Thursday, December 20, 2012

#2 Park Geun-Hye Becomes The First Female President Of South Korea, But Will Change Really Come?

One Wednesday, December 19, something revolutionary happened. South Korea, a country built upon a patriarchal society that still views a woman's most important job as being a housewife, has elected their first female president, Park Geun-hye. Guen-hye, who is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee, beat out a former human rights activist lawyer by the name of Moon Jae-in through her conservative platform that swore to mend the damage caused father's authoritarian rule, as well as the economy. Though the election of a woman into such a high position does appear to indicate the coming of equality, it will be interesting to see if Guen-hye actually creates any legislation to give women rights and put them in a place of power. The majority of Guen-hyes voters were older, conservative men who were still loyal to Chung-hee. Guen-hye's win might pave the road for future steps being taken towards equality, or she might only appeal to her supporters, the male conservatives.
Guen-hye will most likely do very little for Korean women. In terms of reform, Guen-hye's focus is on economic matters rather than civil liberties. It is debatable whether or not she should use her newfound power to aid women - who earn less than the average working man and are still forced to fill the role of the average homemaker - due to the current disparity between the rich and the poor in South Korea. Gender had nothing to do with this election, though. Though the fact that a woman does now hold an extremely powerful position in a society based off of gender norms and male supremacy, Guen-hye's endgame has nothing to do with helping the women of her country. During the election, Guen-hye only referred to women as "housewives and mothers", and even said that she could "train" them to work. Though this could just be an appeal to the common view held by men in the society, as a woman she could have done more in order to change the society's views on women. That is not to say that Guen-hye hates women or feels that they must be powerless, but the question stems from whether Guen-hye will assert this new power in order to create civil change, or if having a woman in a powerful position can even create any change.
As a woman myself, it is quite upsetting to see a country whose view towards gender is stuck in the past. Especially in relation to America, where women's rights at least has awareness, one can only imagine how restrictive the society in South Korea is towards women. The election of a woman may be the thing that brings about radical change, though. Having a positive and powerful female role model will most certainly improve the attitudes of Koreans and display that a woman can get to power through strength and intelligence. It will take a lot of work to change the view towards women in such a constricting society though, and if the issue of women's rights is never acknowledged, the election of Guen-hye will bring minimal reform in relation to women.


Klug, Foster. "Park Geun-Hye Elected South Korea President, But Dictator Father Looms Over Win." Huffington Post. The Huffington Post. 19 December 2012. Web. 20 December 2012.

n.p. "Profile: South Korean President-elect Park Guen-hye." BBC News. BBC. 19 December 2012. Web. 20 December 2012.

Harlan, Chico. "Park Guen-hye wins South Korea's presidential election." The Washington Post. The Washington Post. 19 December 2012. Web. 20 December 2012.

"Ex-Dictator's Daughter Elected President as South Korea Rejects Sharp Change." The NY Times. The New York Times Company. 19 December 2012. Web. 20 December 2012.


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

#1 An Australian Prank Gone Wrong: Who Is To Blame?

After a prank phone call from Australian radio station 2Day FM, the victim of the call, Jacintha Saldanha, was found dead in her apartment after committing suicide. The prank in itself was relatively harmless; DJs Christian and Grieg called the hospital where Duchess Kate Middleton was residing in hopes of getting a humorous reaction from a nurse. Instead, Saldanha, the nurse who took the call, believed their claims of being Middleton's grandmother and transferred the call to another nurse who divulged information about Middleton's condition. The story of the prank call became widely known in Australia and in other countries as well, and after the news of Saldanha's suicide went public, 2Day FM's show "Hot 30" was suspended and Christian and Grieg are rumored to no longer be employed.
The fact that the station aired Saldanha's reaction to the call without acquiring permission is the issue at hand, for if that call had been made in America, the FCC would have never allowed it to air without written consent of all who were involved. Another question is raised over whether or not Christian and Grieg are the cause of the woman's suicide. Suicide does not just happen. The fact of the matter is that the call itself did not "cause" Saldanha, wife and mother of two, to end her life. Though every bit of information has not been divulged about the case, it is safe to say that if Saldanha committed suicide, it most likely had to do with her personal issues at the time. That's not to say that the public and her family aren't completely within their right to be mad at the station, though. In America, the reason why the FCC exists is so that people are protected. Though people are allowed to video tape and take pictures of strangers, major consequences would come to them if they were ever to broadcast anything without a person's written consent. Privacy of an individual is important, it is something that every human should be entitled to, and Australia either has to construct better laws in order to restrict to broadcasting of certain content, or they need to monitor it better.
Christian and Grieg themselves appear to be very distraught over what has happened. In numerous interviews they have shrugged off questions over whether or not they will continue their career or if they have any future in radio, stating that the only thing that should be discussed is the well being of Saldanha's family. When asked why they aired the call, they brought up an interesting point. Apparently, it was the station, not Christian and Grieg, who aired the phone call. Christian declared that "There are people that make those decisions for us." The DJs are not the ones at fault. They were merely actors who performed what the script made them do. At no point did they ever intend to hurt or humiliate anyone, and they even said that they assumed that they would be hung up on immediately. Some claim that had they not called, Saldanha would still be alive today, but in the case of someone who is suicidal (and Saldanha was most likely suicidal), all it can take is for something to push them off the edge. Maybe the phone call and the publicity was that thing that sent her off, but it could have been anything. She could have committed suicide over any stressful point in her life, and the fact that it was her who was called and not some other nurse is purely coincidental. It is tragic, yes, and the phone call was ridiculous, but two DJs who were doing what many on the radio do-making prank calls- are not "murderers" and did not "kill" Saldanha.
The one point that can be made for the opposing side is that the promise of privacy should always be upheld. Taking away someone's right to themselves is essentially taking away their freedom, and maybe awareness of that fact could potentially alert other countries and stations that protecting the rights of their individuals is one of the most beneficial things you can do for them.

Fickling, David. Sedgman, Phoebe. "Suicide Of Hoaxed Nurse Prompts Cancellation Of Radio Show." Business Insider. Business Insider. 10 December 2012. Web. 12 December 2012.

Grubel, James. MacKinnon, Morag. "Nurse left suicide note, Aussie radio sets up $525,000 fund (+video)." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor. 12 December 2012. Web. 12 December 2012.

Patterson, Thom. "Aussie DJ scandal: Does radio share the blame?" CNN. CNN Cable News Network. 11 December 2012. Web. 12 December 2012. 

n.p. "Aussia hospital hoax death DJs interview: full transcript" The Sun. News Group Newspapers Limited. 10 December 2012. Web. 12 December 2012.