(Sources: left, right)

As I type this, I’ve just returned from having a vacuum cleaner stuck in my ear — an opening line I hereby copyright, just in case I do ever start that novel.

Seriously though, the procedure itself was mercifully painless and brief. But, it came after one trip to an incompetent dentist this week, then two to a much better ear, nose, and throat doctor. Add all the ibuprofen I’ve been taking too, then I didn’t have much time or concentration left for posts this week sorry.

There will be one next week soon about objectification and SISTAR though (specifically, SISTAR19), whom I’d be happy and grateful to hear your thoughts on as I finish writing this weekend. Or, on Camile Paglia, who’s Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992) — a collection of short, impactful magazine articles — has just blown me away since picking up a copy in Seoul a few weeks ago. I didn’t need to think twice about making her my first official writing role model, and am already calculating average sentence word counts!^^

Announcements

— All is Well in Gwangju Vagina World (Gwangju Blog)

Saturday

— For transgender Koreans, sex change not about organs, but “a question of life and death” (The Hankyoreh)

— Dear Mr. PD, Give Me a Break! Female bodies on K-pop TV shows (Beyond Hallyu)

— ‘Leftover’ men of China: You’re okay (as long as you’re rich) (Shanghaiist)

— There is now a stereotype for psychics in Korean cinema (Gord Sellar)

— Queer Links from the Week (The Kimchi Queen)

Sunday

— Does Peer Pressure Ever Discourage Dating Differently? (Speaking of China)

— Japanese Women Take Command, Finally (TIME)

— The Korean Baby Box: What makes single moms give up their babies? (South Korean Human Rights Monitor)

— Korean Subway Sexual Harassment Prevention Tips Constrict Women’s Behavior (ILDA)

— Romantic North Korea: Comrade Kim Goes Flying (The Wall Street Journal)

Monday

— Women warriors break down barriers across Asia (The Nation)

— Has there really been a drop in Japanese suicides or should we look at it as a drop in homicides? (Japan Subculture Research Center)

— In a Room Full of Naked Koreans, Margaret Cho’s Body Is an Unwelcome Sight (Jezebel)

— 5 K-hiphop Producers You Shouldn’t Miss Out On (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Is immigration at sustainable levels? (The Korea Herald)

Tuesday

— Flight Attendants Can Now Wear Pants, but the Question Remains, Does Sex Sell Anyway? (Busan Haps)

— The Big Fat Post About Weight, Women, and Body Image in K-Pop (The One Shots)

— Korea drama’s breastfeeding scene under controversy for being ‘too sexually suggestive’ (Netizen Buzz)

— Chinese crackdown begins on illegal reproductive clinics (China Daily)

— Soo Joo Park Doesn’t Want to Be Typecast As an Asian Model (The Cut)

Wednesday

— The March 1st Independence Movement, Led By Teenage Girls (ILDA; Part 2)

— What do you do when you discover your husband of nine years is gay? A new Taiwanese rom-com (Scene Asia)

— “Censorship has had a long and storied history in South Korea” (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Crackdown brings to light China’s lucrative black-market reproductive clinics (Shanghaiist)

— Korean Teenagers Go Online to Find Random ‘Ghost Friends’(koreaBANG)

Thursday

— Kodansha & AKB48′s Kasai Tomomi cleared of child porn charges cause nobody cares anymore (Asian Junkie)

— Women in Combat? Old Hat, in North Korea (TIME)

— North Korean Defector Working as Prostitute Found Dead in Motel (koreaBANG)

— “Why is it that even completely American Korean-Americans get one whiff of Korean culture and then are obsessed with it like there is no tomorrow?” (Ask a Korean!)

— Park Si Hoo’s Sexual Assault Case: A Timeline Of What We Know So Far (Asian Junkie)

Friday

— This is why there is only a 2.7% rate of success for adoptees that search for their families (Tales of Wonderlost; update)

— Korean Media Deliberately Exaggerates Foreigners’ Crime Rates (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Translation: Guidelines prepared for police to protect the rights of sexual minorities (The Kimchi Queen)

— Case of prolonged abuse shows the need to protect South Korea’s intellectually-disabled from sexual violence (The Hankyoreh)

— The Asia-Pacific may be home to 60% of the global population, but it only boasts 6% of the most beautiful female celebrities (The Diplomat)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(While you were sleeping 10 by Shin Sun Mi, 2011. Source)

Remember this picture? I’ll wager you do — after all, it was probably the most liked and highly-shared thing I’ve ever posted to the blog’s Facebook page. So, I’m sure many of you will be happy to learn that the artist is having an exhibition at the Gallery Sun Contemporary in Jongno until April 7th…

See here for the details, and thanks very much to Gomushin Girl for letting me know!

Announcements

— Art Workshop for V-day, GIC, Gwangju, 5:30pm, Saturday March 30th (No previous experience required!)

Saturday

— Landmark legal ruling for South Korean transgenders (The Hankyoreh)

— Zinni and crew hilariously not innocent on Music Bank (Frank Kogan)

— Queer Links from the Week (The Kimchi Queen)

— School administration shown to have responded poorly to signs of violence (The Hankyoreh)

— Perfect Match? North Korean Wives for South Korean men (NK News)

Sunday

— BBC’s Mariko Oi on the history education in Japan (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Japan’s nationalism targets hallyu stars (The Korea Times; also see “Japanese step up against anti-Korea demonstrations” at The Korea Herald and at koreaBANG)

— Women’s Bodies Given Away For Medical Experiments (ILDA)

— “Contract Marriages” Between Korean Gays and Lesbians (The Kimchi Queen)

— Chinese parents bemoan their children’s laziness and greed, but this generation of young people has had enough (aeon)

Monday

— Citizens’ choices of birth control made public in Dongguan (Shanghaiist)

