(Meet me at the wall: “God damn you, pores! How I hate you so!”)
Announcements
— Extras needed Nov. 30 – Dec. 2 for what will be Korea’s best SF film ever! (Brutal Rice Productions; also available in Korean)
— Update: Free beer and pizza provided!
— Rubber Seoul, Saturday, December 1
— Richard and Andrew Fiedler are Missing 리차드 피들러,앤드류 피들러 실종
Body Image, Health
— Korean women outlive men by 7 years: U.N. (The Korea Herald)
— Strict Dress Code of Female Employees (Human Rights Monitor)
— ‘Am I pretty?’ Korean teens look online for answers (The Korea Times)
— Cosmetics and K-pop Idolatry (Seoulbeats)
— Korean Beauty Standard (Korean Mom Lily’s Life Style)
— Discovering Korean perceptions of beauty in Seoul (Beyond Hallyu)
— Six out of Ten Adults Don’t Exercise in S. Korea (KBS)
— Taken a-back by the lack of S/mile-legs (J-Popping)
— 72-year-old grandfather models women’s clothes, becomes internet sensation (Shanghaiist)
— The shock of the (male) nude (BBC)
— Men May Have Body Image Issues, But They Don’t Even Come Close to What Women Go Through (Jezebel)
— Muscular Body Image Lures Boys Into Gym, and Obsession (The New York Times)
— Pumped Up Kids: New report shows adolescents hit the gym (and the steroids) in search of muscles (Bitch)
Censorship, Media
— Activist Says Porn Helps Men And is Unrelated to Sex Crimes (Korea BANG)
— Confessions of Paid Political Trolls in South Korea (Global Voices)
— Microsoft to suspend XBox Live service to minors from Nov 27 (The Marmot’s Hole)
— Twitter user gets suspended sentence for North Korea retweets (The Hankyroeh; The New York Times; Korea Realtime)
— Court rules in favor of netizen who posted video of Kim Yu-na (The Hankyroeh)
— Sohee Sues for Slander (Seoulbeats)
— In South Korea, student journalists can fill the gaps (Asian Correspondent)
— The Problem of Introducing Korea Overseas (Korea: Circles and Squares)
— Gov’t Agencies Splash Out on Celebrity Promoters (The Chosun Ilbo)
— See guys, Japanese netizens are just as psychotic! (Asian Junkie)
Crime
— Police reinforce teams to prevent sex crimes (The Korea Times)
Dating, Relationships, Marriage
— Fewer international couples getting married, more getting divorced (The Hankyoreh)
— Why I Married a Korean (From Korea With Love)
— Kids’ Wedding Prospects Cause Parents Serious Pain (The Chosun Ilbo)
— Why Lee Byun Hun is not a nice person (update: or a pervert) (I’m No Picasso)
— Chinese IT Company Offers ‘Love Bonus’ To Encourage Employees To Hook Up With Each Other (The Huffington Post)
— Dating Tips for Asian American Women (Radical Ramblings)
Education, Parenting, Demographics
— Challenging Korean and Foreign Stereotypes of English Teachers (I’m No Picasso; see also here, here, here, and here)
— Former foreign English teacher spreads Korean culture in New York, invited to Korea (Gusts of Popular Feeling)
— Multicultural kids still got it rough: Ye Olde Chosun (The Marmot’s Hole)
— A Korean Depiction of a Multicultural Family: Papa (Seoulbeats)
— Where you live affecting where you go to school (Human Rights Monitor)
— Adventures in Parenting Abroad Pt. 4: Please Please Please Reproduce! We’ll Give You Anything You Want! (The Three Wise Monkeys)
— Number of students forecast to nearly halve by 2050 (The Korea Herald)
— After a long preference for sons, it’s a girl generation (Korea Joongang Daily)
— Unnatural selection: The social dilemmas arising from China’s one-child policy (Aljazeera)
Economics, Politics, Workplaces, Ladygate
— How Korea Insults Women (Scribblings of the Metropolitician)
— Women lawyers ride high on World Cup (The Korea Times; The Hankyoreh)
— Do you know if there’s any sort of movement in South Korea to do away with mandatory military service? (Angry K-Pop Fan)
— Obstacles faced by Korean women (Korea Joongang Daily)
— S. Korea’s No. 1 social problem: the second-class status of women (I’m No Picasso)
— South Koreans Receive Fewer Paid Vacations, Says Survey (Korea BANG)
— Book Excerpt: ‘Northern Girls’ by Sheng Keyi (Asia Society)
— Women in China Leadership Fewer Than Under Mao: Chart of the Day (Bloomberg)
Gangnam Style
— Anish Kapoor Goes ‘Gangnam Style’ for Ai Weiwei (Scene Asia)
— “Gangnam Style” MV nominated for People’s Choice Award (MTVK)
— PSY’s Performance on the AMA (Omona They Didn’t)
— GLEE goes Gangnam Style (Omona They Didn’t)
— Things I Thought I’d Never See: A Dude Rapping In Korean At The American Music Awards (Disgrasian)
— Aaand it happened: Gangnam Style breaks Gee consecutive win record on MB (Omona They Didn’t)
— Hey, Sexy Lady: Hyuna, Kpop’s Gangnam Style (Omona They Didn’t)
