A review by readivine
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo

5.0

Cho Nam-Joo writes this book in the same fervor a journalist does. The blunt yet fluid writing style of the narrative is an apt choice in divulging the main character's life because it reinforces that while this book may be fiction, it heavily draws from reality. She was able to intersperse facts as the story progresses and even mark footnotes with the sources. Like what the blurb says, Kim Jiyoung represents her generation, but truthfully, this feminist reportage of oppression also lends us a forthright peek on what life really is like as a woman.

It's deliberately written and demands to be treated not just as a piece of literature, but a realistic account. It demands to be remembered.

This book is divided into six chapters from Childhood to the present and fleshes out the multiple forms of mysoginy Korean woman experience in different points of their life. To put it simply, here are some of the conditions stated in the book:

1. Childhood, 1982 - 1994
- Daughters are always regarded as the "second sex" by the family.
- Daughters have to do most of the household chores early on and support their brothers education through manual labor.

2. Adolescence, 1995 - 2000
- Girls are expected to cover their bodies while boys aren't.
- Girls are supposed to brush off sexual harassment.
- Girls are expected to give leeway to boys.

3.Early Adulthood, 2011 - 2011
- Women in college should not come on too strong.
- Women should take on the difficult duties so that the male employees don't get stressed out.
- Women in the workforce have less opportunities.
- Women are an indespensible to the company.

4. Marriage, 2012 - 2015
- Women are supposed to birth sons.
- Women are supposed to leave their careers and dreams for they have their husbands to provide for them.
- Pregnant women are supposed to fend off for themselves.
- Mothers have to do all the work in the household and are expected to automatically know how childcare works.

These summative list only scratch the surface of the many forms of misogyny presented in this book. To some women, these are already known facts and can appear quite repetitive which is even worse. The level of nuance present here gaves us an accurate portrait of women's struggles through their relationships and their insights.

This book doesn't fall on the trap of portraying men as plain evil; Cho Nam - Joo gives us a roster of nuanced male characters that are empathetic, well-meaning, and flawed. This book mirrors reality we are familiar with and does this in a matter-of-fact way.

As a 21 year-old fresh graduate, I'm still blindly groping on what to expect with the workforce. This book manages to teach me that and divulges a more grim reality of what often happens in this phase until marriage life and motherhood rears its head. The triple burden and role of women is explored aptly in this book, both in the perspective of husband and wife.

"The triple burden faced by women as a result of their triple role in society is a major barrier to women's economic empowerment. Women's work includes reproductive work (domestic work, child caring and rearing, adult care, caring for the sick, water and fuel related work, health related work), productive work (work for income and subsistence, including work in informal sector enterprises either at home or the neighborhood, formal employment) and community managing work ( includes activities primarily undertaken by women at the community level around the provision of items of collective consumption). This gender division of labour perpetuates women's subordination and prevents them from realizing their full potential and enjoying their human rights" 

Source: Zibani, T. (2016, November 22). Empower Women - The Triple burden and triple role of women. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3fCYNuB

This piece of literature's goal is not to give solutions but reveal to us the intricacies of women's lives in the face of systemic oppression that demands urgency on our part that we should change this. It doesn't succumb to naturalist fatalism, it doesn't reinforce and glamorizes misogyny, instead, it critiques and moves people to be better and do better.

“Most of what makes a book 'good' is that we are reading it at the right moment for us.” ― Alain de Botton

I couldn't have picked another "right time" for reading this piece than the present. In a personal level, this made me realize how utterly lucky I am to be given a voice by my family even as a child. This reminded me of how oppression works as it draws parallel from real women's struggles. I remembered how my mother tells me how she has given up on a lot of her dreams and often avoids the subject. This book found me in the right time and steeled me in a way of what has yet to come. I just hope that the world becomes a much safer place for women in the years to come.