a lingering sense that it was depraved and not something you should be making yourself?
But then, there was some popular 80s movie that was basically about spying on girls in the shower, wasn't there? (Porky's?)
And there have certainly been plenty of high profile "sex tape" scandals.
I dunno, but this issue is clearly a massive betrayal of any sense of social contract between humans and between the sexes. I can see why South Korean feminism is so adversarial.
Yeah, "Porky's" (1981) famously had a plot point about sneaking into the girl's locker room, and "American Pie" (1999) had a subplot that revolved around the male characters surreptitiously turning on a webcam while a foreign exchange student was changing -- so I don't think the idea of non-consensual photography is exactly foreign to the American imagination!
Yet when then-ESPN reporter Erin Andrews had a peephole video taken of her by a stalker in 2009, he was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, and (outside very gross corners of the internet, I imagine) I recall public opinion being entirely on her side. I liked Serena's point - that while America relies on mere consent too heavily in constructing its sexual ethics, at least it does seem to mean it!