6.25.2005 – Seoul, Korea

 Women’s Worlds ’05, the Ninth International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women (they have been held every three years since 1981), turned out to be a remarkable event. There were about 3000 participants from90 nations and 1100 institutions around the world.

The diversity is striking. Dress ranges from full burquas to bare midriffs and exposed bra straps, from saris to the basic black dress, from hijabs to torn jeans and pierced tongues, from various forms of full-cover African dress to miniskirts, from nuns’ habits to spaghetti straps, from chadors to hair dyed with bright green areas . . . . Oh, and then there a few of us in suits and a variety of other male attire. I’d estimate that about 98 percent of the participants in the Congress were female, although male “accompanying persons” probably raised the male percentage overall in attendance to 4 or 5 percent.

At the conference registration on Sunday, I talked with several people from different countries. The most interesting conversation was with a group of male participants from Iran. They told me something I was already fairly sure was the case, but it was interesting to have it confirmed in no uncertain terms: George W. Bush is the most popular American president in Iran. The reason, of course, is that his actions have eliminated Iran’s principal rival and hated enemy, Saddam Hussein, as well as the Taliban regime on their other border. The ultimate result of Bush’s actions in the region will be to make Iran the dominant power—and at no cost to the Iranians. Bush is—or, rather, American military personnel are—doing the Iranians’ dirty work for them, suffering the casualties to leave Iran unchecked in the region. Bush is bringing Iran the victory over Iraq that it was unable to win for itself. And, in the process, Bush has committed such a large portion of America’s military resources to fighting Iran’s enemy that he has no credible threat to make against Iran to get them to stop their own development of nuclear weapons. (Unlike Saddam, the Iranians really do have, or are well along the way to having, WMD.) How could the Iranians not like a man who is doing so much to help them?

The Welcoming Ceremony for the Congress on Sunday night was beyond anything I had anticipated. I’ve been to many conferences, but I have never seen anything close to the lavishness of this event. It took place outside at the Gyeonghuigung, one of the royal palaces in Seoul. Congress participants were bussed from Ewha University to Gyeonghuigung in what must have been at least a hundred buses. (Throughout the conference, everything was run with remarkable efficiency. They even put out a slick daily newspaper each day of the Congress, up-to-date with accounts of the previous days events. ) When we arrived at the palace grounds, waiters in tuxedos were handing out glasses of Coke and Sprite, and I figured that was going to be it. When we got all the way in, though, about a hundred tables with white tablecloths, chairs covered in white cloth like they sometimes are for a wedding, and an amazing spread of food awaited us. The food, a variety of Korean delicacies, was delicious.

Before dinner began, two Korean women came up to me and said they were great fans of Eve’s Seed and were so excited that I was there. They asked if they could have their picture taken with me. Good Lord—I’m not used to that sort of thing.

We were welcomed by the Mayor of Seoul, who said the priority of his four-year administration was to end gender inequality. And I thought I was a congenital optimist! Overturning the 10,000 or so years of history I wrote about in Eve’s Seed in four years seems a bit too much to expect! The entertainment included several performers and the leading diva of Korean opera. During one of the performances, people with disabilities joined the performers on stage and sang along and moved to the music. Two huge screens showed the events on stage to those who did not have a good view of the stage from their tables.

At the opening ceremony on Monday morning, the Congress theme song (yes, they even had their own theme song composed for the Ninth Congress), “Embracing the Earth,” was performed by a Canadian singer, joined by many others in a sort of “We Are the World” performance. The song was followed by a welcoming speech from the First Lady of South Korea and an opening panel, which included some very interesting presentations.

Unsurprisingly, the same cannot be said for some of the other sessions I attended. Some of them were very dull. I attended a plenary session on religion and women, “What’s God Got to Do With It?,” though, that was lively and excellent, and I had an opportunity to present my views during the discussion at the end. The audience reaction to what I had to say on the topic was very positive.

I made many contacts with scholars from around the world and spoke with three Korean publishers about the possibility of translating Eve’s Seed into Korean.

I was the chair of my session on Thursday. Three others were listed as participants in the session, but two of them did not show up. The one who did is a Korean who lives in Australia and is completing her doctorate. Her paper was on narrowly focused research on attitudes of Korean girls in Korea and in Australia, based on interviews she has conducted. Her paper was at the opposite extreme from my reinterpret-the-whole-of-history presentation, but I found a couple of things in her paper that I could connect to mine.

There was a good crowd for the session, and I wasn’t disappointed that two participants didn’t make it, since this gave me more time to make my presentation. It was very well received.

The Farewell Festival on Thursday evening began with what was billed as “a simple meal,” but turned out to be something beyond my idea of simple, although certainly not as extravagant as what was served at the welcoming ceremony. Especially good was the friend ginseng with honey. The meal was followed by a concert in the university’s stadium, which resembles an ancient Greek arena. They had a full stage with towers and speakers like a rock concert. One of the first events was a Korean fashion show. When I saw that listed on the program I was surprised. It seemed incongruous among all these feminists. I soon found that that’s just what many of them thought. Many in the audience stood up and turned their backs to the stage to protest what they said was the commodification of the female body. The organizers of the show apologized to any who were offended. I was tired and left without seeing most of the performances.

Without a doubt this was the most lavish conference I have ever attended.

RSM