genre: fiction
This novella is the story of Kim Jiyoung and her experience as a female growing up in Korea.
Her story, told from a third person perspective, details the ways in which women and their needs are repeatedly secondary to the needs of men. From the time she is a young child in elementary school until she is a married woman with a child - the male deference in society is in stark contrast to the heavy responsibility of the female role.
Really, while this is "Jiyoung's" story, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is telling the story of every woman living in a stringently patriarchal society.
The narrative is shared in an emotionally distant way and the format really worked for me, it made my brain roil to see such blatant garbage behavior just be commonplace. I loved the citations at the end of each chapter and the end of this book was such perfection, it put the entire thing into an even more interesting context for me.
This book made me rage. It made me want to just burn it all down. It made me understand WHY this book fueled the fire of the feminist 4B movement in Korea. It made me so mad at my own country and the way that for every one step forward, the majority of our leaders and those who vote for them are fine to take women's rights two steps back.
Five stars from me.
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