Maxim Korea’s September issue was recently released to the public, creating outrage at the images included in the issue and the message Maxim appears to be sending. The cover depicts Korean actor Kim Byung-Ok. He is smoking a cigarette and gazing off into the distance, while placing one hand on the trunk of a car that is slightly popped open. Readers are disgusted over what is protruding from the trunk: a set of female legs bound with duct tape. The heading? “The Real Bad Guy.” Below it reads: So girls like bad guys? This is what a bad guy looks like. Dying for him, right?"
Korea has struggled immensely with its treatment of women, and this situation proves no different. In 2014, the World Economic Forum placed Korea 117th out of 142 countries on the global gender equality index. Womenstats.org reported that the country rates a level 4 on rape against women, meaning that rape happens often. The website also scored Korea as a level 4 on physical security of women, which indicates that they have a low level of security.
Based on these statistics, and many more, the public has come together to fight the rape culture that is plaguing the country. A petition was created online on August 26, 2015, by Internet user megal p. The petition demands that Maxim Korea stop selling its September issue. It also asks the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Korea Publication Ethics Committee to strongly reconsider its policies for publications and hopefully implement measures that will stop spreads like Maxim Korea’s from being published in the future.
Currently, the petition has over 10,000 signatures from users all over the globe. However, Maxim Korea does not seem to be willing to back down. Its editorial department stated that, “[they] did depict the crime of murder and body abandonment in a film noir way, but there’s no hint of a sexual offense in the picture, and no fantasizing of sex crimes either.” But whether or not Maxim Korea intended to depict sexual crimes, the public is still fighting for the removal of the issue and intervention from the government in the hopes of putting an end to the constant sexualization and abuse that women face.
