South Korea star Jung Woo-sung apologises after baby scandal

At least someone in SC is having a kid, marriage or no marriage, that's a positive and with good handsome genes!

From the article:

a country where births outside marriage are still seen as taboo

Yes, “still” seen because it has retained something of its (sexist?) traditional culture that seeks to ensure that men only have children within the confines of marriage. And so it is in this context he is shamed for acting against this societal standard.

One lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party voiced support for accepting different family structures in South Korean society.

"The reality is that everyone is unique," said lawmaker Lee So-young, who added that her parents divorced when she was young.

"A society that respects these differences would surely be a better society, wouldn't it?"

The two adults who decided to marry, now having a child or several children, should understand the situation into which they placed themselves, recognize their responsibilities beyond themselves, and only resort to divorce as a last resort. There will of course times be times when divorce happens and members of society should understand the need for this due to extenuating circumstances, e.g. spousal abuse. But to use this to open the door to non-traditional family structures because “everyone is unique” and needs to “respects differences” is to lay the axe at the tree truck of society which is the family. Jung Woo-sung is unique. He apparently likes to throw his seed around at will. Why can’t society respect his uniqueness? (I say apparently because it could be that Moon Ga-bi sought to trap Jung Woo-sung into marriage with the child. Such things happen when only women have the right to decide to be parents).

South Korea has been battling the world's lowest birth rates and plummeting marriage rates.

Experts say a contributing factor could be the country's narrow legal definition of what a family entails.

Perhaps another contributing factor could be the dissemination of feminist thinking into the culture which actively strives against traditional gender norms, most extremely evidenced by the 4B movement which is now seemingly pushing its way into Western countries, but who knows? Anyone have a chart comparing birthrates within the country to the promotion of feminist thought within the country?

Yikes, mouthful Jeffy, this article touched a nerve eh?!

You are spot on as the battle of sexes and equality is raging in SC and Japan. FYI, Japan's real birthrate is FAR lower, official numbers, as they count ALL babies born OUTSIDE Japan to either one or two Japanese nationals.

It's in excess of 75K babies per year or over 10% of the official number of JN (not gaijin) births in 'Japan'! Vast majority of these babies, like tennis star Osaka's young daughter will never live in Japan.

HopeSpringsEternal,

I find it interesting that you frame this “battle of sexes” in relation to “equality.” Just to make my own position clear, “equality” is about treating everyone the same regardless of their inherent characteristics, while “equity” is about giving certain groups social advantages based on perceived disadvantages in order to “level the playing field.” The distinction is rather important and should always be kept in mind.

Now according to the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) ( hhttps://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2023.pdf ), Japan ranks 125th and South Korea ranks 105th out of 146 countries. The media consistently cites these rankings as proof that Japan and South Korea are abysmal when it comes to the equality of women relative to men.

However, it is critical to ask in what areas “equality” is being measured in this index. The GGGI thankfully tell us: “The Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 to benchmark progress towards gender parity and compare countries’ gender gaps across four dimensions: economic opportunities, education, health and political leadership.” The GGGI also helpfully tells us, “The level of progress toward gender parity (the parity score) for each indicator is calculated as the ratio of the value of each indicator for women to the value for men. A parity score of 1 indicates full parity. The gender gap is the distance from full parity.”

Therefore the index is already biased seeing that its “four dimensions” are solely based on measuring gender parity with a lens on women's status and opportunities which do not cover many other dimensions that could be included for a fairer picture on “equality” such as

educational attainment (e.g. under-performance and underachievement of males),

health issues (e.g. health disparities that disproportionately affect men such as higher rates of suicide, substance abuse, and violent deaths),

mental health (e.g. social stigma around vulnerability or emotional expression),

workplace inequality and unemployment (e.g. over-representation in low-paying, dangerous, or temporary jobs as well as workplace injury),

family and parental rights (e.g. disadvantages to men related to parental leave or child custody laws),

legal systems and family law (e.g. the legal necessity to pay child support even in cases where men are conclusively provable not to be the biological father),

incarceration and criminal justice (e.g. disparities in sentencing, over-representation of men in the criminal justice system),

And so on.

Thus if one wishes to seriously consider “equality,” it must be discussed in equal terms—the discussion must necessarily encompass both women and men’s issues. But I for one know that these discussions, while speaking of “equality,” are actually about “equity,” that is, how can women be given advantages to “level the playing field” in certain specific areas, while not seeking 1. to promote “parity” across the board or 2. address the disparities males also have in society. So yes, it all does get on my nerves because I would rather see more equal discussions about equality going on. It should not be a battle of the sexes, women vs. men, it should be women and men working together as equal partners for better societies.

How about stepping into the 21st century and removing the stigma against unmarried mums and their kids. That stigma is the real scandal.