Yoon attempts to shore up support by stoking the flames of Korea’s gender war

Posted on : 2022-01-10 17:40 KST Modified on : 2022-01-10 18:06 KST
From abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to increasing penalties for people who falsely accuse another of a sexual crime, Yoon’s latest pledges appear to target young male voters
People Power Party presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol speaks with residents of Daejang neighborhood, Seongnam, who were impacted by the development scandal there on Friday at the party’s offices in Yeouido, Seoul. (pool photo)
People Power Party presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol speaks with residents of Daejang neighborhood, Seongnam, who were impacted by the development scandal there on Friday at the party’s offices in Yeouido, Seoul. (pool photo)

People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol has been making campaign promises that run counter to the value of gender equality, such as abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and implementing stronger punishments for people who falsely accuse another of a sexual crime.

A strategic move targeting male constituents in their 20s and 30s, a crucial voting bloc that may well decide the upcoming presidential election, Yoon’s announcement of these promises came after several polls showed he was hemorrhaging support.

Critics say that the presidential nominee of the main opposition party should not be leading with politics of division by stoking the flames of gender conflict.

Yoon posted on his Facebook page Friday, simply, “Abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.” The following day, when reporters asked whether his original campaign promise to establish a Ministry for the Equal Rights for Both Sexes and Family had changed, he said, “My current position is to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and I will think about the matter further.”

When asked how he feels about criticism that he is sowing gender conflict, he said, “Please think of everything I do as for the country and society.”

Talking with reporters, Yoon only emphasized his new position of disbanding the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family without offering a clear explanation as to whether he was reneging on an earlier campaign promise. Afterward, he took to Facebook again, writing, “[My position is indeed] that the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family should be abolished. I will push to establish a new ministry that does not separate the genders and comprehensively handles issues relating to children, families, and population decline.”

Yoon’s plan to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family comes on the heels of polls showing declining support for Yoon among male voters in their 20s and 30s, many of whom have shifted their support to People’s Party presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo.

According to a survey of 1,024 voters ages 18 to 39 conducted by Realmeter between Jan. 3 and 4, Yoon picked up 18.4% of support — almost half that of Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung (33.4%) and neck and neck with that of People’s Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo (19.1%).

In terms of support from male voters between the ages 18 and 29, Ahn’s rate (31.1%) was almost double that of Yoon (15.8%), showing that young male voters whose support is considered to have ensured the victory of Oh Se-hoon in Seoul’s mayoral election last year have shifted their support from Yoon to Ahn.

Yoon’s move to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family goes hand in hand with a campaign strategy that targets male voters in their 20s and 30s, a game plan that party leader Lee Jun-seok has consistently advocated for.

Lee posted on his Facebook page Saturday: “Since the announcement of the campaign pledge to disband the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and other policies being straightened out clearly in the last few days, many are curious about the recent swiftness and changes [that have overtaken the PPP presidential campaign.] After our election committee went through disbandment for further development, the confusion caused so far by the words of figures individually recruited into the party who do not coincide with the party’s philosophy has mostly disappeared.”

The statement indicates that Yoon’s pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is a calculated effort to woo back the support of male voters in their 20s and 30s who turned their back against Yoon after he recruited into his former election committee well-known feminist figures like Lee Soo-jung, professor of forensic psychology at Kyonggi University, and Shin Ji-ye, former head of the non-profit Korean Women’s Political Network.

A first-term PPP lawmaker pointed out, “The failure of the ‘all-inclusive’ politics pushed by a key Yoon advisor that attempted to capture the support of both young male and female voters through the recruitment of Lee Soo-jung and Shin Ji-ye without considerations for conflict and divergence within youth voters gave way to Lee Jun-seok’s style of machismo politics.”

Meanwhile, Yoon’s accommodation of the hostility male voters in their 20s harbor towards the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and subsequent all-out pledge to get rid of it raises the criticism that he is spreading young male voters’ distorted claim that the ministry is leading reverse discrimination and enforcing radical feminist ideologies.

Kwon Kim Hyun-young, director of Women’s Reality Research Center, posted on her Facebook Saturday, “Male-dominated online communities have pointed to the shutdown law [that banned minors from playing online PC games past midnight] as a reason the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family should be abolished.”

She continued, “The shutdown law was implemented in 2011, during the Lee Myung-bak administration. Lawmakers like Shin Yee-jin and Son In-chun who have joined Yoon Suk-yeol’s campaign team led the legislation. Who, then, took charge of abolishing the law? Feminist lawmakers like Kwon In-sook and Ryu Ho-jeong were the chief authors of the revised bill that put the shutdown law out of existence.”

Kwon Kim’s critique points out that the PPP catering to young male voters has resulted in the scapegoating of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family without the verification of assertions against the ministry.

Yoon’s Friday pledge to strengthen punishment for people who falsely report sexual crimes also raises criticism that it institutionalizes the secondary victimization of victims of sexual violence. When victims already hesitate to report their assaulters due to fear of secondary victimization, the addition of a false accusation charge under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes would further silence victims of sexual violence.

Some have raised concerns that Yoon’s move towards regressive policies will bar young voters from discussing policies that may actually improve their livelihoods while miring South Korean society further in a gender war.

Kim Eun-joo, director of the Center for Korean Women & Politics, commented, “The binary framework that one can either be for or against the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family can bury away agendas like gender equality and those raised by women voters in their 20s and 30s. Using a government ministry that does the important work of pushing for policies that relate to women who make up half the population of the world for political show is not something politicians should be doing.”

Head of Korea Women’s Political Solidarity Kwon Soo-hyeon also said, “Using the anger of certain male voters without offering up policies that would actually improve the livelihood of young adults, [Yoon is] actually flattening and consuming young voters [in a politico-technological sense.]”

By Kim Mi-na, Lim Jae-woo and Park Go-eun; staff reporters

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