(Sources; left, right)

Not quite enough for another post in my “Reading the Lolita Effect in Korea” series, but a good example of what I discuss there: 18 year-old Sulli, one of the maknaes of the girl-group f(x), shows far less skin in her latest photoshoot for Oh Boy! magazine than she did 3 years ago! (Hat tip to @mellowyel).

Meanwhile, next week I’m giving a presentation in Seoul; have a magazine article to write; one daughter starting school, the other changing kindergartens; the start of the next semester at my university; and so on (seriously, I really could go on!), so I’ll be much too busy to post again until the week after next sorry. Until then, I hope the stories below keep you occupied, and please remember that Friday, March 8 is my birthday International Women’s Day, with various events happening in Gwangju and Seoul. If readers know of any more, please let me know!

Saturday

— Stephen Epstein: Korea’s indie rock scholar (Korea.net)

— Glass ceiling outlasts Madam President (The Korea Herald)

— Citizen Brock: South Korea considers a Canadian (Asian Correspondent)

— 13 Photos From Taiwan’s First Same-Sex Buddhist Marriage (Peppermint Kiss)

— Ask the Yangxifu: Does He Like Me? Signs a Chinese Man Might Be Into You (Speaking of China)

Sunday

— American teacher in Japan under fire for lessons on Japan’s history of discrimination (The Washington Post; The Marmot’s Hole)

— Park Si-hoo and Sexual Assault in K-entertainment (Seoulbeats)

— Did Sunny Days’ company use Jung Soo Jung’s sexual harassment to promote the group? (Asian Junkie)

— Police under controversy for asking intrusive questions to gang rape victim (Netizen Buzz; more cases here)

— What’s going on with Rainbow’s “concept”? (Frank Kogan)

Monday

— Hongdae club day lewd party incident (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Eight Years of Living Together as an Unmarried Heterosexual Couple (Ilda)

— “Korea is a paradise” for foreign instructors (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— “Little Mom” Program in Gwangju: Stigma or Support? (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Leftovers: unmarried Chinese women over 25 (The Guardian)

Tuesday

— How Demography Is Changing Japan (The Diplomat)

— K-pop trainees have a 0.1% chance of debuting (Netizen Buzz)

— Korean plastic surgery ads from the 1970s (Möüth)

— Resources on censorship in the Korean music industry (Angry K-Pop Fan)

— Truth, Lies and Propaganda: The North Korean hoax that backfired (NK News)

Wednesday

— Beijing Lesbian Couple Seeking Marriage Registration Refused (chinaSMACK)

— More Than Half of Korean Nurses Report Being Sexually Harassed or Assaulted by Doctors and Patients (Idle Worship; The Marmot’s Hole)

— Female population predicted to surpass males by 2016 (Netizen Buzz)

— Migrant Women Still Suffer Discrimination (The Chosun Ilbo)

— SKorea’s 1st female leader yet to hire many women (AP)

Thursday

— Japan’s ‘Women Only’ Train Cars: Is it a Crime for Men to Ride? (Rocketnews24)

— On Death, Dying, and Funerals in Korea (Seoul Searching)

— 1 in 5 Korean men to die single (The Korea Herald)

— K-pop’s Guns: Sexy, Cool and Harmless? (Seoulbeats)

— Investigation into “foreign instructors’ methods for luring Korean women” (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Friday

— Why are there so many trainees involved in celebrity scandals? (Netizen Buzz)

— Broadcast announcement: ‘For foreign instructors, is Korea a paradise for women?’ (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— The (Daycare) Wonder Years (Lee’s Korea Blog)

— Korean cosmetics enjoy popularity in China thanks to Korean pop culture (Yonhap)

— Plastic surgery, ‘Gangnam-style’ (Global Post)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source: unknown)

Sorry for the lack of posts — the one I’m working on is proving much more involved (and several thousand more words!) than I expected. But I will have it up early sometime next week, and will try to make it worth the wait :)

Announcements

— Legal NGO Filing Complaint with UN Regarding E2 HIV Testing: Your input needed! (Expat Hell; Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Casting call for an independent short film, Seoul, Sunday February 24 (Seoul Players)

Saturday

— 3 Sisters Left Abandoned in the Basement (Human Rights Monitor)

— Ask the Yangxifu: Why Your Chinese Wedding Ceremony Will Always Be Big, Fat and Loud (Speaking of China)

— CathyCat tries to sell their product by making miss A’s Fei look like CGI (Asian Junkie)

— Queer Links from the Week (The Kimchi Queen)

— HIV/AIDS Increasing in Osaka (Visual Anthropology of Japan)

Sunday

— Why do Asian women have smaller breasts? (The New York Times; Netizen Buzz)

— As Families Change, Korea’s Elderly Are Turning to Suicide (The New York Times; Korea Economic Reader)

— Do some Korean fans of K-pop purposefully keep information from overseas ones? (Angry K-Pop Fan)

— How can Korea provide better child care? (The Korea Herald)

— Koreans finding noisy neighbours harder to handle (The Korea Times; Global Voices)

Monday

— (Video) Korea Today: The Economist Sues Korean Hagwon (Arirang TV)

