The Best Take on Sexism in Advertising EVER!

Not technically Korean sorry, but it has a universal message…and I’m still laughing even on my fourth tenth viewing (especially at the guy)!

True, the part at 0:18 was a little confusing and unnecessary, but otherwise it’s a classic.

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Unrequited Love…or Stalking? The Pitfalls of Dating in Korea

In hindsight it’s not all that surprising, but still, I find it interesting how much traffic my brief post on dating in Korea gets nearly 2 years after I wrote it, and which makes me wish I’d done a more thorough job.

In particular, I wish I’d mentioned how it is accepted practice in Korea for men to relentlessly pursue the objects of their heart’s desire, sometimes for many years, and despite said objects often clearly, repeatedly, and vehemently expressing their disinterest. Far from being viewed as stalking however, it is generally viewed as both a sweet and noble sign of one’s love and dedication. Indeed, there is a proverb specifically for this: “열번찍어 안넘이 가는 나무 없다,” which roughly translates as “There is no tree that can withstand being chopped 10 times.”

Not that I can’t see those sweet and noble elements to it, and of course surely many Korean women would exploit the practice, in a playing hard to get fashion (some more Korean that comes to mind is “희망고문하다,” literally to “hope torture {someone}” or to repeatedly string someone along and then break their hearts). But I think that the consensus of most Westerners is that if the woman says she’s not interested…then she’s not interested, and hence that the man’s behavior after being told is stalking, regardless of how sweet or noble his intentions. Unfortunately, in a society that already accepts women being physically dragged into nightclubs, then foreign or Korean, women can probably expect little sympathy when dealing a stalker.

This will probably not be the first – and definitely won’t be the last – time you’ll read about this on a blog by an expat: navigating different expectations when it comes to dating are an integral part of the expat experience, and in the 30 minutes that I have to write this I’m not going to be able to add much that hasn’t already had gallons of virtual ink spilt on it. Two useful things I can do though: first, mentioning that of all the guides to navigating those dating minefields out there, that this one by Michael Hurt at Scribblings of the Metropolitician is by far the best, and with many things that informs even my marriage of 6 years; and second, and which was the real inspiration for this post, that over at Sociological Images there is a post that discusses the fact that:

Various journalists and scholars have pointed out over the years that movies and TV shows often portray as romantic behavior that is fairly indistinguishable from stalking.

And then a video created by Jonathan McIntosh of Rebellious Pixels, who:

edited together scenes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer with scenes of Edward Cullen from the movie Twilight to show how behavior that is depicted as protective and romantic in the film (and book) could also be seen as disturbing

For more, see the original post here. Not that I think that the humorous stalking in, say, There’s Something About Mary had a profound effect on my own opinions of it, or that seeing it in pop-culture somehow renders real-life examples in any country okay…but still, the next time we feel a sense of righteousness and indignation about hearing Korean examples of it, it is certainly worth pondering the mixed messages that Western pop-culture provides (image source).

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Korean Sociological Image #11: When you REALLY need a man…

Back when I was a freshman in New Zealand in the mid-1990s, I was suitably impressed with my own cleverness when I realized that it is the very act of reporting on a social trend itself that can be the primary factor in its creation, as it is by that means through which a large audience is exposed to it for the first time. Particularly back then and there at least, pre-internet and when New Zealand was only just emerging out of its relative economic and cultural isolation, and which ensured that was printed in the New Zealand Herald had an impact on the public that is probably difficult to imagine today.

Of course, any given trend’s relationship to media reports and advertising is really best thought of as a feedback loop rather than as a chicken and egg scenario, but that doesn’t mean that the question of which came first can’t still be useful and relevant. Which is not to say that the English language Korea Times will ever quite have the same impact on the Korean public, but I mention all that because it was the first thing that came to mind I read (via Roboseyo) this report on delivery cum odd-job men in it last week, as whether: through reporter Jane Han’s personal choice; the desire of her editor to spice it up and/or give it a certain spin; the desires of the companies themselves to be portrayed in a certain light; or a combination of all 3, the report paints a picture of helpless, passive (particularly single) female clients and active, savior men that even the companies’ websites and advertisements don’t (yet), let alone correspond to reality.

