SNU students under fire for misogynistic language

Eight male students from Seoul National University’s liberal arts college are being slammed for using sexually abusive language toward fellow female students in a private mobile messenger room.

On Monday, SNU’s minority human rights committee and victims’ task force put up a poster accusing eight students of exchanging borderline “rapist” talks about women between February to August in 2015. 

The poster by the student committee called for the accused to give a written apology with their full names and to undergo human rights and gender equality education.

The men allegedly sexually objectified women by passing remarks such as "Do her with a bag over the head, because she still has nice body” and “I got offered to tutor a lolinee (compound word of Lolita and the Korean word ‘eorinee’ for children). It would have been better if she were a high school student.”

When talking about their schoolmates the men allegedly made comments such as “She really needs to be tied up and beaten” and “politely request her to show her panties.”

They were aware of the offensive nature of their language, as some of their conversation had included cautioning each other to keep their words secret.

However, during a drinking session last year, one of them had revealed the content of their conversation to a female student who had been one of the subjects of their talk. 

The victim had saved a copy of the chat thread, which she recently released following the revelation of a similar incident at another tertiary education institute.

The SNU administration said the case is currently under investigation and that the students in question will be punished accordingly based on the results.

The victims’ task force said that division among the genders is not their aim, but rather healthier sexual awareness among men and women.

A similar accusation surfaced not long ago at another top tertiary education institute, Korea University, causing shock among the public at such behavior.

Whether making public the content of private chats is an act that should also be punished is an issue that has not been discussed much, amid ongoing public debate about such incidents.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)