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zlaza's review
4.0
"Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women's Rights Worldwide", written by Hawon Jung, is an engaging but infuriating read about the history of the feminist movement in South Korea.
Women in South Korea are faced with many challenges in their every day life, and most of it boils down to the way Korea's Confucian ideology and values view women.
Confusianism advocated strict gender roles which place women in a subservient role within a family.
According to Confusianism, a good woman is supposed to be subordinate to her father before marriage, to her husband after marriage and to her son after the death of her husband.
In the 1980s to early 1990s, selective female abortions became commonplace because of the strong preference for sons. The sex-selective abortions resulted in a highly imbalanced male to female ratio.
South Korea has been praised for its rapid economic growth and development, but the discrimination against women still persists. The country still has a long way to go when it comes to gender equality.
"Flowers of Fire" focuses a lot on the 2018 #MeToo movement and the aftermath, it also explores a lot of problems women face that are very specific to Korea, like public shaming, abortion laws, gender pay gap, and digital sexual male violence.
Due to the advancement of technology, the country is dealing with a spycam epidemic (molka) which targets women using restrooms, hotels and changing rooms.
South Koraa has become the epicentre of digital sex crimes with 21,200 cases reported in 2022.
The author does a great job covering numerous issues, the cultural and historical backround provides a lot of valuable insight into the Korean feminist movement.
It's not an easy read, and it's one that will fill you with a lot of rage, but it's a necessary one.
Women in South Korea are faced with many challenges in their every day life, and most of it boils down to the way Korea's Confucian ideology and values view women.
Confusianism advocated strict gender roles which place women in a subservient role within a family.
According to Confusianism, a good woman is supposed to be subordinate to her father before marriage, to her husband after marriage and to her son after the death of her husband.
In the 1980s to early 1990s, selective female abortions became commonplace because of the strong preference for sons. The sex-selective abortions resulted in a highly imbalanced male to female ratio.
South Korea has been praised for its rapid economic growth and development, but the discrimination against women still persists. The country still has a long way to go when it comes to gender equality.
"Flowers of Fire" focuses a lot on the 2018 #MeToo movement and the aftermath, it also explores a lot of problems women face that are very specific to Korea, like public shaming, abortion laws, gender pay gap, and digital sexual male violence.
Due to the advancement of technology, the country is dealing with a spycam epidemic (molka) which targets women using restrooms, hotels and changing rooms.
South Koraa has become the epicentre of digital sex crimes with 21,200 cases reported in 2022.
The author does a great job covering numerous issues, the cultural and historical backround provides a lot of valuable insight into the Korean feminist movement.
It's not an easy read, and it's one that will fill you with a lot of rage, but it's a necessary one.
ammarahw's review
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
This is a must read. Flowers of Fire by Hawon Jung is well researched and full of first hand accounts of South Korea’s feminist movement from multiple generations (some of which might have been lost had they not been published in this book). In addition to personal accounts of women and men that champion this movement, Jung described the legal campaigns, demonstrations, advocacy, protests and online initiatives that propelled these changes in detail. The timeline presented in the book is easy to follow and truly mind blowing when you consider how quickly they were able to overturn generations of ingrained patriarchal values.
_human's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Absolutely brilliant and a must read for all women.
kalinab's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
francislector's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0