Prologue - People who say to look here but look there

Part 1, Ellipsis
Death is not an option

First bare face, I want to live, but I can't help it
―Sexual minorities are here, the late Byun Hee-soo

Second bare face, even if my heart is torn, there's nothing I can do
When Words Become Swords, by the late Choi Jin-ri

Third time, I can't help it even if I get hit
To those who believe that a teacher who hits is real, the late Choi Suk-hyeon

The fourth bare face, even if it falls, gets stuck, or gets crushed, there's nothing I can do about it.
―You are me, the late Kim Yong-gyun

Fifth Face: Even if my entire family dies, I can't help it.
―May poverty not become a source of guilt, the late Seongbuk mother and daughter

Sixth Face: Trusting the Nation Doesn't Help
― My body is the proof, ○○○○ people died from the humidifier disinfectant.

Part 2, Dodol-i-pyo
We are accustomed to forgetting

Seventh Face, We Will Be Sharper
― We're all in the same boat: the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Eighth Bare Face: We Will Become Insensitive Again
― I grew up eating lenient verdicts, the Nth Room case

The ninth bare face, we will continue to chatter
―I am not a tool of childbirth, abolish the crime of abortion.

The tenth bare face, we will be endlessly sad.
― Memory, Responsibility, and Promise: The Sewol Ferry Disaster

The Eleventh Bare Face, We Always Forget
― The struggle of memory against oblivion, the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye

The twelfth bare face, we still naively believe
― The illusion of fairness, the situation in the fatherland

Epilogue - Here and Now, This is Our Result

“It’s a shame…” “It’s resentful…”
Society doesn't change, so there's nothing we can do?
Wrong! Society has changed for the worse.


"Bare Faces" briefly stops a society where the declaration "I will not forget" is just lip service.
Sociologist Chan-ho Oh takes a deep look at our true nature, which is to consume and discard pain by repeating declarations over and over again.
I feel a mixture of bewilderment and frustration at the indifference that stops at “I resent society, but that’s it” and “It’s a shame, but that’s it.”
As the pain is slowly flowing away, the author sees the harsh language of hatred and prejudice creeping in.
“Is that all that matters?” “Why do you only talk about the bad things?” “Can’t you talk about something more positive?” “Are you the only one having a hard time? Don’t be so upset.” “It’s just your own karma...” People easily get angry and then forget about it as if it never happened.
One incident is buried under another, bigger incident, and an old incident is forgotten over and over again by a hot, recent incident.


Because society does not change, the cries of vulnerable individuals are constantly blocked by a wall.
Even after the tragic death of the late Sergeant Byun Hee-soo, sexual minorities still have to struggle to survive in a society where they cannot reveal their sexual identity.
Despite the death of the late singer Choi Jin-ri, malicious comments on the Internet are becoming increasingly vicious.
Even after the industrial accident that killed the late Kim Yong-gyun, the situation of irregular workers at subcontractors who have to work precariously, risking their lives, has not changed.
We have been, and will continue to be, too quick to forget.
It may not feel real now, but when the COVID-19 pandemic is over and we can take off our masks and breathe freely, we will erase the memory of the pandemic.
We will completely forget how the weak links in society were broken, how disgust and hatred became normal.

The twelve incidents that appear in this book are nothing less than signals of crisis thrown at our society.
This is a natural consequence of a society obsessed with pre-modern stereotypes and a society where the philosophy of each for himself is prevalent.
What is bleak is that even though the individual's endless suffering has accumulated to the point of explosion, there is no hopeful prospect of a better future.
Does frequent despair dull the viewer's senses? People's reactions rarely go beyond a fleeting expression of resentment and regret.
The author suggests that we go one step further from that regret and resentment.
If we do not properly examine these strange things, society will not just remain stagnant, but will continue to regress and regress.

In a society where 'how to survive' is a matter of
There is no interest in 'those who did not survive'.
What awaits at the end?

Part 1, “Ellipsis,” deals with six tragic deaths.
Their deaths are extremely social, as society stands by and watches with no concern until an individual is driven to death.
Those who live painful lives in situations where human dignity is not guaranteed and then suddenly have an accident or die are no different from victims of 'social murder.'


