Seoul Cafe Challenges Attitudes Towards Feminism
Ha Yoon-na always believed in feminism, but never called herself a “feminist.” In South Korea, that word carries a negative connotation, and Ha worried she’d be judged and marginalized.
Ha overcame her fear last year when she visited a feminist space in Seoul. At Doing Cafe, among more than 1,000 volumes of feminist literature and plenty of patrons eager to discuss them, she felt comfortable enough to talk openly about feminism for the first time.
“I had low self-esteem until I came here. I wasn’t sure about myself,” Ha said recently, sitting at a table with a book and a lemon tea. “Doing Cafe empowered me and allowed me to admit I’m a feminist.”
Featuring a feminist library, art exhibitions, guest lectures, store merchandise, social gatherings and one-on-one counseling, Doing Cafe aims to support young women to assert their right to equality.
South Korea ranks last among OECD countries in terms of wage parity between genders. Feminism in the country is often falsely characterized as the hatred of men or the superiority of women.
South Korea’s inequality partly stems from Confucian culture, which enforces rigid social roles and gender norms. For Ha, this inequality is felt within her own family. She says her parents treat her younger brother like a “prince,” while they criticize her feminist beliefs as “an escape from reality” and a “self-delusion.”
“My notion of feminism was very vague. I wanted to explain feminism, but I couldn’t because I didn’t have concrete thoughts,” she said. “Now, I share my views with my younger brother, and he wants to know about feminism and gender equality.”
Still, not every patron understands Doing’s mission. “Passersby don’t know what this cafe is about,” said Kim Ryeo-il, the cafe's owner. She occasionally encounters people that stop in and end up having anti-feminist or homophobic conversations.
The first year has been so tough on Kim financially that she often thinks about closing up shop, but the teary-eyed gratitude she receives from her patrons keeps her going. “In the end, maybe we can really build a better world,” she said. “That is my dream.”
