Gender Inequality in "Our School"

As I watched this documentary “Our School”, I was very shocked because of the gender inequality. I could not believe that female students have to wear Korean traditional uniform even in the freezing winter times in Hokkaido.

From the middle school, girls have to wear traditional Korean costume as their school uniform. In fact, wearing a traditional costume in Hokkaido’s freezing weather is unbearable. Boys do not have to wear Korean traditional uniforms. Boys can wear layers of clothes under their t-shirts or polo shirt whereas girls cannot wear anything inside other than the traditional costume. Also, the material of the Korean traditional uniform is very thin and gets cold very fast.  I went to high school in Toronto and girls had the choice of wearing the kilt or the pants because it gets very cold in winter.  This inequality caused conflicts between boys and girls in this documentary film. In the Ryang’s article, girls have to wear Korean traditional costume as a school uniform because “girls help boys sustain their ethnic and national pride by wearing Korean uniforms” (Ryang 70). This shows how girls are subordinated and used as a substitution to educate boys.  

            Throughout the movie I felt like the students’ level of Korean language was not high enough even for those who studied at the school for 12 years. It seemed like the school focused mainly on the regulations and ideology. The visibility comes before anything else in Korean Schools in Japan.  The Chongryun schools only care for the tradition that is only superficial and neglects the genuine tradition such as the Korean language education (Ryang 71). Moreover, there are other difficulties than the traditional costume. In class, boys take control in the class. For example, the boy takes in charge of the class even though he is untidy.  In this documentary, it is clearly shown that women are the subordinate figure. If the boys make a mistake, they say “no one is perfect” but when girls make a mistake or get lower grades in school the boys look down on them. I was very disappointed to see the gender inequality in this documentary film.

           What is the purpose of going to the Chongryun School for girls? The director of this movie seemed to have such a close ties to Chongryun School but why? Are the efforts finding the "true" identity worth it for the girls who attend the Chongryun School?