— Psy Chats & Performs Worldwide Hit Gangnam Style On The Jonathan Ross Show 10/11/12 (Youtube)
— Psy will fade and SNSD will thrive, says paper as Psy closes the American Music Awards (Asian Junkie)
LGBT, Sexuality
— Damage Control, What Damage Control? (Seoulbeats)
— The Beautiful Daughter: How My Korean Mother Gave Me the Courage to Transition (The Huffington Post)
— Korean Culture Through K-pop 102: Let’s Talk About Sex (Seoulbeats)
— How Many Women are Involved in the Korean Sex Trade? (Gusts of Popular Feeling)
— Life in Korea: adult product stores in Korea (Travel Wire Asia)
— Perceived as a Prostitute on the streets of Seoul (Mapping Worlds)
— Reading List: Gay/Poet/Korea: An Interview with Gabriel Sylvian on the Poetry of Gi Hyeong-do (The Kimchi Queen)
— Queer Links from the Week (The Kimchi Queen)
— Hotels turning into centers for sex trade (The Korea Times)
— What happens to women denied abortions? This is the first scientific study to find out (i09)
Miscellaneous
— The Lady Divers of Jeju Island (Double Takes)
Pop Culture
— The Guardian writes about K-pop yet again, readers are not impressed (Beyond Hallyu; The Guardian)
— Blockbuster: 100 Million Go to South Korea Cinemas This Year (Korea Realtime)
— Lee Hi: What will K-pop do with her? (Frank Kogan)
— Will the Korean Pop Culture Boom Have Legs? (Speakeasy)
— Let’s Have a Much Needed Discussion About Anti-Blackness (지쳤다)
— South Korea: Bollywood’s Future Market? (The Diplomat)
— Can TV Make You a K-Pop Star? (Korea Realtime)
— “Hold Up! What Did You Just Sing?”: The 5 Worst K-Pop Boyfriends (The One Shots)
— Gangnam Style isn’t a one-off – Major music industry report says future pop sensations will be YouTube-driven globalised acts from Asia and South America (The Independent)
— Spinning the Great K-pop Wheel (Seoulbeats)
— Film Festival Highlight: Eungyo – A poet looks into his glass (London Korea Links)
— Review: The Taste of Money (YAM Magazine)
— Nine Muses to Star in K-pop Exposé Documentary (MTVK)
Social Problems
— Church? Volunteer Organization? Cult? The Nebulous World of Korean Religious Movements (The Three Wise Monkeys)
— A Vicious Cycle of the Passing Down Poverty (Human Rights Monitor)
— Corruption in Korea: What is the Crux of the Problem? by Tom Coyner (The Asian Law Blog)
— When Tom Coyner was a Peace Corps volunteer, he found the root of Korean corruption was lying in the farming villages (Occidentalism)
— Corruption Not to End Soon in Korea: Why? (The Asian Law Blog)
(Links are not necessarily endorsements)
The Grand Narrative 
Isn’t it hugely problematic that the ‘여성부’ is named as it is and does so many stupid things that ‘solidarity for men’ activists can come out with arguments you can’t help but support and that many people just associate those dumb policies with the ‘여성’ part .
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Well, actually it’s the 여성가족부, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and it’d overwhelmingly be the inane censorship by its Youth Protection Committee that gives the Ministry its reputation. But yeah, I hear you, and I don’t think the Man of Korea guys care for the distinction.
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To the point, the 여성가족부 has been abused and used for some pretty non-feminist ends by the 이명박 administration. It still does not mean that the 남성연대 and their kin have arguments that need any support from reasonable people.
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Good point, especially its support for the (re)criminalization of abortion. Just to play Devil’s Advocate though (not that I’m saying you disagree with my next), and expand on our point about it being abused by the 이명박 administration, I’ve often wondered to what if any extent the organization could really challenge 이명박’s edicts, especially as he originally pledged to abolish it, and until the family part was (re)added it was a very marginal Ministry, with only 0.5% of the total government budget (expanded to 2.0% with the family addition). Having said that, my mental image of a group of plucky feminists there, very uncomfortable with what they have to do, may be completely inaccurate and naive really. For all I know, it’s full of 이명박 yes-(wo)men and cronies!
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Well, whatever you think about 남성연대 generally, they are right about this the “war” on pornography. Why exactly “regular” (for want of a better word) pornography is being conflated with sex crimes against children is beyond me.
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