— K-pop and Korean Political Unrest (Seoulbeats)

— Transsexual people can amend official gender without surgery, South Korean court rules (Gaystarnews)

— A new message from Anti English Spectrum (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Divorcing Your Chinese Spouse Doesn’t Mean A Divorce From China (Speaking of China)

Tuesday

— The ironies of South Korea’s “digital generation” (The Hankyoreh)

— South Korean Drama Actor Park Si-hoo in Rape Scandal (koreaBANG; A Koala’s Playground)

— The K-Pop Police (Youtube Video; Steve Miller)

— South Korea Expands Chemical Castration For Sex Offenders (Korea Realtime)

— On the uniqueness of ‘Jeong’ and my inability to understand even if I tried really really hard (Idle Worship; The Marmot’s Hole)

Wednesday

— Women’s lotions and potions in old Joseon (London Korea Links)

— Finding (and Documenting) Love in China (Scene Asia)

— Managers blackmail actor engaging in homosexual acts (Omona They Didn’t!)

— Caution, Don’t Feed the Fans! (Seoulbeats)

— Cross-Dressing Throughout History to Fit In (Slate)

Thursday

— China’s One-Child Policy Already Irrelevant? (Asia Society)

— Park Geun-hye & Fashion: A Late-comer to the Race to Ascribe Stereotypes to the President (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Wonju villa sex scandal keeps getting better (The Marmot’s Hole; koreaBANG)

— Here come the princesslings: will the daughters of China’s new leaders finally break the glass ceiling? (Shanghaiist)

— The Pregnant Murderer of Park Chorong-Chorong-Bitnari (Gord Sellar)

Friday

— Vietnam’s Gender Policies Take a Progressive Turn (The Diplomat)

— Sexual Harassment: It’s Not Just in the Seoul Streets (Tales of Wonderlost; update)

— New South Korean Law Might Make Miniskirts Illegal (koreaBANG; Omona They Didn’t)

— MTV’s Korean Drama Butterfly to Raise Awareness on Human Trafficking (The Diplomat)

— “Blogging in Korea for so long…I’m watching the exact same conversations happen all over again” (I’m No Picasso)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Frank Dicksee, 1902; source)

“This picture is fascinating to me because of its portrayal of a powerful female character who doesn’t fall into any of the typical modern ‘Strong Female Character’ cliches.

The woman is the powerful, sexually assertive and threatening figure here, while the man is the more passive figure, visibly vulnerable to her. However, this portrayal of a woman as assertive and powerful doesn’t rely either on sexualizing her or on presenting that power in masculine ways.”

(Kawabilia, via Peppermint Kiss)

Announcements

— Congratulations to Lee on the birth of his son Alex! (Lee’s Korea Blog; update)

— Bake Sale & Flea Market for The (Gwangju) Vagina Monologues at GIC on March 23 (KoreaMaria)

Saturday

— A review of Gaijin: Cultural Representations through Manga, 1930s-1950s, by Karl Ian Uy Cheng Chua (Dissertation Reviews)

— ‘Supporting unwed moms key to reducing adoption rate’ (The Korea Times)

— Queer Links from the Week (The Kimchi Queen)

— Cute Girls Finish First: Is aegyo a form of power? (Beyond Hallyu)

— Reading List: The Works of Alexander Chee (The Kimchi Queen)

Sunday

— Equal Opportunity Sexual Objectification in K-Pop (Footnotes)

— 2013 Blogs by Western Women Who Love Chinese Men (Speaking of China)

— Editor calls netizens out on their bullshit, netizens deny everything (Netizen Buzz)

— The Price of Marriage in China (The New York Times)

— Honors for female cadet at top military academy (Korea Joongang Daily)

Monday

— Confessions of a Fangirl: Exotics, You Guys Aren’t Half Bad (Seoulbeats)

— Is Korean defamation law too strict? (The Korea Herald)

— More disgust with gender stereotyping in Korean workbooks (Hagwon Style)

— Another student commits suicide over school violence (Netizen Buzz)

— On Int’l Women’s Day: Celebrated in China, Forgotten in America (Speaking of China)

Tuesday

— How valuable are stars in the Korean film industry? (Modern Korean Cinema)

— Alarming Lack Of Women Scientists In South Korea (Asian Scientist)

— Korean ‘Baby Box’ orphanage saves babies’ lives (Netizen Buzz)

— Korean single mothers in the eyes of Korean men (Loving Korean)

— North Korea attacks South Korea’s president’s ‘poisonous’ skirt (The Telegraph; The New York Times)

Wednesday

— Controversial Book on Abortion in South Korea Triggers Debate (koreaBANG)

— Military chaplain applicants rejected on ideological grounds (The Hankyoreh)

— South Korea Struggles To Rein in Bullying, Student Suicides (Korea Realtime)

— China’s top ten porn search terms might surprise you (SFW) (Shanghaiist; see Korea’s here and here)

— ‘Insufficient dress’ rule goes viral on Internet (Korea Joongang Daily)

Thursday

— Hating Sexual Minorities Is Not a “Right” (Ilda)

— Korea reels over the suicide of high school student as more info on his abuse is revealed (Netizen Buzz)

— The Secret Behind Girl Group Members’ Abs Is… (Soompi)

— What managers actually do behind the scenes (Netizen Buzz)

— Short Films: Suddenly Last Summer (지난 여름, 갑자기 ) and Going South (남쪽으로 간다) (The Kimchi Queen)

Friday

— Corporal Punishment Getting Punished in Japan; Don’t throw pens at the kids! (Japan Subculture Research Center)

— When Scandal Statements Go South (Seoulbeats)

— What’s in a Scandal? (Always Rational K-Pop)

— Plastic Island (The Korea Times)

— MUST READ: Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams (Arstechnica)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(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)

(Source)