Let me discuss the report by providing it in full below, stopping and adding commentary as I go along. Of course, the title itself if the first thing that set alarm bells ringing in my head (image source: Silver Age Comics):

Is ‘Substitute Man’ Modern White Knight?

For 27-year-old Lim Ji-ae, battling cockroaches in her studio apartment has been a constant nightmare. At least one or two encounters with the insect per week put her on edge. That is, until she recently hired someone to be her personal pest control agent for 5,000 won per occasion.

He arrives at her house within 10 minutes of her call, and sometimes even picks up toilet paper, toothpaste and other urgent grocery items on his way. In fact, whatever Lim needs, he does ― most of the time.

“He’s my new best friend,” says Lim, who was actually referring to a plural group of service providers, the so-called substitute men, an emerging beck-and-call squad that evolved from the common “quick delivery service,” which simply shuttled goods from point A to point B.

But the upgraded version exceeds far beyond expectations, as substitute men do everything from delivering food, moving heavy furniture, picking up laundry and walking dogs to escorting children to and from school.

For those of you that don’t live in Korea and so may not know, one of the good…nay, great things about Korea is that in addition to most Korean food being both cheap and healthy, probably at least half of all restaurants provide delivery for no extra charge, and often with no minimum order either: suffice to say, I probably did more cooking in my last year in New Zealand than in the entire 9 years I’ve been in Korea (the downside is many scooters dangerously driving through red lights and on sidewalks though). So while I am unaware of how long companies offering “quick delivery services” of other goods have been around, they’re obviously a natural extension of this service culture, and if you live in an urban area and check your junk mail then you’ll probably find that there’s at least 2 or 3 available in your area.

In fairness then, it is good that the article mentioned this context, and as the image available on AnyMan’s (애니맨) website above shows (not really viewable in Firefox), neither company mentioned (a little later) disguises the fact that they were and primarily still are simple delivery companies. Continuing:

As long as nothing illegal and morally wrong is involved, almost everything is possible, says Yoon Joo-yeol, who runs Any Man, a service based in southern Seoul.

“We had someone calling for toilet paper while on the toilet,” he said, “while one man called from the U.S. to have porridge and medicine delivered to his girlfriend ill in bed.”

One picky customer, who couldn’t trust local seafood restaurants, even requested a substitute man to videotape himself catch a fish in the ocean before having the fresh catch prepared as sashimi, Yoon recounted.

“There is never a dull day,” he said, adding that services typically cost anywhere from 5,000 won to 300,000 won, considering the labor intensity of the task.

Hell, nothing wrong with any of that, nor in the list of people (single households, old people, workaholics etc.) that Anyman suggests would benefit from using their services or in the list of potential range of services offered available at Anyman’s website (Life Manager’s {라이프매너저} lists are basically the same), and it would really be reaching to see something in, say, the fact that Anyman suggests it can deliver food to sick girlfriends but not boyfriends. Like the slave man who apparently arrives at a woman’s beck and call kills bugs however, it is very tempting to do so once you read the last part of the article however:

Lee Jae-hong, the owner of Life Manager, another service provider, explains that the do-it-all service is picking up quick traction nationwide from men and women of all ages, but the best business is in the Gangnam, southern Seoul, district.

He said the large single female population in the area leads to high demand for frequent services such as food delivery, grocery shopping and simple repair work.

“The competition is becoming fierce as more and more customers are learning about the service,” said Lee said, who competes with almost 15 rivals in the area.

Experienced customers like Lim says the cost is “friendly,” but advised users to be cautious and not to expose too much personal information to the substitutes.

