Ladies of Labor and Mothers in Korea

Actually I don't know what I wrote is good or not as a comment for this blog, because it's related with the historical event in Korea... Anyway... I wrote it here.

This book by Nan Enstad reminds me of a huge demonstration in South Korea held in the summer of 2008 in defence of right to eat safe and harmless food. It was sparked off by the import of the U.S. beef which could cause mad cow disease. The government made a law to grant the import as one article of FTA with the U. S. without a general consensus. It was a nationwide demonstration and over 1,000,000 Korean people had gathered at the center of Seoul, the capital of South Korea to show their opposition to the import for over three months. Holding candles which are the symbol of democracy of Korea, they confronted the armed police with no violence.

What I want to say is there were women, especially mothers at the demonstration. These were mothers which confronted the armed government forces at the head of protest procession with their babies sitting down their baby carriages. Usually mothers are categorized as conservative group in Korea. They do not want to be changed and change. In the given social circumstances, they just have raised their children and have lived without talking their grievances silently. We call the feeling “Han(恨),” the grief that couldn’t be released and be cured by anything, so just they could not but keep it in their heart for a long time. Even some Korean democratic leaders said that mothers didn’t do anything to protect our democracy. Why mothers who had controlled their emotions with Han went to the street and fought the government at this time? What made them go out and protest? What factor and internal vibration made them be called “BABY CARRIAGE TROOPS”?

The demonstration in Korea seems to be different from the strike of “working ladies” of Nan Enstad in many parts, but I think that these are the same thing fundamentally. Like the foreman of factory who made Regina work quicker and harder, extremely patriarchal Korean society made them silent and dream in the kitchen. Inventing “Han culture” to explain that, they have placed them under another binding like a norm for married women that women should have Han their mind. I don’t want to and I cannot say why mothers went out of their kitchen, breaking their silence, but I just can imagine “in the kitchen, about and for whom they dreamed?” When they confront a serious danger in food which they feed to their babies, how do they act towards the danger? In a certain situation, mothers can lead political movements in Korea like working women in Enstads’ book. If we realize it, like she noted, we can create new political visions and narratives. (206)