7 out of 10 Office Workers Say Lee Jun-seok's 'Violent Expression on Women's Bodies' is a Serious Issue

[Financial News] 7 out of 10 office workers think that Lee Jun-seok, the reform party representative's remarks about women's bodies during the last presidential election period were serious.
On the 24th, the civic group Workplace Gapjil 119 commissioned a survey from the polling agency Global Research, targeting 1,000 office workers nationwide aged 19 and over from the 1st to the 7th of last month (95% confidence level, margin of error ±3.1%p), and 66.5% of respondents said that Representative Lee's remarks about women's bodies were 'serious' at the time.
Specifically, 29.8% of respondents said it was very serious, and 36.7% said it was somewhat serious. When divided by gender, the proportion of women who thought it was very serious was 33.8%, which was 7.6%p higher than the 26.2% of men.
In response to a question about disciplinary opinions on Representative Lee, 31.2% of respondents said he should be expelled from his parliamentary position. 36.5% said he should be disciplined even if not expelled from his parliamentary position. Approximately 70% of respondents said that some form of disciplinary action against Representative Lee is necessary.
Shin Hana, a lawyer at Workplace Gapjil 119, pointed out, "This survey result clearly shows how seriously office workers perceive verbal sexual violence," adding, "Verbal sexual violence publicly committed by a public figure such as a member of the National Assembly, or even a presidential candidate, poses a great risk of spreading the wrong perception that 'this level is acceptable' even in the workplace."
She continued, "Representative Lee's remarks are a serious issue that goes beyond mere political disputes and regresses the gender sensitivity of our entire society," emphasizing that "the National Assembly's Special Ethics Committee should no longer leave this matter unattended and must send a clear social message about the eradication of sexual violence through strict disciplinary action."
Previously, Representative Lee sparked controversy by describing violent expressions related to women's bodies to Kwon Young-guk, the Democratic Labor Party candidate, during the 3rd candidate debate of the 31st presidential election held last May, asking, "Does this constitute misogyny by Democratic Labor Party standards?"
Subsequently, Representative Lee stated, "Due to inappropriate expressions, I have caused disappointment and distress to many people, and I take full responsibility. I will not make any excuses," and "I deeply apologize to everyone who was hurt by the level of expression."

welcome@fnnews.com Jang Yu-ha Reporter