Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982: A Novel

Jiyoung enters the same middle school her older sister Eunyoung attends. Female students are in the minority. The school has a strict dress code for girls but a lenient code for boys. Teachers make excuses for this discrepancy and regularly punish girls for dress-code violations.

A flasher has been appearing outside the school gate for years. He is visible from Jiyoung’s classroom. On one occasion, girls yell at him out of the window. The girls later ambush the flasher, tie him up, and take him to the police station.

Jiyoung has her first period in eighth grade. She tells Eunyoung, who tells their mother. At dinner that night, Jiyoung’s younger brother serves himself a large portion of ramen. Eunyoung takes half of his noodles and puts them in her bowl. Their mother then takes half of her noodles and puts them in her son’s bowl. Eunyoung is upset with her mother for doing this. She points out that she and Jiyoung do all the chores, and their brother never helps. Mother says he doesn’t help because he’s still young, but Eunyoung replies that it’s because he’s a boy.

Jiyoung’s menstruation is never discussed, and Jiyoung feels that this secrecy implies shame. At night, she thinks about the unfair differences in the treatment of girls and boys.

A few days later, Eunyoung gives Jiyoung a pack of sanitary pads. Jiyoung is embarrassed when a pad leaks onto her clothes. She also struggles with cramps and finds painkillers ineffective. She and her sister note that in a world rife with medical treatments there are no effective treatments for menstrual cramps.

Jiyoung is sent to an all-girls high school. On the bus and at school, she is exposed to pervasive unwanted sexual attention from boys and men. The girls around her are appalled by the constant harassment. Men rub up against them in crowded public settings. Teachers poke and prod at their bodies under the guise of school uniform checks. Employers cajole them and make excuses for withholding their wages.

One day, Jiyoung is addressed by a boy who offers to escort her home. She is frightened and tries to ignore him. The boy follows her onto the bus and stands behind her. She covertly asks a woman for her phone and sends a text message to her father asking him to meet her at the bus stop. When she exits the bus, the boy follows her. Her father is not there. The boy berates her and suggests that she’s been teasing him. The woman who loaned Jiyoung her phone approaches them and distracts the boy. He calls them a misogynistic slur and walks away. Her father arrives and thanks the woman for helping Jiyoung.

That night, her father is angry with her and implies that the incident was her fault. Her mother calls the woman from the bus to offer compensation, which she refuses. Jiyoung calls her to thank her personally. The woman tells Jiyoung that the incident was not her fault. Jiyoung is moved to tears by the woman’s understanding. The woman tells her that there are more good men than “crazy men” in the world. After the incident on the bus, Jiyoung is afraid of all men, but remembering the woman’s assessment consoles her.

During the Korean financial crisis of 1997, Jiyoung’s father is nervous about his job. Eunyoung is a high school senior planning a career as a television producer. Mother encourages her to consider attending a teacher training college instead because the job is more conducive to raising a family. Eunyoung resists the idea at first and questions her mother’s expectations for her. Eunyoung tells her mother that she doesn’t know if she wants to have children; she is focused on her career. Mother looks at the map of the world, which the girls have marked with stickers on the countries they want to see someday. Mother notes Eunyoung’s ambitions to travel. She decides to encourage Eunyoung to attend the college of her choice. She considers that she may have been projecting her own former career ambition onto Eunyoung.

After this exchange, Eunyoung develops an interest in attending a teacher training college after all. She assures Mother that her interest is genuine and is not a result of Mother’s influence. She applies and is accepted.

Mother helps Eunyoung move into her new dormitory. When she returns home, she is crying. She is worried that Eunyoung altered her career ambitions to please her. Jiyoung consoles her by insisting that Eunyoung chose from a sincere desire to be a teacher.

Father is pressured into early retirement from his civil service career and receives a severance payment. He wants to invest the money into his friends’ import-export business, but Mother strongly discourages the idea. He decides to open a chicken stew shop instead. The long work hours visibly age him. The business fails, and he opens a franchise bakery in the same location. The second business soon closes as well.

Jiyoung is a senior in high school. The house is tense and busy due to her parents’ uncertain business ventures. She is concerned about college tuition, but her mother encourages her to focus on admission. She is accepted to a college in Seoul. Mother tells her that they can afford the first year of tuition. Eunyoung takes Jiyoung out drinking for the first time and Jiyoung passes out drunk.