Time for a Change!
( Source )
I won’t bore you with the details, but just a quick note to let you know that after receiving some atrocious service from WordPress.com recently, I’ve decided to host this blog myself from now on.
Yes, I’m surprised it took me so long too.
Apologies in advance for any problems that may arise as I go to town playing with new themes and plugins make the transition over the next week or so then, and for those of you that subscribe to the RSS feed, please note that the old thegrandnarrative.wordpress.com one will no longer work once I’ve finished sorry. Those of you that already use the thegrandnarrative.com one though, shouldn’t have any problems.
Meanwhile, I’ll still be posting as normal, and if anyone can recommend a web hosting service and/or give any advice about making the transition from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, then that would be really appreciated!
Korean Sociological Image #54: Sex & Drugs
(Source: Focus {Busan ed.}, 08.12.2010, p. 17)
As we all know, if you’re a real man, then you couldn’t care less about what painkiller to use.
But to be precise, the ad actually says dansoonhan men (단순한남자). Which usually translates as “simple” in English, but probably best would be “straightforward” in this case.
Forgive me though, for still considering myself just as smart (dokdokhae;똑똑해) as the woman in the ad. After all, I too wear glasses sometimes.
How am I supposed to choose a painkiller then? Or – heaven forbid – straightforward women for that matter?
Alas, the ad gives no clue:
Methods of choosing a painkiller – Men vs. Women
Straightforward men [choose] without thinking.
As for smart women…because it’s a liquid, its effects are fast. This is EZN6.
Liquid Form…[They need to] think about if it will decrease the burden on the stomach or not
[They need to] carefully think about if it contains caffeine or not
And at the very least, it certainly doesn’t discourage the notion that looking after one’s body is really something only women should do. Unlike most products that are marketed very differently to each sex though (see here, here, here, here, and here for more Korean examples), the irony here is that there’s now a wealth of evidence to suggest that painkillers that work on one sex can be ineffective or even increase pain on the other. In the near-future, there may well be completely different painkillers developed for men and women.
And when they are, then yes: I’d wager that they’re going to be pink and blue too.
You’re in for a world of hurt Neo! (Source)
When that day arrives though, do you think Daewoong Pharmaceutical (대웅제약) will simply come up with 2 versions of the ad, each only featuring one sex? Or will ads for men continue to emphasize simplicity, but those for women stressing how they’d have even more things to consider?
My money’s on the latter…!
(For all posts in the Korean Sociological Images series, see here)
Is Divorce in Korea Finally Socially Acceptable?
(Source)
Sorry for the lack of posts recently, and the very short notice with this one, but in an hour from now (7:45pm Korean time) I’ll briefly be on 101.3 TBS eFM’s evening show, talking about the title topic. For the details, see here, and note that unfortunately you can only listen live on Internet Explorer sorry.
Update - Well, that was a little embarrassing: because of a miscommunication, technical problem, and/or a last minute editorial decision, I didn’t actually get called in the end!
But for anyone still interested in the subject though, then I was going to mention that while on the one hand the stigma surrounding divorce is certainly disappearing over time, with 1 in 4 marriages now involving a divorcee and in particular both the numbers of women remarrying and their rate of increase outstripping those of men, on the other hand the profoundly gendered effects of the recent economic crisis here have left Korean women more financially reliant on their husbands than ever, as explained at #2 here, here, and #15 here.
Meanwhile, see here for more information on both the high rates and the practicalities of getting a divorce in Korea, and here for more on the hoju or family-registry system (호주), which had a huge role in drawing attention to people’s marital status (or parents’ status) and consequently being able to discriminate against them on that basis. Moreover, although that has recently been abolished, one final point I was going to make was that unfortunately that’s just one of many superfluous things corporations take into account in their hiring practices, as demonstrated here, at #8 here, here, here, and here, and so it’s probably going to take a while before Korean business culture catches up with the social reality.
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