Jung Woosung's Parenthood Sparks Debate on Marriage, Rights, and Tradition in Korea
Nov 28, 2024
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He met actor Jung Woo-sung and gave birth. It is certain that Jung Woo-sung is the biological father of this child. Jung Woo-sung and Mun Ga-bi agreed not to get married. Jung said he would fulfill his responsibilities as a father. Currently, abortion requires consent from a spouse in Korea, but childbirth does not.
▶"Marriage is not subject to existential decisions, judgments and evaluations"
Rep. Lee So-young of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea said, `The personal lives of celebrities are always a concern, but I don't sympathize well with the fact that even a decision on whether to marry is subject to criticism and judgment,' adding, `In a society where couples with children are allowed to divorce and their choice is respected, can a man and a woman who have children live separately without marriage be subject to criticism? So is it okay to divorce after having children and getting married?," he asked back.
"I don't know why it is subject to judgment and evaluation in the first place. The decision to live with someone is a very existential decision. Just because you have a child together, you have to get married regardless of your relationship with the other person, and you have to live as a couple under the obligation to live together and support. I feel suffocated for some reason, he said. "The freedom to live alone, the freedom to marry the person I want, isn't this the only freedom and right granted to individuals?"
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Author Lee Sun-ok, who is supported by the 2030 generation on gender issues, also stepped up. The author pointed out that "Who can say that a woman made a single mother when she decided to give birth on her own?"
He said "Did a man make a single mother because an adult woman chose to give birth to a child on her own. Criticizing that a 35-year-old woman is not even a brainwashed minor, and who is making it as a single mother, he said, `When claiming abortion rights, the woman's body belongs to the woman and only women have the right to choose what is done in the woman's body, whether abortion or childbirth, and passing the buck to men for creating single mothers without going out on the issue of women giving birth to and raising children.'
Then "Wasn't the demand to include men in the punishment for abortion asking men to take responsibility after giving birth?" In the case of Jung Woo-sung, when he said he would take responsibility for it, there is no reason to call this title "Other's life belongs to others." It is not a matter of projecting one's passion and criticizing or holding them accountable. If you feel that the life of that woman (Mungavi) has become unhappy with this incident, you can engrave a lesson in your life that you should do well with contraception."
▶ Traditional Confucian values, Korea's existence is shaken
In France, 62% of all births were out of wedlock as of 2021. Norway (56.3%), Sweden (55.2%), the Netherlands (52.9%), and Belgium (50.4%) are similar figures. In most of these countries, almost the same rights as married couples can be guaranteed legally. Marriage is an individual's choice, and the act of giving birth itself is not evaluated in connection with marriage. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also has several extramarital people, but in the United States, he is viewed as a successful entrepreneur and does not criticize him as an extramarital person.
We are not Europe? There's still a Confucian ceremony left? Korea must also be in a transitional period when these traditional Confucian values and modern perspectives collide. It is also the time when the perception that marriage is the beginning of a family is blurred and various family forms emerge. A change in consciousness began to emerge that the responsibility of parenting began with marriage. The reason why JTBC drama 'Assembled Family' is gaining unexpected popularity is no different.
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On the 28th, Elon Musk wrote on his social media X that he was worried about Korea's population decline. He said, `In Korea, two-thirds of the population disappears every generation", and pointed out "Population Collapse". According to the data he posted, the number of births per woman in Korea is expected to decrease to 0.68 this year.
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