— Singapore’s Population Debate Grows Heated (The Diplomat)

— Japanese dual surname law has more opponents (The Daily Yomiuri)

— Wuhan student’s same-sex love story a hit on Youku (Want China Times)

— Korean lawmaker who exposed Samsung corruption forced from office (The Verge; The Marmot’s Hole)

Tuesday

— Are foreign English teachers in Korea foreigners, expats, guest workers, or immigrants? (I’m No Picasso; update)

— Korean Work Ethic and the Quality of Life (My Musings)

— Seven-year-old Park Min Ha has an anti-cafe, which means we’ve reached a new low (Asian Junkie)

— On Bainian — Chinese New Year’s Calls — And Those Annoying Questions From Relatives (Speaking of China)

— Sunny (2008): Representations of Militarism, Masculinity, and the Korean Experience of the Vietnam War (Peace and Conflict Monitor)

Wednesday

— Park Si Hoo accused of sexual assault, netizens reveal ugly double standard (Asian Junkie; Update 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

— Say Goodbye to the Wonder Years: Leaving K-Pop Behind (The One Shots)

— Film documents the troubled lives of Japan’s male porn stars (The Tokyo Reporter)

— Suggestions For The Future: Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition (Racialicous)

— Korean retirees make pittance delivering things via free subway trips (Arari)

Thursday

— China’s ‘leftover women’, unmarried at 27 (BBC)

— Roundtable: Can’t Resist the Aegyo (Seoulbeats)

— Female lawmakers emerging in South Korea (The Asahi Shimbun)

— In Defense of (Korean) Hazing (Sorry, I was drunk)

— 2012 drug crime statistics (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Friday

— [ASK AKF] K-pop fanart and fanfiction (Angry K-Pop Fan)

— Prostitution in Korea: Disturbing public order vs. earning A living (Human Rights Monitor)

— Incorrect statistics portray Americans and Canadians as more prone to criminality (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— There IS life after girl-group failure (Netizen Buzz)

— Something to appreciate: Korean rap is not more sexist, more profanity-ridden, homophobic, or full of hate than other Korean music (Footnotes)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

Rather than me decorate this post with some random Korean and/or gender-related image this week, let me pass on one of something far more useful: a screenshot of the webpage for f.lux, a small and easily-installable computer program which softens your computer screen’s brightness after sunset. Found via the comments thread to this article at io9, about how using computer screens — designed to be as bright as the sun — at night is screwing up our sleep, I’ve been using it for about 10 days now, and it’s already done wonders for my tired eyes at least.

Click here to download it, and fellow geeks and amateur astronomers may also be interested in this post at ScienceBlogs, which explains some of the science behind it.

p.s. Unfortunately, it’s unavailable for Android (although it is available for the iPhone and iPad); if anybody knows an equivalent that is, please please please let me know!

p.p.s. If you have problems with the program dimming at the wrong time, like I did, go to your Control Panel and check you’re set to the right time zone, despite what you’ve set your computer’s clock to. Once I changed it, this also cleared up 5 years of frustrating, weirdly-timed emails for me!

Announcements:

— Free Movie Tickets to White Night and short films Suddenly Last Summer and Going South (The Kimchi Queen)

— Seoul Players run V-Day contests and events (Seoul Players; The Korea Herald)

— International Women’s Day in Gwangju (Facebook Group)

Saturday

— “How My Mother Sees My Friends” and “How Others See ‘My Couple’” (Gord Sellar)

— From the Archives: Embarrassing Moments with Chinese Characteristics (Speaking of China)

— [WTF] Journalist mistakes viral video of sexual assault as ‘public display of skinship between a couple’ (Netizen Buzz)

— Deaf people look at me as weird for being gay. Gay people look at me weird for being deaf. (The Kimchi Queen)

— Starbucks baristas writing “외국인” on your cup? (I’m No Picasso)

Sunday

— Police Say More Japanese Women Becoming Human Trafficking Victims (Japan Subculture Research Center)

— Netizens dig up proof of ‘Laws of the Jungle’ being staged (Netizen Buzz; update)

— 7 year old actress Park Min Ha found to have an anti cafe.. industry senses urgency for child protection laws (Netizen Buzz)

— A Letter from a South Korean Sex Worker (Research Project Korea)

— Bush & Baths (Alana in Wanderlust)

Monday

— Surviving Senior Year in a Korean High School (and getting into SKY) (3WM)

— General Conscript Life (Sorry, I Was Drunk)

— K-pop Fanfiction: The Disturbing Truth (Beyond Hallyu)

— Is It Okay for Parents to Lie to Their Kids? China’s Parents Say Yes (The Atlantic)

— On Our Radar: Mixed Weight Relationships (Thick Dumpling Skin)

Tuesday

— Minah asks her label CEO to lift Girl’s Day’s ban on dating (Allkpop)

— Chinese women largest group of marriage immigrants (The Korea Herald)

— Dating Korean men according to Waygook (I’m No Picasso)

— Minami 2 (Frank Kogan)

— Foreigners love, threaten, and owe apology to Korea (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Wednesday

