And shout out to all the Korean women born in the year of the White Horse who had sensible parents.

Or mothers, because in many cases it was the father and the family on the father's side that pressured the mother.

Keep that fire inside you burning brighter than ever.

To me, that sums up why feminism in Korea was not only direly needed, but was inevitable.

Because as recently as 1990 and 2002, women were considered so worthless by huge swaths of Korean society, that many aborted them than to risk bringing completely made-up misfortune to men around them.

Important side note.

When there is a gender imbalance with less women than men, birth rates tend to go down. This is because birth rates are inherently limited by the number of women.

Yet another reason why it's not women's fault that the birth rate is low.

It's the patriarchy, stupid.

And let me tell you, they never aborted boys for reasons like this, if at all.

Had I been discovered to be a daughter in my mother’s womb, there's a good chance I would not be here.

That, my friends, summarizes how Korean society regarded women with such little value.

Now superstitions aside, the real issue here was, patriarchy:

1. They didn't want strong-willed women, considering girls worthless if they weren't submissive.

2. They cared more about the well-being of men so much that they aborted girls who could bring imaginary harm to men in the future.

1990-1996, gender imbalance of babies got so bad, that there were worries about a future with no women. But this didn't end.

In 2002, the Year of the Black Horse saw 109.9 boys to 100 girls.

Only by 2014, the Year of the Blue Horse, the birth ratio improved to 105.3 boys to 100 girls.

Not everyone went to abort their girls. Some went to elaborate lengths to avoid having a White Horse daughter on paper. Girls born in early 1990 were sometimes registered as late 1989, while those born near the end of the year had their paperwork delayed until 1991.

As a result, in 1990, South Korea’s birth ratio for boys to girls hit a record level of 116.5 to 100.

And this was while South Korea was already suffering from a big problem of gender imbalance, with each year seeing less girls than boys born.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, technology like ultrasounds made it easier for parents to learn whether they'd have a son or a daughter beforehand.

So, when families found out they'd be giving birth to a girl in the year of the White Horse, many decided to abort their babies.

But 1990 was a special year. It was the Year of the White Horse that comes every 60 years.

This was considered to be the worst year to have daughters. This was the worst of all the Horse years. Girls born in this year would have the strongest will, and would bring disaster to the men around them.

In Korea there used to be widespread belief that if a girl is born on certain years in the Zodiac cycle, that girl will have a strong will and therefore bring misfortune to their husbands, even shorten their husbands’ lives. They were mainly the years of strong animals, like the Horse and the Tiger.