Sex Ed Guidelines Suggest Victims Are To Blame For Date Rape

[msgrottesca.livejournal.com]

Last summer, South Koreans left messages of their sexual harassment and assaults on Post-it notes at an exit of Gangnam subway station.

As the #MeToo movement spread across the Internet, with women coming forward sharing tales of sexual assault and harassment, South Korean women were quick to identify.

Overall, violent crime numbers are considered low in South Korea, but in recent years, government statistics have shown a steady uptick in reported cases of sexual violence. And when it comes to gender equality, South Korea ranks poorly — near the bottom of all countries, in fact.

As people look for solutions, understanding how the government treats these issues is a clear way to start.

The public education system might be one obvious place to create greater understanding to prevent sexual assault and harassment. But critics say South Korea's schools are instead disseminating dangerous myths, including the notion of blaming victims.

In March 2015, Korea's Education Ministry released updated sex education curriculum guidelines for public schools. According to the Korea Herald, which saw the full teaching manuals in 2015, they include women not paying for their meals on dates as a possible reason for date rape.

"From the perspective of a man who spends a lot of money on dates, it is natural that he would want a commensurate compensation from the woman. In such conditions, unwanted date rape can occur," the curriculum for high school students reads, according to a screenshot tweeted by a Korean journalist under the words, "The Ministry of Education's 'teacher education materials.' If you think the Ministry is crazy, please press RT."

Tips to respond to sexual harassment, also for the high school-level curriculum, include "step on his foot as if by mistake."

The manual for teachers of elementary-age students includes the statement that "male sexual desire can arise quickly on impulse, regardless of time and place."

In an Aug. 27, 2015, editorial, the Korea Herald called for the guidelines to be withdrawn. "By giving out wrong information and inappropriate advice, the new sex education guidelines will do students a disservice," it said. "In fact, it is the very sexual stereotypes and prejudices shown in the manual that are responsible for the prevalence of sexual violence in our society."

The Korean Sexual Violence Counseling Center argued, too, that the guidelines reinforced gender stereotypes and discrimination and seemed to justify sexual violence.

Complaints about the curriculum guidelines were filed with the Education Ministry, which then pulled down the full curriculum from the Internet.

Yet two years later, despite all the complaints and criticism, the very same guidelines are still in place, NPR has learned.

"There were a lot of complaints about what we had mentioned," a spokesperson for the Education Ministry tells NPR. "For the past two years, we looked through the guidelines to see if there were any improvements to be made, but the result that we reached last September is that there are no particular official changes to be made. We've recommended these guidelines to be followed this school year as well."

The ministry recently shared its sex education guidelines with NPR, in response to a public information request. But these did not include the full 300-page teachers manual, which includes the controversial pointers.

When NPR requested the controversial material, the ministry responded, "We believe it's inappropriate to process your request, sorry."

"What we did learn from the criticism that we received in response to the teacher's reference material is that we should not include things that could be distorted and taken out of context," Min Hye-young, an officer at the Education Ministry's Division of Student Health Policy, told NPR.

"We didn't think it would be seen as us promoting sexism," she continued. "We should have looked through the material more thoroughly and made sure that nothing is offensive to the people that read it. We should have checked little details like that."

But, she said, "Here's the thing: It's not false information that people think that way."

About women risking rape by not paying for a date?

"Well, don't put it in such extreme words," Min said. "I mean, the way Koreans think, people do have a tendency to think like that. But we should have thought more before including it in an Education Ministry guideline, and that bit was just taken out of context to criticize the guidelines."

Min said the ministry's good intentions have been misunderstood.

"We'd like to emphasize that victims of sexual violence could be girl or boy, men or women, or young to old people," she said. "We should have been stricter about our guidelines in covering sexual violence and prevention of it. We just wanted to help prevent offenders and victims. We should have been more thorough, is what I'd like to say."

But for now, the fact remains that even under a new Korean administration that is dubbed as progressive, the notion that women can be held accountable for sexual assault continues to be taught in public schools across the country.

