- Headline: "Postscript"
- Source: Kyunghyang Shinmun
- Date of Publication: January 28, 1977
- Summary:
It may be unpleasant for some women to hear, but when it comes to matters of sex, it seems that men and women are not placed on equal footing. This is particularly true because women face the risk of becoming unwed mothers due to premarital relations. A certain philosopher once said that "sex is only a part of life for men, but it is the entirety of life for women." Last year alone, a total of 2,214 unwed mothers, facing shame, knocked on the doors of the Holt Children's Service. The immature mindset that treats sex merely as a means of pleasure, as if happiness lies in it, ultimately reduces women to the status of slaves to sex. According to Columbia University's Psychoanalytic Clinic for Training and Research, which cited the Kinsey Report, men who engage in premarital relations often justify their behavior by claiming that "sex is a natural phenomenon" as they attempt to persuade women. However, they then express a desire to marry a woman who is a virgin, which is simply absurd. In any case, when it comes to the consequences of sexual matters, it is women who bear the brunt of the harm. Therefore, they must be cautious, always cautious, to avoid carrying the burden of being labeled an unwed mother. This reflects a logic that blames and regulates the victim in cases of traffic accidents. In a society that is lenient toward men regarding premarital sex while placing the burden of shame solely on women, the likelihood of women resorting to infanticide, child abandonment, or adoption increases. The persistent reports of child abandonment and the rising number of unwed mothers indicate that South Korea has long functioned as such a society. (see Hee Jung Kwon, This Is a Record of the Lost Children (unofficial translation))
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