"I Am Kim Ji Eun": Stand up and speak up, and change will happen!

I will be interested in the book "I Am Kim Ji-eun". When I read "You have already logged in to Room N" , I saw Yang Qianhao , a reporter based in Korea, in " From Kim Ji-eun to Room N, South Korea's MeToo Reforming Society in Present Progressive" One article, which guides the reading of these two books at the same time. I feel that since I read Room N, I can't miss Kim Ji Eun.

Here is a brief description of the incident. On March 5, 2018, on JTBC's "News Room" program, Kim Ji-eun revealed that she had been subjected to sexual violence many times when she was the accompanying secretary of Governor An Hee-jung. Since Ahn Hee-jung was a political star in the middle of the day at the time, the incident attracted a lot of attention. The case was acquitted in the first instance, causing a social uproar. The court commuted the conviction in the second instance and sentenced An Xizheng to three years and six months in prison.

And from disclosure to confirmation, it took 554 days on this road...

As Kim Ji-eun said, this book is a record of this arduous confrontation process, and it is very heavy to read. But like "You've Logged In to Room N", even though the nature of the event is extremely dark, I still feel the possibility of a glimmer of light from it. I hope that through my pen (or should I say keyboard), more people will know about this incident, so that similar regrets will not happen again.

【Extreme top to bottom】

This event is based on a very deformed top-to-bottom power relationship. The identity of the accompanying secretary pinched Jin Zhien like a curse, making her completely submit to Jin Xizheng.

The work of the accompanying secretary has no fixed business scope. As long as it is instructed by the governor, the mission must be fulfilled. 24-hour standby, helping the Governor receive calls and messages from the outside world at any time is the basic. In addition, all kinds of instructions to An Xizheng must be accepted unconditionally, and even his family's accommodation, restaurants, and experience activities must be taken care of when he is on vacation, and there is no distinction between public and private.

In addition, Kim Ji-eun was also required to assist the governor with the principles of security, silence, and confidentiality. An Xizheng brainwashed more than once:

Don't add your opinions, don't repeat your thoughts, you are my mirror, reflect us clearly, be like shadows.

Not to mention I thought it was a cult...

The book has an appendix of the accompanying secretary's work manual, simply put a small page, so that everyone can feel the suffocating work content:

And it is this power unequal relationship that makes her unable to resist when she is sexually assaulted by An Xizheng. Even if the violations occur again and again, they still dare not publicize them.

What makes people angry is that when the #MeToo movement broke out, An Xizheng called Kim Ji Eun to a dedicated residential and commercial apartment to apologize to her. After getting Kim Ji Eun's promise not to participate in the #MeToo movement, she sexually assaulted her again. It looks so speechless...

After being sexually assaulted, I went to the bathroom, washed and washed, but nothing came out.

【Inequality to women】

In addition to the direct confrontation of power, the occurrence of such an incident may not be related to the inertial inequality towards women in Korean society. There are so many passages in the book that I couldn't believe my eyes.

As Kim Ji-eun mentioned, she is often judged in the workplace because of her clothing or makeup. Such as "you are short, you should wear high heels", or saying "yes, makeup is right like today", such evaluation of women as objects is very common in the workplace.

There are even more exaggerated ones. Kim Ji-eun said that when a group goes to KTV, the female juniors will be asked to sit beside the male seniors to pour wine and sing to cheer; if they are unhappy, they will even punch the female juniors on the head or slap their hands; when they are up, they will touch their cheeks, Put it in his arms.

No wonder An Xizheng would do such a thing. Perhaps in his eyes, the female accompanying secretary is just an item, which comes and goes as soon as you call it.

【State apparatus】

As a political star, the party resources behind An Xizheng is the reason why Kim Ji Eun dare not speak out immediately after being victimized. And when Kim Ji-eun finally came out on the show to expose the incident, he could feel the horror of this "state machine" even more.

Some people who stood up to testify for Kim Ji-eun were actually charged by An Hee-jung for "perjury". In addition, Ahn Hee Jung's team even accused Kim Ji Eun of working hard as an accompanying secretary as "not like a victim". For example, making a hotel reservation is the basic job of an accompanying secretary, but it is said that he wants to have a relationship and makes a hotel reservation by himself.

What's more evil is that An Xizheng's lawyer in court also claimed that Kim Zhien used symbols such as "^^" and "hee" in the message, which was acting like a spoiled child to An Xizheng. Do whatever it takes to help the master escape.

【What does the victim look like? 】

As mentioned above, Ahn Hee Jung's team used the image of Kim Ji Eun as "not like a victim", claiming that the violation is actually desirable. The bad thing is that such a statement has spread more seriously with the help of some media. There are many Internet villagers who also use this to ridicule.