Jeez, where to start? Okay, probably the first thing to mention is, well, the second thing that the article instantly reminded me of, and that was that by coincidence the blog Sociological Images that inspired this series of posts recently had a post about a New Orleans business called The Occasional Wife. As author Lisa explains there:

…the business relies on and reproduces the very idea of “wife.”  As the website makes clear, wives are people who (a) make your life more pleasurable by taking care of details and daily life-maintenance (such as running errands), (b) organize special events in your life (such as holidays), and (c) deal with work-intensive home-related burdens (such as moving), all in while perfectly coiffed and in high heels!

Like commenters on that post mentioned, services that rely on and reinforce a stereotypical notion of appropriate gender roles exist throughout the Western world. Indeed, the first thing I thought of when I saw that post was the New Zealand Hire a Hubby service which started a few years before I left, and which I was curious to see if it was still in business. Apparently so:

But I think a crucial difference is that the services of these two companies at least are premised on sharply delineated notions of “wifes” and “hubbies,” whereas with the Korean “Deliveryman 2.0,” they’re so new that social conventions on typical clients and services offered seem very much in flux. Or are they? Take the videos of typical clients and services from the Life Manager and Anyman websites for instance:

Apologies for the poor quality, but we’re talking about thumbnail-size original videos. Regardless, neither video promotes the company as the purveyor of the services of big burley men to hapless single females, and the former especially portrays quite a range of clients, including – shock, horror – some men.

On the other hand, there is indeed a large population of singles in the Gangnam (강남) area (see this post on Seoul demographics as for why), and I grant that there is a possibility – but only a possibility – that there is something special about single women that live in Gangnam that means that they disproportionately use such services. After all, it is the most expensive and sought-after area to live in whole country, so presumably there would be a large number of rich single women there quite used to paying others for the basic services us mere mortals have to do our ourselves; however, the same logic would also apply to the rich men that live in the area. Alternatively, while the comments to Korea Times articles are usually best ignored, one otherwise forgettable comment to this one to the effect that all the single women are not rich but rather work in the numerous bars and brothels there may well have a grain of truth in it, and so among singles at least there be well be more women than men in that area (the report that earlier post of mine doesn’t provide that level of detail). Not living in Seoul myself though, I’d be grateful if Seoul-based readers can confirm if there is something to that possibility or not.

For a moment then, I thought that perhaps my sense of outrage was unjustified. Perhaps the owner of Life Manager is an angel, who just so happens to have a great deal of business catering to single females in the Gangnam area: nothing wrong with that. Naturally though, I’m unwilling to let him or perhaps Jane Han entirely off the hook. In particular, although I shouldn’t jump to any conclusions without seeing the original Korean transcript of the interview, note that he says:

…the large single female population in the area leads to high demand for frequent services such as food delivery, grocery shopping and simple repair work.

Ergo, needs for help with those tasks – and, apparently, killing cockroaches – are inherent to the single female, regardless of where they live. Which reminds me of a report on “Alpha Girls” from The Chosun Ilbo that I covered last year which depicted single women living at home as incapable of and unwilling to do housework and basically selfish and useless overall, whereas a discussion with virtually any 20-something Korean can confirm that the reality is that they are expected to, can, and generally do do a disproportionate amount of housework, unlike their brothers. Of course, we have all met single women like the article describes, sure, but just as many single men too, and similarly there was no objective reason for Jane Han to give this article the passive, useless female/knight in shining armour tone to it that she did.

Why did she then? It’s probably not worth speculating, and two reports don’t make a trend either. But as blogger Gord Sellar points out in this excellent post on Korean consumerism here, there does seem to be quite a backlash among certain groups of Korean men against single, independent women, and it would be no surprise if this was increasingly reflected in the Korean media. It’ll certainly be something to keep an eye on in the future.

(For all posts in the “Korean Sociological Image” series, see here)

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Koreans, Westerners…and Sex (Again)

Apologies for the light posting and not responding to comments and emails, but my 50-hour weeks are having their toll. Fortunately, this is the last one, and as I type this I’ve just finished a long post that will be up by tomorrow.

