Topic: Community and Society. Moensan is 26, unmarried, childless and plans to keep it that way. Supplied: Moensan. The year-old, who lives in a provincial city in South Korea, is unmarried and childless β and plans to keep it that way. Of course, being firm on her decision not to get married doesn't mean she never feels lonely.
But, Moensan said, the occasional feeling "doesn't mean I need to go on a date or get married. I just want person-to-person association. A relationship with someone I can talk to, empathise with, and truly understand". Moensan is far from alone. South Korea β a country where dating, marriage and having children have long been entrenched ideals β has experienced a significant decrease in marriage rates.
And according to data collated by Statistics Korea, it is only getting worse. Last year , , marriages were registered, compared to , in , prompting the Government to make various attempts to get more women to walk down the aisle. The unmarried, child-free activists are leading the call to normalise the decisions of Korean women like Moensan not to get married or have children with their channel. Both told the ABC they had felt a pressure to get married before reaching a certain age.
But, after being introduced to feminism, they said they started to realise how Korean society pushed women towards marriage. Baeck Ha-na, left, and Jung Se-young are trying to normalise remaining single. Supplied: Jung Se-young and Baeck Ha-na. Over the past five months, the duo has amassed more than 24, subscribers to their YouTube channel SOLOdarity, where they discuss government intervention and share what life is like for a "bi-hon" β someone who chooses not to marry or have children.
And now, thanks to a nifty hashtag encapsulating their movement, NoMarriage, they are making headlines. The aim of the NoMarriage movement is to push the Government to react and to spark a change in expectations in South Korea, where "women are considered to be subject to family ownership, and women who say they don't want to marry become a target of attack," Ms Baeck told the ABC.
