Campus sexual harassment

“Mr. Show,” which had its premiere in March last year, is a performance for women aged 19 or older. It attracted more than 100,000 viewers because muscular men entertain female audiences with sexy dances. Audiences are willing to pay for the erotic performance because they like it. There is no reason to ban women from watching the performance just as men enjoying women’s nude shows. However, things are different when women are forced to show certain sexual gestures or make an erotic conversation at a welcome party for college freshmen or a college club.

It has been turned out that senior male students forced female freshmen to show sexy dances at a welcome party for freshmen at Sogang University. It happened in an unofficial party after the orientation at a resort in Gangwon Province last month. The names of the rooms assigned to students were like erotic video titles such as “Room: I Love You Room (it sounds like I love breasts in Korean)” and “Room: Small But Touch It.” They set a penalty of drinking if the freshmen violate rules such as “Female freshmen must perform a sexy dance like a hip dance.” There was a rule that forced them to designate a senior and say “Shall we go to eat ramen?,” an expression that implies a sexual relationship.

The distorted sex culture at college is deep-rooted. In the 1980s, students who were involved in the student movement for democracy were machos and often viewed women as sexual objects. They tried to cover up back then, but feminists took issue with the macho culture after society was democratized. A series of accidents have happened due to drinking in the welcoming party for college freshmen every year, and even a large accident occurred in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, last year. Some colleges host freshmen’s parties on campus and pursue non-alcoholic parties, but there is still a long way to go.

The welcoming party for freshmen at issue was known to the public on Tuesday when a student posted the sexual harassment on the university intranet. At a time when many women surpass men in a wide range of areas and have confidence as “alpha girls,” the female freshman students must have felt humiliated. As it evolved into a big issue, the student association made an apology. However, it is under fire on the Internet. It was wrong that male seniors applied what their learned from bars – the bad macho culture – to the female students.