Cho Nam-Joo

and checking the sex of the fetus and aborting females was common practice, as if “daughter” was a medical problem

He attended a teacher training college in Seoul thanks to their support, and the eldest was praised for being the responsible first-born son who brought honor to the family through his own success and provided for his family. Oh Misook and her sister realized only then that their turn would not come; their loving family would not be giving them the chance and support to make something of themselves.

Her life choices, being Kim Jiyoung’s mother—Oh Misook was regretting them. Jiyoung felt she was a rock, small but heavy and unyielding, holding down her mother’s long skirt train. This made her sad

To Jiyoung, it felt more like harassment or violence than pranks, and there was nothing she could do about it besides run crying to Mother and Eunyoung. They weren’t much help. Eunyoung said boys were immature and that Jiyoung should just ignore him, and Mother chided Jiyoung for crying and complaining over a classmate who was just messing around because he wanted to play.

The teacher patted Jiyoung on the back.
“You know what, Jiyoung? Let me tell you something I’ve known for a while that you haven’t noticed: he likes you.”
Jiyoung was so aghast that she stopped crying. “He hates me,” she said. “I thought you said you’ve seen how he’s been treating me.”
“Boys are like that,” the teacher laughed. “They’re meaner to the girls they like. I’ll give him a talking-to. Why don’t you take this incident as an opportunity to become better friends instead of changing desk-mates on unfriendly terms?”

Even at the age of eight, this was common sense to Jiyoung.

Students also thought that girls were smarter, more mature, and better with detailed work, but they somehow always elected boys to be class monitors.

Father and Grandmother suggested that the girls share with the grandmother as before and give the boy his own room, but Mother was firm.

In the summer, girls had to wear tights with white socks, and just black tights in the winter.

“Fucking hell. He’s the one who stripped! Those dumb fuckers are punishing us instead of catching the pervert? What the fuck did we do? What’s there to apologize for? I’m not the one who flashed my junk!”