Saturday

— Low South Korean birth rate shows signs of increasing (The Hankyoreh; ROK Drop)

— Kang Min-kyung’s Gillette CF: Possibly The Worst Thing Ever (Seoulbeats)

— Syringes, surgery and slaps: Thais suffer for K-pop beauty (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Why did men stop wearing high heels? (BBC)

— Yellow Face and Orientalism in the Media: Controlling What it Means to be Asian (Phenomenology/Intervention)

Sunday

— Reading List: The Lesbian Rights Movement and Feminism in South Korea (The Kimchi Queen)

— I can’t stop thinking about other people who can’t stop looking at Korean women (Feministing)

— Transgender students suffer discrimination in silence (The Hankyoreh)

— “I Didn’t Think Living as a Gay Man in Korea Would be This Hard” (Arari)

— How a Japanese Diplomat Saved 6,000 Jews from the Holocaust (Allegiance Musical)

Monday

— Korea’s Youth Divided Over Memories of Military Rule (koreaBANG)

— Dating Chinese Men: Sure, why not? (Life Behind the Wall)

— North Koreans don’t like women with big boobs: report (The Marmot’s Hole)

— There are “entire organizations of brokers and doctors dedicated to throwing perfectly fine, functioning people into mental hospitals against their will” (Netizen Buzz)

— “School 2013”: Fiction or Reality? (My Musings)

Tuesday

— Korean Hanbok vs Japanese Kimono – Epic Dress Battles of History (Kimchibytes)

— Top 10 stars with the most CFs in 2012 (Netizen Buzz)

— Meet the (Chinese) Parents (Speaking of China)

— Is it possible to be a die hard fan of k-pop idol culture without fetishization of Korean ethnicity? (Angry K-Pop Fan)

— “The Construction of the Feminine in Korean Popular Music: A Performance Analysis of “I AM: SMTown Live” and Multi-Artist Musical Variety Shows.” (Footnotes; update1; update2)

Wednesday

— Koreans ‘Biggest Clients of Prostitutes in Southeast Asia’ (The Chosun Ilbo)

— I Feel Pretty Unpretty: Why Anthea Shouldn’t Get Plastic Surgery (The Oneshots)

— Korea Times Perpetuates Beanpaste Girl Stereotype (The Korea Times)

— Statistics About Sexual Assault Within the Korean Military (ROK Drop; see my post “Sex as Power in the Korean Military” for some context)

— A Pink’s Eunji’s oranges controversy is the most I’ve ever seen Koreans care about traffic laws (Asian Junkie)

Thursday

— All the K-pop fans, where do they all come from? (Frank Kogan)

— Seoul’s 12 Best Gay Bars in Jongno (Discovering Korea)

— Foreign Women and Korean Men: Who’s objectifying and who’s objectified? (I’m No Picasso)

— Korean women shatter glass ceiling at foreign drugmakers (The Korea Times)

— Meditations on Junk, #1: Ugly Koreans/Ugly Americans (Gord Sellar)

Friday

— Having sex with a suspect: is it bribery? (Human Rights Monitor)

— KCSC censures comedians for satirizing Park Geun-hye (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Busan’s Hyeongjae Welfare Center-Another Example of 有錢無罪 無錢有罪 (Arari)

— On dating Chinese men… Are Chinese men the best kept secret? (YinYangJinFeng)

— Japan’s Demographic Disaster (The Diplomat)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(“Gender Programming” by Sinfest. Click on the image for the full strip)

The new, lite version. Sorry if anyone relied on the categories in the previous version, but 1) they were always pretty loose and arbitrary anyway (many stories could go into several), and 2) they didn’t really seem appropriate with me deliberately going for a good mix of subjects now, rather than simply collecting every story I came across. Grouping them into five at a time does make for easy mental navigation though (i.e., see what’s available for one day, move on to the next), and if you’re impatient it only takes about a minute (yes — I’ve timed!) to read the titles of all the thirty-five links available.

Enjoy!

Saturday

— On Dragon’s Dol (On Becoming a Good Korean Feminist Wife; Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

— Lawmakers moving to set a quota for women directors at public institutions (The Korea Herald)

— What are thigh gaps and why you probably aren’t going to get one from weight loss (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Korean Culture Through K-pop 102: Korean Nationalism Uncovered (Seoulbeats)

— Gay in Korea: an interview with an American expat living in Seoul (Mapping Words)

Sunday

— Realizing Park’s vision on gender equality (The Korea Herald)

— Why Westerners Screw Up Meeting Older Koreans (Meet me at the wall)

— The problematic social norms of “I Got a Boy” (My Musings)

— Netizens admit to being overly harsh with female stars (Netizen Buzz)

— Lee Hi Shocks Fans With Training Details (Omona They Didn’t!)

Monday

— Another Friend, Another Divorce in China (Speaking of China)

— The 2005 English Spectrum Incident, Part 10: ‘Recruit a Yankee strike force!’ (Gusts of Popular Feeling; Part 11; Part 19)

— Korean government’s glass ceiling is intact (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Kodansha is figuring out that using the kid in the nude photoshoot with Kasai Tomomi was a bad idea (Asian Junkie; NSFW?)

— South Korea’s college-educated women complain about income, employment disparities (Press TV Video {automatic}; The Korea Times)

Tuesday

— Korea last in OECD in female graduate employment (The Korea Herald; The Korea Economic Daily)

— Do men really have higher sex drives than women? (io9)

— “The Sexy Lie” by Dr. Caroline Heldman (TEDx): Great lecture about female sexual objectification and its damaging effects (Angry K-Pop Fan)

— Saesang fan drugs himchan’s drink (Omona They Didn’t!)

