My two cents on this issue: I’m a white dude who taught ESL in South Korea for years, I married into a Korean family, I speak Korean, I also haven’t been in South Korea for seven years. What I’ll say is: it’s hard being a woman in South Korea, and there is little reason to get married if you happen to be one.
You’re expected to work a prestigious full-time job, provide for your husband (sex, three meals a day, therapy), have two kids (hopefully boys, and you might get an abortion if your doctor genders your fetus as female), and also, on top of all of this, you need to care for your husband’s elderly parents, sometimes intensively.
As for the men, their situation also sucks, but the ones shifting to the right are choosing to blame the real victims (women) rather than the system (and the American occupation) that has put them in this shitty situation. Men need to spend about two years of their youth in the military, where they are abused (your buddies hold you down while your CO spits in your mouth), and where you run the risk of dying or getting maimed in an “accident.”
In high school, everyone needs to be on campus at 8AM, and people aren’t really allowed to leave until 9PM, five days a week. They get six hours of sleep each night, possibly giving themselves brain damage from sleep deprivation, catching up on sleep in class (teachers don’t care) or on the weekend. Men also face poor job prospects (it’s almost impossible to get into a “good” school or get a “good” job) and a more or less pointless existence in a country that has been occupied by the USA since 1945. I’m not excusing their rightward shift, I’m just trying to provide a little perspective. People there are generally in favor of the DPRK (leaving it alone, at the very least) but they hate Japan, China, and the USA. Rightwing presidents tend to end their careers in prison; liberal presidents usually give money to the DPRK and are therefore better than standard Western liberals. Even if South Korea is part of the imperial core, it’s right at the edge, and has come very close to a successful lasting communist revolution multiple times since 1945.
Thank you for the insight. It’s hard for me to figure out what the day to day is amidst heavily curated exported cultural product. (Parasite notwithstanding )
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My two cents on this issue: I’m a white dude who taught ESL in South Korea for years, I married into a Korean family, I speak Korean, I also haven’t been in South Korea for seven years. What I’ll say is: it’s hard being a woman in South Korea, and there is little reason to get married if you happen to be one.
You’re expected to work a prestigious full-time job, provide for your husband (sex, three meals a day, therapy), have two kids (hopefully boys, and you might get an abortion if your doctor genders your fetus as female), and also, on top of all of this, you need to care for your husband’s elderly parents, sometimes intensively.
As for the men, their situation also sucks, but the ones shifting to the right are choosing to blame the real victims (women) rather than the system (and the American occupation) that has put them in this shitty situation. Men need to spend about two years of their youth in the military, where they are abused (your buddies hold you down while your CO spits in your mouth), and where you run the risk of dying or getting maimed in an “accident.”
In high school, everyone needs to be on campus at 8AM, and people aren’t really allowed to leave until 9PM, five days a week. They get six hours of sleep each night, possibly giving themselves brain damage from sleep deprivation, catching up on sleep in class (teachers don’t care) or on the weekend. Men also face poor job prospects (it’s almost impossible to get into a “good” school or get a “good” job) and a more or less pointless existence in a country that has been occupied by the USA since 1945. I’m not excusing their rightward shift, I’m just trying to provide a little perspective. People there are generally in favor of the DPRK (leaving it alone, at the very least) but they hate Japan, China, and the USA. Rightwing presidents tend to end their careers in prison; liberal presidents usually give money to the DPRK and are therefore better than standard Western liberals. Even if South Korea is part of the imperial core, it’s right at the edge, and has come very close to a successful lasting communist revolution multiple times since 1945.
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but have you considered that it’s nicer to be a wealthy man in South Korea, as long as you hate your fellow human beings?
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Thank you for the insight. It’s hard for me to figure out what the day to day is amidst heavily curated exported cultural product. (Parasite notwithstanding
)
Damn that was eye opening for me at least.