Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982: A Novel

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was published in 2016 during a wave of feminist activity in South Korea. The book became a widespread point of discussion and controversy due to its depictions of discrimination, harassment, and everyday misogyny. In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, Cho Nam-Joo pointed to two events that prompted renewed activism: a brutal 2016 murder at Gangnam train station, and prosecutor Seo Ji-hyeon’s trailblazing participation in the #MeToo movement.

The Gangnam Station murder was an explicitly misogynistic attack against a randomly chosen woman in a public restroom. Police depicted the attack as the action of a disturbed individual. But many women saw it as a symptom of widespread and normalized misogynistic attitudes in Korean society. While police rejected the idea that the murder was a hate crime, women’s rights activists rallied to draw attention to violence against women.

Activist Tarana Burke coined the phrase “me too” as a way for female victims of sexual harassment and assault to show solidarity and highlight the societal prevalence of sexual violence. In response to a groundbreaking New York Times report on serial perpetrator Harvey Weinstein—a powerful Hollywood producer—actresses starting with Alyssa Milano used the Twitter hashtag #MeToo to publicize their experiences of harassment and assault in the film industry.