After participating in MeToo, a certain media took the appearance of my accompanying work as a monitor screen on the day I was sexually assaulted for the last time, and drew a big red circle and broadcast it. "Looking at the way she raised her chest, is she really a victim?"

Of course, this is a fake. But after all, what does a victim look like? Do you shrink back after being attacked? Is there really such a thing as a "victim posture"?

I agree with what Kim Ji Eun said:

There is no such thing as a "typical victim", everyone's tone, expression and behavior are different, and the victim's appearance is of course different.

We should not frame the appearance of the so-called victims and help the perpetrators to excuse themselves.

【People who go with you】

Of course the world is not only dark. Kim Ji-eun's anti-Japanese war still received a lot of support. These heartwarming passages gave me some relief in the dark process of reading.

In the face of overwhelming false accusations, many friends jumped out to clarify.

"The Kim Ji Eun I know is not such a person." A friend who decisively said these words and stood by my side; refuted the false rumor that "her father is a local celebrity and the chairman of the regional political circle organization" "That elder sister's family is very poor, she eats canned food every day, and often wears the same hat," the junior who helped me clarify lies.

Former colleagues at work launched a petition to defend her. Not even afraid of the organization's power to testify.

After hesitating and overcoming her fear, she summoned the courage and implored the judge to respond to this courage with a fair judgment.
-A

Although I have been branded as a traitor to the organization, I have no regrets about helping the victims.
- Workplace senior and witness, Shen Yongyu

There is also a team of lawyers who work hard. Without them, the case would probably not have been successfully reversed in the second instance.

The group of lawyers became a forest, purifying the pain in my throat, as if I was walking in a dense forest of torreya, my mind gradually calmed down, and my energy was purified.

I love Kim Ji-eun's lovely passage of observing lawyers' behavior:

The lawyer told me to calm down, stop searching for reports, and read some books, but I ended up searching for relevant news before going out. ... It turns out that the lawyer's mood is the same as mine, and the revolutionary sentiments set off a ripple in my heart.

The various horrific descriptions in the book have often made me extremely disappointed in human nature. But seeing these "people who go with me" that Kim Ji-eun said, I can't help but comfort myself, there is still hope for the world (?)

A person's strength is very small, but as long as everyone works hard, it may really be able to tear down a high wall. As social activists said to Kim Ji-eun:

You didn't turn into dust, we gathered together one by one, forming hills and mountains.

[Postscript: Is change possible? 】

Kim Ji-eun's words are very pristine, and many of the descriptions are quite distressing. Like her emotional breakdown in a protective agency, frantic self-harm:

Magma spilled out of the cracked crevices and eventually erupted. I started mutilating myself, stabbing myself in the arms and thighs with sharp objects, punching myself in the head, and beating myself hard.

Or because they are afraid of showing their face in front of the public, they go out day and night wearing hats, glasses and masks. Even eating a small candy cookie makes me nervous, afraid of being seen. Participating in social activities that are mundane for the average person is so out of reach.

I was afraid of going to a wedding, a funeral, or being photographed outside, and someone else would make up other stories. I worry about accidentally laughing when I go to a coffee shop to meet friends, and I don't know how the conversation will sound to others.

It's a little weird to say this book is good. But the strange thing is that although the process of reading it is very painful, but her writing is like a kind of magic, which deeply penetrates me and can't extricate myself to read it. Reminds me of the feeling of reading "Fang Siqi's Paradise of First Love" before.

Finally, I would like to share a small turning point a few days ago. After writing "You Have Logged In to Room N", the exposure and traffic were very good, which made me feel complacent for a while. Unexpectedly, when I scrutinized the report, I found that many people came across my article only when they were searching for keywords such as "How to get into room n" or "get on the bus in room n".

In addition to being stunned, I couldn’t help but ask myself: Can I really bring about any change by writing this on the Internet?

But Jin Zhien wrote a sentence in the Taiwan edition preface and gave me the answer:

It's all about speaking up - we will no longer tolerate sexual violence against women - we are all Kim Ji Eun.

On second thought, if someone saw my article, or at least the title, and stopped looking for a video, that would be a good thing, right? In any case, only by speaking out can change be possible.

I wish more people could face up to the various inequalities that have been buried. Only more and more Kim Ji-eun who stands up can make less and less Kim Ji-eun suffer.

Articles you may also be interested in:

• "You have logged into Room N": The light that shines in the darkness, the largest online sex crime in South Korea's history is revealed!

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