— In the 2013 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, Chinese people are exotic props (Shanghaiist)

— Conservative Netizens Mock Death of Singer, Cause Controversy (KoreaBANG; Asian Junkie; funeral)

— The Hidden Meaning Behind Peeling an Apple (Geek in Heels)

— Idols revealed to be paid $2 USD/hr for ‘IAC’ attendance… is it worth the injuries? (Netizen Buzz; update)

— Women should lead more start-ups (Korea Joongang Daily)

Thursday

— Gendered Degradation Ceremony in J-pop Group AKB48 (Sociology in Focus)

— Growing Pains for North Korean Defector Teens: Some integration issues are cultural, others are just a fact of life (NK News.org)

— Govt: Hey, About Those Headlines on Youth Unemployment (Korea Realtime)

— Pants vs. skirts: Flight attendants fight for choice (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Hallyu’s Appeal to Asia… No, The Other Asia (Seoulbeats)

Friday

— Celebrating Valentine’s Day in Japan (Sociological Images)

— Entertainer on talk show talks about using rhythm method with wife (Allkpop)

— Review: Sistar19 – Gone Not Around Any Longer (Selective Hearing)

— You know what conscripts in general do, but do you know what it feels like? (Sorry, I was drunk)

— Several pics show G-Dragon wearing what appears to be a Nazi medal... (Angry K-Pop Fan)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

Sorry I haven’t posted anything this week folks; I’ve gotten just a little too lost in my offline writing work and research this vacation. But with only 3 weeks left of the semester break though, I’m slowly returning to a more normal schedule, and will try to start posting more regularly from next week.

Until then, have a good 설날 everyone, and make sure not to miss Bittersweet Joke, a documentary about unwed mothers in Korea, playing on BBC World at 6:30pm, Saturday Feb 9. See Tales of Wonderlost for the details.

Saturday

— What do Jack Nicholson and Co-Ed School have in common? (Angry K-Pop Fan)

— Sexual harassment education in cartoon form (ILDA)

— Everything you ever wanted to know about aegyo (My First Love Story)

— The reality of the Korean acting industry as told by an anonymous actor of 10 years (Netizen Buzz)

— South Korea slips lower in press freedom index (Asian Correspondent; Global Voices; The Marmot’s Hole; koreaBANG)

Sunday

— Nudes in Korean art (The Korea Herald)

— The (Korean) Military Doesn’t Get Respect (Sorry, I Was Drunk)

— Peaceshannon’s Conference Speech on Korea’s Special Adoption Law (Tales of Wonderlost)

— Why Are We Still Talking About Sunye’s Non-pregnancy? (Seoulbeats)

— Rapist of 8-year-old in Naju sentenced to life in jail (Korea Joongang Daily)

Monday

— Alternative living in Korea: 3 women philosophers farming in the woods (ILDA)

— “It is no surprise that Asian women are the most popular women of color in porn…” (Phenomenology/Intervention)

— AKB48 member’s ‘penance’ shows flaws in idol culture (The Japan Times; The Guardian; Asian Junkie, 1, 2, 3, 4; io9; Frank Kogan; The Atlantic)

— Government Report: Korea Ranked #1 for Sex with Minors in Southeast Asia (Idle Worship)

— Park Geun-Hye & Fashion: Still HATE this Double Standard (Korean Gender Cafe)

Tuesday

— Korea still has too few women execs (The Korea Herald)

— The “Room Thing” And Other Indirect Chinese References to Sex (Speaking of China)

— Actress Kim Nam Joo praised for admitting that she starves to maintain her perfect figure (Netizen Buzz; Korean women in their late 20s miss avg. 4.5 meals a month)

— Villages paying parents to have more children (The Hankyoreh)

— Korean plastic surgeon shares his views on industry regulations (South China Morning Post)

Wednesday

— U.S. Increases Crackdown on Chinese and Korean Birth Tourism “Maternity Hotels” (Idle Worship)

— Getting an HIV/AIDS check in Seoul (The Kimchi Queen)

— Korean government to push passage of anti-discrimination bill (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Hwang Woo-seok extracted ovaries without patients’ knowledge or consent (ILDA)

— Gay Korean Actor Reveals Coming Out Struggles (The Kimchi Queen; E News World; Global Voices)

Thursday

— K-pop’s Not All Gold and Diamonds, Boy (Seoulbeats)

— South Korean Flight Attendants Fight for the Right to Wear Pants (Jezebel; The Seattle Times; The Huffington Post)

— An estimated 16 million Chinese women are married to gay men & don’t know it (Bloomberg)

— Why Girls Love “Boys’ Love”: The World of K-Pop Fanfiction (The One Shots)

— The 2005 English Spectrum Incident Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder’s statement (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Friday

— “I Got A Boy” & SNSD In-Flux (The Mind Reels)

— The emergence of K-pop: a history from Lee to Gee (Koreanology)

— Screenings of White Night, Suddenly Last Summer and Going South with English Subtitles (The Kimchi Queen)

— Suzy crowned the CF queen of 2012 (Omona They Didn’t)

— QROK Radio: the only radio station in English by, for and about the GLBTQ community (The Kimchi Queen)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)