— Life in Plastic: Fantastic? (Outside Seoul)

Wednesday

— Korea builds first ever school for victims of bullying AND bullies (Netizen Buzz)

— High-end call girl service busted (The Marmot’s Hole)

— South Korean animation: is the underdog finally having its day? (The Guardian)

— Will Hosting the Special Olympics Change Koreans’ Views on the Disabled? (Korea Realtime)

— Human Rights Committee Criticizes Seocho-gu Office for Banning Ad Promoting Gay Awareness (Tales of Wonderlost)

Thursday

— Japanese finance minster wants old people to “hurry up and die” (io9; Visual Anthropology of Japan)

— What is “Men’s Korea” (formerly Boslachi)? (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Sean Hayes in the Christian Science Monitor on Korean Adoptions (The Korean Law Blog; The Hankyoreh)

— So-called “Reverse Sexism” in Korea (Korean Gender Cafe)

— The Promise and Perils of Feminist Criticism in Chinese Studies (Dissertation Reviews)

Friday

— “Memoirs of a Geisha” source gets fed up and writes her own memoir to set the record straight (Tales of Wonderlost)

— For surgery, some patients prefer a woman’s touch (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Queer Culture in Japan (Rainbow Arts Project)

— Go Young Wook to Be Indicted for Sexually Harassing Minors (Omona They Didn’t!)

— “Here are the best [Asian-American] responses to ‘Paper Tigers,’ in my opinion” (Phenomenology/Intervention)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

As promised last time, here (yes, click the link) is this week’s new, improved Korean Gender Reader. But, frankly I’m disappointed with it. While using paper.li did save a lot of time, and the result does look much better than my regular posts, several stories I tweeted are missing; most stories you have to click the “more” links to see; their categories are completely meaningless; and the inability to choose my own descriptions to links means the headlines often give absolutely no indication of the contents (yes, I can hardly criticize given the headline to my own last post, but still!).

Without much more editorial control then, in hindsight paper.li only seems appropriate for daily collections of links really.

So, apologies for the failed experiment, and next week I’ll revert back to the old system. Suggestions for how to save time with it are still very welcome, but probably simplest and best is if I limit the number of links to the 5 most interesting stories I come across each day, coming to a total of 35 a week. Compared to the 70-100+ I normally post, that doesn’t sound too onerous, and of course all the extra stories not linked to in the KGR posts will be still available via the Facebook Page or my Twitter Feed.

(Source)

The front and back covers of American Born Chinese (2006) by Gene Luen Yang, my first completed book of 2013!

Body Image, Health

— Korea’s Pop Music Explosion Is Fueling a Plastic Surgery Boom (Alternet; KoreAm)

— The Evolution of Asian Eyebrows: A (Dia)critical Contemplation (Pasadena Art Beat)

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

— Wait A Minute, Did North Korea Just Get Sexy? (NK News.Org)

— In Japan, Tattoos Are Not Just For Yakuza Anymore (Japan Subculture Research Center)

— Foreign Cosplayers Are Welcome In Japan (Kotaku)

— Is Natural Beauty More Oppressive Than Make-up? (XX Factor)

— Femen’s Neocolonial Feminism: When Nudity Becomes a Uniform (Alahkbar English)

— “I suspect it’s difficult for men to imagine a world in which their bodies have long been inextricably linked to their value as an individual…” (Persona)

Censorship, Media

— KCSC Keeps Trivial NK Speech Blocked (Infidelworld)

— Over 1,000 Films Rated in 2012 (Kobiz)

— Put simply, JYJ fans are like an organized gang on Nate (Netizen Buzz)

— Netizen Explains Roots of Korean Conservative Online Community (KoreaBANG)

— Kim Sori’s MV teaser featuring her cameltoe rated 12+ (Netizen Buzz)

Crime

— First-ever chemical castration sentence handed down (The Hankyoreh; The Marmot’s Hole)

— Sexual Assault and Harassment, Child Self-defense, Domestic Violence Shelter Volunteer (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Child molesters getting probation thanks to settlements with parents (The Marmot’s Hole)

— 가정폭력 Domestic Violence Awareness : Music & Media (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Go Young Wook again accused of sexual assault against a minor (Asian Junkie; Netizen Buzz; Omona They Didn’t 1, 2)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Chinese Love Notes: Broken Dreams (Selly’s Little World)

— Forgive me a little sentimentality on a Sunday morning (I’m No Picasso)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— 안녕히 계세요 (Shotgun Adventures)

— South Korea Prepares The Young For A Rapidly Aging Population (NPR)

— Low South Korean birth rate raises fears (The Financial Times; free registration required)

— Unwed mothers call for Park’s attention (The Korea Times)

— Surge in Twins as Older Couples Seek Fertility Treatment (The Chosun Ilbo)

— N. Korea moving into aging society (The Korea Times)

— Test Me: The Relationship Between TOEIC & Communicative Competence (Scribblings of the Metropolitician)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces, Ladygate

— One Small Step for a Woman, One Giant Leap Backward for the Nation (Asiapundits)

— Beate Gordon, Long-Unsung Heroine of Japanese Women’s Rights, Dies at 89 (The New York Times)

LGBT, Sexuality

— HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign in Seoul (The Kimchi Queen)

— Reading List: Becoming a Female-to-Male Transgender (FTM) in South Korea (The Kimchi Queen)

— The Gay Teen-Boy Romance Comic Beloved by Women in Japan (The Atlantic)

— Gay star Hong Suk Chun’s guesting on ‘Radio Star’ receives a favorable response (Netizen Buzz)

Miscellaneous

— AIDA MAKOTO: Monument To Nothing (Art Exhibition Reviews) (Japan Subculture Research Center)

Pop Culture

— When culture meets decorum (radio-palava) (Angry K-pop Fan)

— New Year, New Look, New SNSD? (Seoulbeats)

— Girls’ Generation has a boy and some serious gender troubles (Beyond Hallyu)

