“No sitting together for a boy and a girl after 7 years old.” (Namnyeo chilse budongseok.) From ancient times, this rule of sexual segregation in social life was strictly observed as one of the main tenets of Confucian ethics. From about the middle of the last century, society relaxed the restriction as it accepted the influx of foreign culture after the wars. Co-education from the primary level was a clearest change. In the following decades, men and women shared space and opportunities at work, and increased contact between different genders in society was viewed as an enhancement of women’s status in this long male-dominated culture.
But time has come for yet another change of concept and attitude on interaction between the sexes. The 21st century Korea requires that one has to recite old dictums on sexual scruples upon leaving home for work every morning. You are entering a minefield where careless men ― and women ― could fall into charges of sexual harassment or violence.
There seem to be too many established professionals whose individual rules of behavior fail to keep up with the increasingly narrow social tolerance. Or they tend to relax their own rules in the mistaken belief that the other party would accept or endure their aberrations because of the special relationship between them. So, there are endless news reports of sexual harassment scandals involving professors and students, generals and female officers, business executives and new employees, and so on.
In this country where billions of bottles of soju are consumed each year, people accused of sexual misconduct used to attribute their wrongdoing to intoxication and the law had sometimes been lenient to them. But, just as the court becomes harsher on DUI and DWI cases, alcoholic influence is less accepted as an excuse for sexual misconduct during or after dinner parties. Let’s look at the case of a senior prosecutor in Seoul who faces internal disciplinary action upon complaints by two female journalists.
The deputy chief of the Seoul’s Nambu Prosecutors’ Office invited 10 reporters covering the office, four of whom were women, and several prosecutors under him to a dinner at a restaurant late last month. When the group moved to a bar, a senior prosecutor with the surname touched the leg of a female reporter sitting next to him and suggested to her that they leave the place together. As the reporter changed her seat, the prosecutor approached another female reporter and behaved similarly, according to news reports. He later apologized to the two victims.
Korea University in Seoul is currently hit with claims by two female graduate students in doctorate programs that their supervising professor made sexual approaches after taking them to a motel under the pretext of preparing papers in a cozy atmosphere. The accused professor asserted that the two students were encouraged to make the allegations by his rival professor, who he said was scheming to discredit him.
The above cases have not developed into criminal charges but are certain to affect the respective careers of the two men. Comments in Internet spaces said the blame should be shared with the male and female reporters, who accompanied the prosecutors to the drinking party. The graduate students at Korea University reportedly went on a tour to China with the professor outside their research activities.
In these recent instances, we notice that claims of sexual misbehavior stemmed from private contacts between people in professional association, which the culture in this country has recognized as natural extension of official relations. Office dinners or excursions, both in private and public organizations, are considered as important opportunities to enhance spirit of solidarity, but they are also open to abuse.
Informality and flexibility are valued as a way of ensuring good interaction between doctors and patients, professors and students, and between prosecutors and beat reporters. As intimacy develops between them, some undisciplined individuals with lax morals mistake personal closeness as a pass for misconduct. They should be warned that this society is ready to put them into disgrace and possibly behind bars even if they put their wrongdoing down to momentary high spirits without sexual lust.
