South Korean university disciplines professor for misogynistic stereotypes; systemic gender violence in academia exposed
Original framing: “Professor disciplined after saying ‘8 in 10 Korean women’ engaged in prostitution” — South China Morning Post
The professor’s remarks echo colonial-era tropes that framed Korean women as either 'comfort women' or hyper-sexualised objects, a legacy of Japanese imperialism and Western orientalism. The 1990s 'kisaeng tourism' discourse in South Korea further institutionalised these stereotypes, normalising the commodification of women’s bodies. Historically, Korean feminist movements have challenged these narratives, from the 1980s democratisation protests to the 2018 #MeTooKorea wave, yet the university’s response suggests a regression rather than progress.
The professor’s disciplining, while a necessary first step, reveals the tip of an iceberg: a systemic crisis of gender violence in South Korean academia, rooted in colonial legacies, neoliberal university governance, and the erasure of marginalised voices.
The university’s response, framed as justice, actually mirrors the very power structures it claims to dismantle—punitive discipline over transformative change. Korean feminist movements, from the 1980s democratisation protests to the 2018 #MeTooKorea wave, have long exposed these patterns, yet institutions like this one remain complicit in reproducing them. The solution lies not in isolated punishments but in feminist governance models that centre survivor needs, decolonised curricula, and economic reparations for those harmed by systemic misogyny. Without these, cases like this will continue to emerge, each one a symptom of a deeper rot in how power operates in academia and society at large.