— The Year in Korean Movies (Spoiler Alert: ‘Wow’) (Mark Russell’s Website)

— Block B files suit against Stardom Entertainment for lack of payment, wants contract nullified (Asian Junkie; Angry K-Pop Fan; Omona)

— Raining on Rain’s Parade: Celebrity Soldiers and Special Treatment (Seoulbeats)

— The concept of T-ara’s new Sexy Love MV is quite dehumanizing and it reeks objectification (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Has K-pop Lowered Our Music Standards? (Omona They Didn’t)

— Jung So-min: “Watching my bed scene with my parents was awkward” (Dramabeans)

— PSY: What would have happened if a foreign singer had sung anti-Korean songs? (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Congratulations Psy on your tremendous success! Time to become a vegetarian and ride a bicycle to work (Korea: Circles and Squares)

Social Problems

— Y’all are funny. Just stare back? This is Incheon. (I’m No Picasso)

— Normal Sadism, Weak Boundaries, and Social Unhappiness (Gord Sellar)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

For anyone interested in my thoughts about the election result, Vishakha N. Desai at the Asia Society sums them up much better than I could:

The fact that so many Asian countries have accepted women as political leaders and heads of state long before Americans have managed to put a woman in the White House has led some observers to believe that it must mean Asian societies are ahead of the Western world in accepting women in leadership roles. The truth is far more complex than the simplistic observation that this automatically means women will benefit from such role models at the pinnacle of their power. In the case of Park, she may have earned the position on her own merits more than other female counterparts, but that doesn’t mean her leadership will bode well for women’s rights in South Korea or the region during her tenure.

See Tales of Wonderlost here and here for short but telling summaries of exactly what Park Geun-hye has done for women’s rights so far; National Public Radio and Arirang for people’s expectations of her in this regard; and Bloomberg for more on the paradox of why Asia leads the globe in the number of years women have ruled, yet also leads the globe in gender discrimination (Hint: Many of those leaders come from political dynasties). Also, I think it says a lot about a candidate’s and his or her party’s democratic credentials when they refuse to extend voting hours to allow more people of working age to vote, effectively disenfranchising them.

Other interesting reporting on the election include what it says about Korea’s rapidly aging population and increasingly large generation gap; and Roboseyo’s suggestions that Park Geun-hye should (but probably won’t) cut the government’s extensive ties to mass media (the role of biased reporting in the elections was also mentioned at Global Voices), as well as radically reforming the National Security Law.

Update: Seungsook Moon’s article at CNN is also a must-read.

Announcements

— Auditions in Gwangju for The Vagina Monologues – Feb 3 (Korea Maria)

— Survey: How do you keep in contact with Koreans? (Loving Korean)

Body Image, Health

— Korean Teens Ask ‘Please Rate My Face’ on Online Community (KoreaBANG)

— Looking Pretty In North Korea (NK News)

— Dueji and ‘Diet’ stamps: the importance of weight in Korea vs. the United States (Mapping Words)

— Girl’s Day Yura’s cute tummy flab ‘looks good’ (Netizen Buzz)

— Plastic Face — Grimes and Brown Eyed Girls (Frank Kogan)

— Honesty is the Best Policy for B.E.G and Plastic Surgery (Seoulbeats)

— Local lads slap on Korean makeup for K-pop look (Asiaone Showbiz)

— “Beauty” According to Google (Tales of Wonderlost)

— A Video about Fashion and also Beauty in Korea (Foreigner Joy)

— The absence of help: a Korean girl’s testimony on recovering from an eating disorder (Mapping Words)

— Meet 1912’s Perfect Woman: Pear-Shaped, 171 Lbs, Doesn’t Know Fear (Jezebel)

— Samsung chip plant caused woman’s breast cancer, S. Korean gov’t agency rules (Monster Island; ILDA)

Censorship, Media

— Teenagers’ Exposure to Sex in the Media (South Korea Human Rights Monitor)

— Grab them while you can: Hara, HyunA, and Hyorin’s ‘Chum-Churum’ CFs to be taken down (Omona They Didn’t; Netizen Buzz; The Chosun Ilbo; allkpop)

Crime

— New police guideline allows easier house searches (The Korea Herald)

— USFK Soldier Sentenced To More Time In Korean Jail for Drugs Than A Korean Received for Rape (ROK Drop)

— A Crackdown on Sex Crimes Against Children? What Crackdown? (Expat Hell)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Female Body Issues That Arise When Dating Asian Men (AMWW Magazine)

— Christmas in Korea: It’s time for romance! (Seoulbeats)

— How Did You Know He/She Was The One? (Geek in Heels)

— On My Negative Dating Experiences With Chinese Men, and Why I Still Kept Smiling About China’s “Dating Scene” (Speaking of China)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— Apparently Being a Student-Parent is a “Colossal Blunder” (Omona They Didn’t)

— Adoptee’s search strikes a chord (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Why are Korean men estranged from their families? (The Korea Times)

— Vietnamese Population on Rise in Korea (Arirang)

— A day in the life of a Chinese kindergarten – in pictures (The Guardian)

— Pregnant pause (The Hong Kong Standard)

— Sex-Specific Toy Preferences: Learned or Innate? (Homo Consumericus)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces, Ladygate

— Our New President: the Views of Korea’s Young Women (The Three Wise Monkeys)

— Female business owners rank higher than men in particular areas (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Justifying Conscription? (Sorry, I Was Drunk)

— What Conscription Really Means for Koreans (Beyond Hallyu; update)

— S. Korea to cut mandatory military duty by three months (Yonhap)

— Closing the Gender Gap: A short PDF introduction (OECD)

— Migrant workers report physical abuse, wage discrimination (The Hankyoreh; see here also)

— 51% of Japanese public thinks wives should stay home (The Daily Yomiuri)

— Japan’s Suicidal Salarymen Are Dying for Work (Vice)

— Global Times to leftover women: Find a gay best friend because no-one else will love you (Shanghaiist)

LGBT, Sexuality

— I Will NOT Love You Long Time (Fuck yeah, feminists!)

