New Column at Carnal Nation...

Why I wish you'd stop calling my kid pretty...

click over at Carnal Nation to see why.

Comments

[rose_coloured]

I was interested reading your article. I live in South Korea currently, and it is fascinating sometimes living in a society where I am a foreigner. It is fascinating seeing the difference between cultures and their gender interactions.

Firstly I will say that Koreans are not comfortable with the idea of gay people. They 'don't exist'. Having said that I want to talk about some of the interesting things I see in this society.

The most noticable thing for me is the interactions between children. That is because I work in schools. It is very common here for there to be a lot of touching between children of the same gender. It is not so strange from a western point of view to see little girls hug and hold hands. But here it is almost more common to see boys hug and hold hands. Or sit on the laps of their friends. Or numerous other ways to touch. This is at least up to the age of 16, and will occur at times even in adults.

I really like seeing it. To me it shows genuine affection between friends. But I know of other foreigners here who express the opinion that it is strange and not normal and disgusting.

Another interesting thing for me is seeing some of the other foreigners here react to the appearance of Korean men. Many Korean men are much more effeminite in appearance. As you talked about your husband I thought of Korean men. It is especially the case with the men who are the pop stars and actors here. The younger generation of Korean women are attracted to men who look remarkably feminine. I've even found videos on you tube that take the faces of these pop stars and photoshop them onto female bodies. They make the prettiest women ever!

My fascination continues because I quite like Korean men and find the pop stars interesting. So I started looking for videos about the bands on you tube. Not only did I find music, but also the bands will make these little skits where they act as different characters. Something like a mini movie. Sometimes one or more of the band members will play the part of a woman. I cannot imagine many western male pop groups doing something similar, or their fans being comfortable with it. But here it is quite popular and common and the fans don't have a problem with it.

There is more that I could talk about. But I will stop here. I just find Korean interactions with the concept of gender to be very interesting.