Source: NPR

This article is actually from two months ago, but since the mentioned guidelines are still being taught in schools and my recent posts about culture / crime in SK have garnered some interest, I figured I'd post this as well. It's as interesting as it is horrifying. The suggestion to "step on his foot, as if by mistake" instead of going to a teacher or reporting to the authorities is particularly horrific.

SK's sex crime statistics are relatively low, but research in 2013 confirmed that those statistics only reflect about 1/10 of rapes and sexual assaults. It's no wonder many victims feel reluctant to report when "you were asking for it" is literally in the school curriculum.  The (back pedaling, lbr) statements by Education Ministry representative Min Hye-young don't make me very hopeful for prompt or swift change.

Comments

[jrt131n.livejournal.com]

*sigh*....I was hoping that ashiness would left back in 2017 but alas I guess it wants come in to 2018 as well.

We will people understand that the one doing the sexual assualting is at fault not the victim...how many times does this have to be said????

[msgrottesca.livejournal.com]

Added some more bolding mods, hope that's okay. Forgot a few parts I wanted to call attention to.

[stephantasm.livejournal.com]

I'm sick.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

I can't even say I'm surprised and it's not like that way of thinking is restricted to SK
Men still think buying a meal gets them a ticket to the bedroom express.
But the fact that this is actually in a fucking text book is a whole new level of bullshit.


It's time we stop teaching girls how not to be assaulted and start teaching boys these behaviours are not ok. Too often does society place the burden on the victim.

[blck-ink.livejournal.com]

this is disgusting. so as a SCHOOL, which should be a safe space for children, you teach young boys that when they take a girl out and pay for them they DESERVE sex??? it really blows my mind how you could share such dangerous thoughts. "step on his foot as if by mistake." foh!!

[bea-chan22.livejournal.com]

I'm disappointed, but not surprised - society in general places blame on victim's past action while being concerned on the perpetrator's future. RME.

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

Wow. That victim blaming makes me want to vomit. When will we start teaching men that women are just people? When will they realise women owe them NOTHING, certainly not our bodies? I'm so frustrated now reading this shit lol. Just a few days back I watched that AsianBoss video about feminism in Korea with so many men saying how it was actually worse for men right now lmao open your fucking eyes.

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

disappointed but not surprised

[haymitch.livejournal.com]

god that’s seriously infuriating

[nekobot.livejournal.com]

God this is so depressing...

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

Rapists and sexual harassers are responsible for their own behavior. Victims don’t invite assault by existing.

[ashdevilrun23.livejournal.com]

Disgusting

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

omfg

[theweebdream.livejournal.com]

Wow I’m pissed off right now hahahahaha. How about uhhhhh rape is the rapist’s fault?? Hmmm what a concept and no, no one owes someone sex just because they had their meal paid for. I mean I know it’s SK we’re talking about so the no surprise but still.

[jackieee94.livejournal.com]

Wtf. Men will continue to be shit if society continues to coddle them this way. Men paying for your meal doesn’t give them any rights to your body.

[sjtaazrz.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say I'm surprised that things can be so backwards, but I am surprised that they received complaints and two years later, they just released the same guidelines basically like "we still stand by them, follow them this year too"

Thanks again for the interesting read, OP. I liked the last ones about crime too.

[purring-feline.livejournal.com]

so many words to say absolutely nothing and it pains me that they're coming from a woman. "Well, don't put it in such extreme words" yeah, god forbid we upset the men by merely saying what's actually happening!

I'm so tired

[lizzypinksky.livejournal.com]

Well, it's the same with the "if you don't want to be assaulted, don't wear something short" like even if I run around naked, I'm not giving permission to be touched. The whole "the victim was asking for it because xyz"-mentality is utter nonsense and needs to stop.
Especially in schools the right mentality should be taught, but if you already mess up here, there's no hope for once everyone gets older. Being young is the best time to implement certain standards and mentalities, but the right ones please.

[xxhna.livejournal.com]

This makes me so angry and sad.

[daceymormont.livejournal.com]

this is so horrifying and i'm angry but not surprised :/

[kori-ya.livejournal.com]

They do know that the scenario "guy pays, girl has to expect sex", is prostitution, right? What kind of stupid expectations do guys have!? It's a DATE.