“Sexual violence exists everywhere and nowhere,” said the representative of the Korea University (KU) Kakao Talk Chatroom Verbal Sexual Violence Victims’ Committee. The daejabo put up by the KU Kakao Talk Chatroom Verbal Sexual Violence Victims’ Committee that shook the nation earlier this month began with the thought-provoking quote that rings true in today’s society where sexual violence and misogyny still runs rampant and largely unchecked.

 

According to the daejabo, the Kakao Talk sexual harassment scandal happened as follows. The perpetrators of sexual harassment (eight unnamed male KU students) used inappropriate sexually explicit words such as “ssaedda” (slang meaning “sexually taking advantage of first-year students”) and “bopen” (derogatory slang for having sexual intercourse with a woman) and referred to their female classmates as “chewed-up gum” for allegedly having sexual experience.

 

Their inexcusable conduct did not stop at inflicting verbal sexual abuse on their classmates and KU first year students. The perpetrators also secretly took pictures of women in public places such as the subway and shared them in their Kakao Talk chatroom.

 

Two days following the first daejabo, the perpetrators put up another daejabo in response. They acknowledged every accusation made by the victims’ committee as being true and apologized for their misdemeanor and obscene language. However, they were also criticized for their lack of remorse by online commenters on Facebook because they allegedly made indirect threats to others to not mention their names in public in their daejabo.