— Yet another sexy reason why robots will replace humans [NSFW] (io9)

— Queer Links from the Week (The Kimchi Queen)

— So I take it the classroom will be a homosexuality-free zone? (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Reading List: Homosexuality in ancient and modern Korea (The Kimchi Queen)

— More Men Kissing Men Please: The Need for LGBT Representation (The One Shots)

— Here’s some news about the only gay men to exist in Korea (Omona They Didn’t)

— Reading List: Queer North Korea (The Kimchi Queen)

Pop Culture

— From Sexual to Sensual (Seoulbeats)

— T-ara turns down alcohol cf but gets on board with Pachinko ad (Omona They Didn’t; Netizen Buzz)

— What’s in a Logo? (Seoulbeats)

— End of the Road?: Ten Rookies We May Not See Come 2013 (MTVK)

— Koreaboo: Phase or Foe? (Seoulbeats)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

Not related to any of the stories sorry — I just love the colors, and the retro look. But see pop reviews now if you’d like to know more about his album.

Announcements

— Queer Shorts Shot on Smart Phones Film Festival, December 22nd (The Kimchi Queen)

Body Image, Health

— Masseurs find narcissists easy prey (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Pretty boys and dancing divas give South Korean cosmetics Asian appeal (Reuters)

— More handsome men entering women-heavy professions in Korea (The Dong-a Ilbo)

— Do Koreans and Korean Americans have different standards for if someone looks “American”? (I’m No Picasso)

— The Real Bodies Manifesto: Finding Each Other (8asians)

— So … did Shin Se Kyung have plastic surgery or not? (Asian Junkie)

— “My, What Healthy Breasts You Have!” (said no one, ever) (Nursing Clio)

— Fashion Interviews: A Shot of Soju With Monika Rofler (chincha)

Censorship, Media

— SKorea’s porn fight ‘like shoveling in a blizzard’ (The Marmot’s Hole)

— ‘Cheongdamdong Alice’ apologizes for offensive words spotted on screen (allkpop)

— Park Geun-hye Rally Photo Doctored Ahead of Election (koreaBANG)

— Korean CF Types: The dance, the star power, the drama (Hangukdrama and Korean)

— Facial Recognition Technology and Privacy Issues (Visual Anthropology of Japan)

— Yoon Il Sang: “It’s Sad That Korean Media Tries to Find Humor by Putting Down Their Wives” (soompi)

Crime

— Myeong-dong Hiking Club still pimping Korean girls to Japanese tourists, doing very little hiking (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Subway stations main location for sex trade of runaway youths (The Korea Times)

— Man rapes mentally handicapped kid, walks on appeal because he shows regret (The Marmot’s Hole)

— “I Want to Throw Flowers”: a series that records the experiences of a survivor of sexual violence (ILDA South Korean Feminist Journal)

— So, just to be clear, it’s OK for a teacher to have sex with a 12-year-old student as long as the student wants it? (The Marmot’s Hole; Waygook)

— A heartfelt and concise piece on what “human trafficking” really means (Japan Subculture Research Center)

— Japan’s ‘life-less’ anti-stalking laws are costing lives to be lost (The Japan Times)

— Is self-defense properly recognized? (The Korea Herald)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Tharp On: Marriage (Busan Haps)

— Websites Sell Burmese Brides to Chinese Bachelors (The Irrawaddy)

— The Romance Issue (Mochi Magazine)

— Interracial Dating 2: Black Women & Asian Men desexualized? (The Vanguard Element)

— Exhibition journeys into Asian marriage customs (The Korea Herald)

— Six Chinese Men in the Movies Who Loved Western Women, from Least Sexy to Most Sexy (Speaking of China)

— China’s Singles’ Day Beats the US’ ‘Black Friday’ On E-Sales (chinaSMACK)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— Study: Korean students excel in math and science, but lack confidence (The Hankyoreh)

— Why I gave my daughters English names (BBC)

— How I Learned to Love College By Rejecting the Model Minority Stereotype (Mochi Magazine)

— Seoul lays out new support plans for multicultural families, foreigners (asiaone)

— US Soldier – Filipina mixed kids acquire illegal immigrant status before they are born (The Marmot’s Hole)

— What’s for Dinner? One mother’s adventure in maintaining a balanced diet for her Chinese-Canadian baby (bejingkids)

— Disposable diapers or bare bottoms? China frets over potty training (Christian Science Monitor)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces, Ladygate

— Workplace discrimination prompts ‘whitened’ job applications (BBC)

— Why are so few educated Asian women marrying? (Marginal Revolution)

— S. Korea’s gender wage gap highest among OECD (MK Business News)

— Women in North Korea: ‘Men can’t earn enough money so it’s our job now’ (The Guardian)

— Park Geun-hye: Female Presidential Candidate (Korean Gender Cafe)

— As South Korea Tackles Drinking Culture, Samsung Sets Guidelines (Korea Realtime)

— Three out of four sexual harassment victims are women in their 20s and 30s and half of it occurred at the workplace (The Korea Times)

— Ri Sol-ju, Conspicuous Wealth, and the “Military Wife” Type in the DPRK (SINO-NK)

— ‘Korea still male-dominated’ (The Korea Times)

— Korean Through K-pop 101: The Bean Paste Girl (Seoulbeats)

— South Korea’s Forgotten War (The Atlantic)

— Is South Korea ready for “Madam President”? (Reuters)

— China’s Job Market Tightens for Young Foreigners (The New York Times)

— McKinsey & Company Report on the Job Market for New Korean Graduates (Korea Business Central)