Until then, let me quickly mention this post over at The Marmot’s Hole about a short video cum picture-documentary on the hypocrisy of the Korean media’s stereotypes of Western men as sexual predators and – to the extent that they’re portrayed at all – very negative and sexist images of the Korean women who enter into relationships with them, but at the same time readily (and increasingly) presenting images of Korean men with Western (read: Caucasian) women, albeit with the latter also usually portrayed in an similarly sexist and degrading fashion. To which I present as Exhibit A actor Kang Ji-Hwan’s (강지환) latest photoshoot for Esquire Korea above, which you can see more of here, and as Exhibit B this Somang Cosmetics advertisement below (source) with Ahn Jung-hwan (안정환) from 2003 that it instantly reminded me of, which I discuss a little here. Naturally, I’d be the last person to be offended by women in bikinis in particular, but still, there are alternatives to depicting Korean male-Caucasian female relationships with the latter as something other than mere trophy girlfriends. Yet I can only think of a handful of examples.

But being an understandably large and ongoing concern of the (overwhelmingly male-dominated) Korean blogosphere (see the links at the end of this post), then normally I choose to blog about other aspects of gender-relationships in Korea, but a) I confess that with this post I was *cough* glad to finally find an excuse to post the Esquire pictures sans lengthy analysis, and b) as the creator of the video took a dozen or so images from this blog to make it, then other readers may well find it interesting just for that reason. All the same, I link to the video rather than providing it here myself, as I’m more interested in the issues it raises rather than the video per se.  But if you are, then you can certainly depend on a lively discussion of it at The Marmot’s Hole.

With all due respect to the creator of the video though,  I would agree with critics there that: to a large extent it is preaching to the choir; it has a confusing message; the reference to the Virginia Tech massacre was completely unnecessary; and, above all, it needs to have Korean subtitles if it has to have any effect at all on most Koreans. But still, a picture does say a thousand words, and despite those handicaps it will probably get much more attention from them then this English-language blog has. Hmmm…

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Creative Korean Advertising #16: The Male Gaze

( Source: Add Shots )

Given my Feminist pretensions, then usually I’d instinctively feel defensive about my decision to post an ad like this, and in the past this has often prompted me to write lengthy arguments about how, say, exposure of breasts per se shouldn’t be regarded as sexist. But with some notable exceptions (and from which I’ve learned a great deal from), whether through preaching to the converted, most of my readers being men(?), or some other reason, judging by the lack of detracting comments on those occasions then such justifications have probably proved unnecessary.

So, I’ll let it go: readers certainly don’t need me to spell out that on the one hand this ad is definitely objectifying, but on the other that men would behave exactly the same way even if women had achieved complete equality, and can decide for themselves if it’s sexist or not (I’m still happy to discuss that in the comments section though). In the meantime, I’m learning to feel less ashamed about the unabashed grins ads like this put on my face, especially the first ad in this post.

Actually, a much more interesting issue it raises is its directness. Of course objectifying women is hardly new or unique to Korean ads, but I can’t think of any other example that so blatantly incorporates the corresponding (sexual) male gaze into its message, and this makes it more sexual than, say, the sudden spate of couples kissing in Korean advertisements that is making news recently (see here, here, and here). On top of that, it actually went up way back in November 2007 too (see the details here), which raises some interesting questions:

• How common was it?
• Where was it posted?
• Were there any complaints?
• If so, was it removed from circulation?
• If not, why have there been no similar ads since?
• Or perhaps there have been, it’s just that I didn’t notice them?

If any readers can help me with any of those, I’d appreciate it. In the morning, and with apologies for not doing this first, I’ll scour Naver and so on and see if there’s anything in Korean on it.

Update: Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything at all about this ad in Korea, either at Naver or Yahoo! Korea, and which makes me wonder if it was actually released or not? But as for ads featuring the male gaze, I forgot about this one with Han Ye-seul (한예슬) for lingerie company Venus (비너스). From February 2008:

(For all posts in my “Creative Korean Advertising” series, see here)

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