The Grand Narrative

Given how much child abuse has become such a topical issue in the Korean blogosphere recently (see here and here for starters), naturally I assumed the worst when I saw the pictures and article below. Fortunately, the truth is completely benign, but…jumping ahead, let’s just say that I have mixed feelings about it.

중고생들 왜이러나? 졸업식 뒤 막장 ‘알몸 뒤풀이’ 2008-02-19

What on Earth are Middle School Students Doing? Naked Graduation Antics

[중앙일보 김진희] 최근 인터넷에 중고생의 ‘알몸 졸업식 뒤풀이’ 사진이 잇따라 올라와 충격을 주고 있다.

[Joong-Ang Ilbo Kim Jin-Hee] Recent Pictures of Middle School Student’s ‘Naked Graduation Antics’ Create Quite a Stir on the Internet

지난 15일 서울 중랑천변에서 남자 중학생 10여명이 졸업 기념으로 벌거벗고 물놀이를 하다가 경찰에 조사를 받은 데 이어 개인 블로그나 주요 커뮤니티에는 전국 곳곳에서 행해진 알몸 뒤풀이 목격담이 이어지고 있다.

On the 15th of February at Jungrang riverside in Seoul, about 10 middle-school boys were observed stripping themselves to celebrate graduating middle-school, prompting a nation-wide police investigation of personal blogs and internet communities with similar accounts of middle-school children stripping.

네티즌 ID’탄젠트’는 “최근 노원역 모 백화점 앞에서 졸업빵 후 교복이 찢겨진 여학생을 실제로 봤다”며 “팬티만 입고 가슴은 손으로 가리고 뛰어가더라”고 전했다. 그는 “밀가루 뿌리고 계란 던지는 일은 봤어도 옷을 찢는 것은 처음 봐 무척 깜짝 놀랐다”고 말했다.

One netizen with the ID ‘Tangent’ was very surprised at seeing some virtually naked female students running in front of a department store in the No-won station area. He or she said that ”their uniforms were ripped and torn, and they were only wearing panties while covering their breasts with their hands,” and added that “Of course, I’ve seen graduating students throwing flour and eggs at each other before, but never anything like this.”

인터넷에 올라오고 있는 사진에는 여학생들이 주로 속옷만 걸친 채 밀가루를 흠뻑 뒤집어 쓰고 있고 남학생들은 속옷까지 벗어 던진 모습이 담겨있다. 네티즌들은 “시대가 변해도 너무 변했다” “도를 넘어섰다”고 비난하고 있다.

Also on the internet are pictures of female students only wearing underwear and covered in flour, and some of boys completely removing their underwear and throwing it away. Netizens are saying that “times have definitely changed,” but criticised the students, saying that behaviour like that is “over the limit.”

문제는 일부 학생들의 일탈 행위가 자칫 유행처럼 번질 수 있고, 졸업식 후에 행해지기 때문에 학생들을 단속하기도 쉽지 않다는데 있다.

Although only a minority of students do things like this, this behaviour has the potential to become a new trend. Unfortunately it is difficult to prevent, as students do it after official graduation ceremonies, when they are unsupervised.

서울 교육청 관계자는 “알몸 뒤풀이는 요즘 들어 많이 나오고 있는 일탈 행위인데 학교 안에서 하지 못하니까 밖에서 하는 것 같다”며 “앞으로 졸업식에서 장학금 지원이나 참고서·교복 물려주기 등 건전한 방식으로 뒤풀이를 하도록 학생들을 지도해야 할 것”이라고 말했다.

According to a spokesperson for the Seoul Education Office, “These nude post-graduation antics are becoming very popular recently, and because they can’t be done at school then they must all be occurring in public,” and so “it is much healthier if we encourage students to give their books and uniforms to their juniors rather than ripping them up, perhaps by offering scholarships to those who set good examples.”

김진희 기자 (Kim Jin-Hee)

(Photo by Sunderban)

For readers not based in Korea, bear in mind that Korean students usually graduate middle school at 16, and so probably just the age difference alone means that graduating middle school is much more important to most Koreans and worthy of celebrating than, say, graduating from my own middle school in New Zealand was to me when I was 12. Hence the antics more usually associated with graduating high school students in Western countries, and my wife says that she got up to similar things at that age, albeit with clothes on, when she graduated herself over ten years ago.

My gut instinct is that this is merely good, clean, harmless fun - God knows Korean teenagers get precious little enough opportunities for that - and that it is pretty tame compared to what many of their Western counterparts get up to. Hell, any complaints from teachers and parents should focus on the risks of pneumonia more than anything else.

On the other hand, I can’t shake off a nagging suspicion that it’s more than just coincidence that these sorts of games start appearing so soon after 16 year-old girls in the bare minimum of clothes have started appearing on Korean TV. Not that I’ve been looking, but I’ve been here 8 years, and it’s the first time I’ve heard of any Korean teenagers doing things like that, let alone ones that young. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that seeing the Wondergirls in mini-skirts and suggestive poses has instantly persuaded formerly innocent and pure Korean girls (and boys) to imitate them. But I do think that although Korean social and sexual mores are quickly changing, and that Korean teenagers would have eventually starting doing things like this regardless (see this post at Gusts of Popular Feeling, for instance, to learn more about the increasing sexualization of Korean teenagers since the mid-1990s), nevertheless the appearance of Korean girl groups surely had some part to play in teenagers doing this in 2008 rather than say, 2010 or 2015? We shouldn’t forget how important they are as role models.

Again, for an excellent summation of all of these issues, see Michael Hurt’s recent post.

(Update 1: There’s a thread about this at Daveseslcafe here, and through that I found an English-language article about it here)

(Update 2: For some videos, see the next post)

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