LGBT, Sexuality

— Venery and the sin of transgression in Joseon Korea (The Marmot’s Hole)

— On Sex In The US, and How My Husband Taught Me the Word “Sao” (Speaking of China)

— Women rights advocates call on China’s population planning officials to de-link household registration from compulsory fitting of IUDs (Radio Free Asia)

— Queer Links from the Week (The Kimchi Queen)

— Gay, transgender Korean students discriminated against at school (Asian Correspondent)

Miscellaneous

— Are you Russian? An interview about Causasian female stereotypes and harassment in Korea (mapping words)

— CERD (and other) updates (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— What I’ve Learned About Crises, or How My Vaguest Shadow of a Doubt Died Today… (Gord Sellar)

— Cultural Assimilation (I’m No Picasso)

— If You Wanna Be My 형… (Gord Sellar)

— How Taiwan is better than Korea (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Expat Diaries: ‘Night Vibes’ Spreads Black Culture Throughout South Korea (Ebony)

Pop Culture

— Natthew and Diversity in K-pop (Seoulbeats)

— The politics of Pandora: is international music really that “different”? (Mellowyel’s Collection)

— Cast walks out of Great Seer shoots citing no pay (dramabeans)

— Unpopular Opinion: Defending Jay Chou’s Hit on “Gangnam Style” (Seoulbeats)

— NSFW Fanart: ELFs are on another level, man (McRoth’s Residence)

— Worry for the Right Reasons: K-pop and Kohaku (Seoulbeats)

— 2012 a tough year for idol groups as singers shine (Korea Joongang Daily; Netizen Buzz)

— HallyU.S.A: K-pop’s Appeal to Asian-Americans (Seoulbeats)

— Q & A : ‘9 Muses of Empire’ director Hark-Joon Lee on IDFA (fuck yeah nine muses)

— 2012: The Year Of Scandals, Relationships, And … Americanism? (Asian Junkie)

— Streaming to Be Heard: K-pop on Internet Radio (Seoulbeats)

— Finding Korean literature in English (In Imminent Danger)

— MBC and A Look at Korean Sitcoms (Seoulbeats)

— Korean films get controversial (ampm)

— K-pop’s Appeal to a Black Fan (Seoulbeats)

Psy’s Apology (in chronological order)

— ‘Gangnam Style’ Rapper Psy Apologizes For Lyrics About Killing Americans (Speakeasy)

— Quick Thought about PSY’s Past Anti-American Lyrics (Ask a Korean!)

— PSY Apologizes (The Marmot’s Hole)

— The PSY scandal: singing about killing people v. constantly doing it (The Guardian)

— … In Which America Learns Something Interesting about Psy (and South Korea) (Gord Sellar)

— You Shouldn’t Forget about the Past, Cuz It Don’t Forget About You… (Scribblings of the Metropolitician)

— Psy, slowly and painfully (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— K-Pop Fizz Fizz: Life After PSY (Spin)

Social Problems

— Australian Police Apologise to Korean Assaulted in Melbourne (koreaBANG)

— Do 1 in 8 Koreans have an addiction? (Asian Correspondent)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(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)

(Source: Retrogasm {NSFW})

Apologies for the lack of posts this week everyone, but I was in a bad car accident a few days ago, and had to be rushed into surgery. The car was a complete write-off too.

Fortunately through, the car in question was *cough* actually only a few centimeters long, left on my my bedroom floor by my daughters for me to slip on and nearly break my toe :D And I’m happy to report that my injuries are healing nicely, even if I am going to be hobbling around for next week or so!

Announcements

— Gangnam Style Flash Mob, COEX, Sunday November 18, 1:30-3:30pm (Seoul Convention Bureau)

— KUMFA is looking for 5 volunteers to watch kids during their meeting this Sunday, November 18th, 11-3pm (Tales of Wonderlost)

Body Image, Health

— What is the fascination with (Korean) Cosmetic Surgery? (I’m No Picasso)

Censorship, Media

— Manufactured Girl Power: Female Empowerment in a Male-Powered Industry (Seoulbeats)

— IU, Eunhyuk, and the Imaginary Korean Netizen Backlash (Seoulbeats)

— Block B’s friendly trolling turns into a controversy because netizens have no friends (Asian Junkie)

— Arirang produces documentary to try and show a positive message about expats in Korea (Action Against MBC Korea)

— Food porn, reborn! (Scribblings of the Metropolitician)

— How is Media Manipulated (I’m No Picasso)

— China slams “distorted” view of copyright piracy problem (Reuters)

Crime

— Ladies, Do You Find Korea to be Dangerous? (I’m No Picasso)

— Man Arrested for Sexually Harassing Wonder Girls’ Sohee (Omona They Didn’t)

— [Special reportage part V] The exploitation of teen runaways (The Hankyoreh)

—  An unholy home of incest (The Marmot’s Hole)

— More N.Korean Defectors Turn to Crime (The Chosun Ilbo)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Gay(?) Dating in Korea Tip #3: There Will Be Coyness (The Kimchi Queen)

— The town with 200 women marrying foreign men (Vietnam.net)

— Vietnamese learn to become S. Koreans’ wives (Tuoitre News)

— Naturalization called off for past ‘misbehavior’ (Korea Joongang Daily)

— It’s Not Like on TV: “80% of Korean Men Without a Car and Home of Their Own Never Find Love” (Rocketnews24)

— 4 Good things and 4 Bad things about International Marriage (Korean Mom Lily’s Life Style)

— How to Attract Protesters to Your Wedding (Scene Asia)

— Oxytocin keeps committed men away from attractive women (io9)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— Elite education not a surefire path to success (The Korea Herald)

— In case you’ve forgotten, most foreign English teachers aren’t certified teachers (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— 24 Seoul districts rebel on day care (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Tiger mom madness: fake passports, fake schools, and even fake marriages (Korea Law Today)

