South Korean women’s anger about spycam porn ‘has reached its limit’, say protesters
‘Courage to be uncomfortable’ was the slogan of the anti-hidden camera movement during its fifth protest on Seoul’s streets
While Typhoon Kong-rey hit parts of South Korea on Saturday, a different storm has been brewing in the nation’s capital for months. The air was heavy and humid in Seoul’s Hyehwa district after a morning of strong rain, but thousands of female protesters were undeterred as they joined the city’s fifth anti-hidden camera protest.
Wearing bright red hoodies or T-shirts and many hiding their faces under scarlet cardboard visors, medical masks, sunglasses and bandanas, the crowds of mostly young women chanted slogans and held signs saying “courage to be uncomfortable” and “uncomfortable courage changes the world”.
They sat in neat rows as their voices sounded out in a collective outcry against the epidemic of hidden camera sex crimes in the country. The organisers’ optimistically estimated about 60,000 women were at the event, while the police said they didn’t bother counting.
Over the past year, “molka” – or hidden cameras – have become a major issue in South Korea. From upskirt photos on the subway to images taken from inside public toilets, hidden camera sex crimes are the cause of much anger and concern among South Korean women, compounded by the rising problem of revenge pornography on the highly-connected nation’s massive online community.
“Women should live as human beings in a society where there is no gender-based inequality,” the protest organisers told South China Morning Post before the event. “Our voices will continue to cry out until gender inequality is eliminated in all areas of society.”