Between my insomnia because of the heat, all my other writing projects, and running out of time to enjoy my summer break with my family (I haven’t even taken my daughters swimming yet!), I’ve decided I need a short break from blogging sorry. But just for about 2 weeks, and everyone’s more than welcome to raise and discuss anything Korean, feminist, sexuality, pop-culture etc. related here in the meantime — I’ll still be around to chat, and will be tweeting and posting links on the blog’s Facebook page as per normal.
So, have a good summer everyone, and please say hi if any of you are in Busan!^^
Update — Christal Phillips, a visiting professor at Yonsei University, has asked me to pass on the following:
I am writing a paper on biracial people in Korea and have created a brief survey for parents of biracial children in Korea as well as biracial Koreans. If this applies to you, please fill out the survey and pass it along to your friends and co-workers: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LZJNRJB Thank you for your assistance.”
I can confirm that it just takes 5-10 minutes, and participants will be entered into a draw for a $25 Starbucks gift card.
The Grand Narrative 
From omona:
Note how Choi senior skillfully combines Bible bashing, homophobia, anti-Japanese sentiment and Korean nationalist megalomania in one classy package.
Note also that he seems oblivious to the potential consequences of his remarks for his son’s career (and personal safety) in Japan. To quote an omona comment, “Yes, go on an anti-Japan bible rant while your son is in Japan performing in front of thousands of people.”
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Thanks. Here’s Asian Junkie’s take on it also.
Do you know if SM Entertainment and/or Siwon have actually tried to distance themselves from Kiho Choi’s comments? If they don’t louldy and visibly do so (and Siwon himself is known for homophobic comments, right?), then they kinda deserve the hit to their brand image, although not of course to the group’s personal safety.
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Where do you see homophobia there?
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You have to follow the links. Seems he tweeted, “Sad to hear that legalization of marriage between homosexuality is issued in presidential election in USA. Where is righteousness in Bible!” in May.
Side note: Isn’t Siwon famous for saying dumb/offensive crap too? I Googled “Siwon sexist” but most of the results were for “Siwon sexiest.” Google is a fan, apparently.
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You’re right, there wasn’t any gay-bashing in the Korea-is-the-greatest-country-because-we-have-GOD posts.
As for Siwon, I think he has made anti-gay remarks as well. I can’t remember if it was he who tweeted “No homo!” to make clear that embracing and kissing other men does not mean that you are gay, but he certainly does indulge in “bromance”.. (See Asian Junkie for helpful examples.)
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Thanks Marilyn for clarifying.
Chill Gag, you didn’t include the quote in your original but you labeled him so. This is the first I heard of the guy and don’t really care about Super Junior or what any of the parents have to say very much at all. I was just asking for clarification.
I understand it is somewhat of a popular belief for a portion of Christians in South Koera that think their allegiance to Christ has been the reason for Korea’s prosperity. That’s not really a surprise, prosperity gospel seems to be worldwide in certain Christian circles. Some of my Korean friends have told me that some people go to church because they think it will be bring them wealth. Has anyone heard similar things from friends?
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J.T. = JPhill9990, sorry for the confusion…auto entry on the form..
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Hi, does your blog have a “search” bar? I can’t find it, and I’m trying to find articles, if any, about Korea+masculinity.
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Sorry – I overlooked that when I switched to the new theme. I’ve just added one to the 3rd sidebar, although – grr – that sidebar isn’t available on individual posts I’m afraid.
Either way, I haven’t written quite as much about Korean masculinity as I would have liked, partially because I naturally find women much more interesting, and partially because a few years ago I was actually all set to write a thesis on the origins of the kkotminam phenomenon (꽃미남; lit. “flower beauty man”), but had to give that up because of family circumstances. I did write a lot about it on the blog though, so if you search “kkotminam” and scroll back there are many posts on it from 2009 and 2010.
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Awesome! Thank you so much. Sounds like it would have been a very interesting thesis. I’ve been very intrigued by the Flower Boy phenomenon since becoming more aware of Korean popular culture; I look forward to reading the related blog posts.
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If you haven’t already, consider buying Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption: Yonsama, Rain, Oldboy, K-pop Idols by Sun Jung (2010) too. It’s a little academic, and much too long, but it’s still essential reading on the subject, and soooo much better than my rambling, incoherent posts from back then.
(Disclaimer: the author is a friend of a friend!)
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Also, WordPress’s search function isn’t the best sorry. If you’re specifically interested in kkotminam then, I’d recommend this post for the gist; which links to this post where I discuss how I came up with the original idea (but, at 5100 words, is very rambly, tangential, and at least 3000 words too long); this not half-bad post – at last! – in which I discuss the 1990s cultural/sexuality background; this article I wrote for the Korea Times in 2009; and finally this follow-up to that.
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Wow! I’ll definitely try and check out Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption. I’m quite used to overly long academic books, and in my recent post-undergraduate state find that I actually miss them, so that shouldn’t deter me :) I’ve only in the past semester developed a real interest in this area, and it’s mostly born out of random curiosity/spending lots of time with media theory for academic purposes and lots of time with K-pop for fun purposes, thus a sort of melding of the two. Thank you for the specific links!
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