The late Byeon Hee-soo.
They are victims of Korean society, which divides people into normal and abnormal and takes discrimination and hatred against sexual minorities for granted.
The late Choi Jin-ri.
It's like being driven to death by malicious commenters who hide behind the anonymity of the Internet and spew hateful words.
The late Kim Yong-gyun.
They are victims of terrible accidents that occur 'regularly' within the system of subcontracting to reduce corporate costs.
The late Choi Suk-hyeon.
He was caught up in a typical violent incident in the closed sports world, and ended up losing his life while the few protective measures that existed were useless and the bystanders watched.
The late Seongbuk mother and daughter.
It is a cliff-edge death that occurred in a blind spot of selective welfare.
○○○○ victims of the late humidifier disinfectant.
These are innocent victims of a murder against the people, the number of which is still unknown, and their lives were lost due to the country's dereliction of duty and corporate arrogance.

The subtitle of Part 1 is “Death is not an option.”
How did Korean society come to adopt such a cold and indifferent attitude, even death being an inevitability? The author confronts us, who are often indifferent to the deaths of innocent people, with the pain of the victims, constantly reminding us that their suffering is not a matter of personal concern.
“Because it is so common, some people understand such unfortunate deaths as just another inevitable part of the world.
But we must ask what structures are constantly generating this commonality.” The book emphasizes that we are all deeply implicated in their deaths.
No one can be free from the structural problems of a society overflowing with narrow-minded views that try to disparage any attempt to find blind spots in human rights, the illusion that extreme and rude language is cool, and the words "if you're wronged, you should get ahead".


Despair is accurately called despair and is not muddled.
Sociologist Oh Chan-ho's sharp sense of problem!
“If the problem is ‘here,’ then we must start ‘from here.’”

Part 2, “Dodolli Pyo,” reviews six major disasters and issues that have heated up Korean society over the past few years.
Looking back, there have been many similar incidents before, and although the social repercussions and details may have been very different, similar controversies have been repeated each time.
Online sex crimes are not the first of their kind, and major disasters like the Sewol Ferry disaster have been repeated over and over again.
Even the COVID-19 pandemic, considered an unprecedented public health crisis, was merely an opportunity to expose the true face of polarized Korean society. The virus did not plunge society into a new crisis.
This means that the conditions that allow discrimination and hatred to flourish were already in place before the virus struck.
The events reflected in this book are a kind of trigger that brings to light the contradictions that have been latent throughout society.


The author reveals the contradictions amplified by the trigger and the background of each of the six incidents.
It shows that at the root of some incidents lies the ruthless contradiction of a society that focuses only on the "survivors" and has no regard for those who "failed." It points out that at the root of other incidents lies a firmly entrenched sexist perspective, and deep within yet other incidents lies the terrifying violence of an unequal system.
These events, in order, refer to the COVID-19 pandemic, the abolition of abortion laws, and the Cho Kuk crisis, but it is not enough to simply examine the exact cause and effect.
If the mentioned contradiction is not resolved, it will come back to us in a different form at any time and make society noisy.


The subtitle of Part 2 is “We are accustomed to forgetting.”
The reason why the author chews over and ruminates on the structural contradictions and absurdities hidden within the incident, rather than its outer surface, is well expressed in the subtitle.
As the subtitle points out, we easily forget the bad news or the extraordinary misfortune and repeat our mistakes.
The author makes this request to us, who will “become sharper” toward one another without raising any particular issues about the weakened community even after painfully going through the COVID-19 pandemic, who will “become desensitized” to online sex crimes even after the Nth Room incident, who will “continue to gossip” about abortion even after the abolition of the abortion law, and who will “endlessly feel sad” as yet another tragedy repeats itself after the Sewol Ferry disaster.


“It must not collapse.
We must not forget that this society was created by people and that it is also people who change it.
Even if you don't want to face it, you have to face it to make change possible.
“Only by being shocked, lamenting that such things still happen, remembering the victims, and seeking ways to prevent recurrence, can society move forward.”