— Aging Japan: How can the world’s most elderly society overcome its demographic crisis? (Al Jazeera)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces, Ladygate

— Female leadership gains ground in auto industry (The Korea Herald)

— GM Korea likes ladies in office (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Samsung now hires more women, underprivileged (Korea Joongang Daily)

— More women strive to break through glass ceiling in Korea’s financial sector (Yonhap)

— Park rapped for being not feminine enough (The Korea Times)

— Viewpoint: What Chinese women really need (BBC)

Gangnam Style

— Žižek: Why Gangnam Destroyed Bieber (Youtube)

— K-Pop Star PSY: I Would Teach President Obama ‘Gangnam Style’(Korea BANG)

— 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)

— Heidi Klum And Psy Do “Gangnam Style” For The MTV EMAs (Buzzfeed)

— Psy to perform and receive an award at the ‘American Music Awards’ (Allkpop)

— Anish Kapoor to make Gangnam Style video (The Telegraph)

— “Psy & Madonna – Gangnam Style x Give It To Me” Live Performance (Youtube)

— “Gangnam Style” Drops to #5 on Billboard Hot 100, But That’s Okay… (Omona They Didn’t)

LGBT, Sexuality

— If IU is 20 and in Spring, Why is Ga-In the One Blossoming? (The One Shots)

— Notes on a K-pop Scandal with the ‘Korean Nation’s Little Sister’ (Asianaut)

— The Myth of IU’s Innocent Image (The Mind Reels)

— IU probably getting Super Junior’s Eunhyuk’s dick, company denies everything but netizens don’t care (Asian Junkie)

— Female Celebrity Accidentally Tweets Intimate Photo (Korea BANG)

— K-Pop darling IU may have some explaining to do (The Marmot’s Hole)

— SM Entertainment declines to comment on IU-Eunhyuk scandal (Omona They Didn’t)

— South Koreans Launch Condoms Into North Korea (Business Insider)

— Reading List: Representation, Politics, Ethics: Rethinking Homosexuality in Contemporary Korean Cinema and Discourses (The Kimchi Queen)

— Goo Hara’s pre-debut underaged sex scandal and it’s relevancy now (Omona They Didn’t)

Pop Culture

— THE SEEYA: Now CCM is Just Grasping at Straws (Seoulbeats)

— French TV documentary on Kpop (Omona They Didn’t)

— Driving Freely Through the World: Cosmopolitanism in K-Pop (IASPM-US)

— SM’s Embedded Ads: The Case For and Against Them (Seoulbeats)

— “Playing with Girls’ Generation” Tokyo Concert – Fan Fashion Pictures (Tokyo Fashion)

— Seoul searching: how politics plays out in South Korean cinema (The Guardian)

— “9Muses of Star Empire” Documentary Teaser! (Omona They Didn’t)

— Open World Entertainment CEO Jang Seok Woo admits to all charges against him (Asian Junkie)

— The Black Ocean of My Seoul (Seoulbeats)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source. See Korean Kontext for an interview of Steven Yeun back in April too)

Announcements

— Seoul’s Gay Men’s Chorus 2012 Concert, Saturday November 10 (The Kimchi Queen)

— KUMFA is looking for 10 volunteers to watch kids during their monthly meeting this Sunday, November 11th (Tales of Wonderlost)

Body Image, Health

— Fashion: Regulating the Inner/Outer in Choson Korea (The Korean Gender Cafe)

— White lies: China’s intimate bleaching industry (Buy Buy China)

Censorship, Media

— 양키새끼들? Seriously? (I’m No Picasso)

Crime

— No more “I was drunk” defense for rapes (The Marmot’s Hole)

— What steps you should take if you are raped or sexually assaulted in Seoul (You are not alone)

— Family of Man Killed by Spitting Student Struggle to Survive (Korea BANG)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— N. Korean defectors find freedom in South, but limited marriage options (Yonhap)

— Having a Crush on a White Girl (Journey into the Well)

— Ask the Yangxifu: On Married Men in China Seeking Extramarital Affairs With Western Women (Speaking of China)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— Current Situations of Maternity Facilities for Unwed Mothers (KUMSN)

— In S. Korea, the best education means a sacrifice for parents (The Washington Post)

— After college exam, Korean students exhale (Asian Correspondent)

— Interesting op-ed in the Chosun Ilbo about new MOE requirements for foreign teachers (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces, Ladygate

— Feminist Rebuts Claims Women are Over-Empowered in Korea (Korea BANG)

— On 된장녀 (I’m No Picasso; update)

— “Park Geun-hye and Women Leaders”: A Discussion We Need (ILDA)

— Yonsei University professor to Park Geun-hye, “You may have female parts, but you’re no woman lady!” (Korea Law Today)

— Is Park not a woman? (The Korea Herald)

— Candidates’ women pitch sparks rancor: Femininity dispute swamps campaigns as Park touts female leadership (The Korea Herald)

— Park plays the gender card to draw contrast (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Presidential Candidate Park Geun-hye is ‘Married to the State’ (Korea BANG)

— SKorea: Incheon University accused of kisaeng diplomacy (Asian Correspondent)

Gangnam Style

— Psy’s Gangnam Style: This Isn’t Really Multiculturalism (Mabel Kwong)

— Gangnam Style and Korea’s branding failures (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Psy teaches Oxford students how to dance Gangnam Style (The Telegraph)

— ‘Gangnam Style’ singer Psy: ‘I tried an elephant, monkey and kangaroo before the horse dance’ (NME)

— Top 10 Global ‘Gangnam Style’ Parodies (Global Voices)

— GLEE Snags “Gangnam Style” for Upcoming Setlist (MTVK)

— About how badly do you think “Glee” will destroy “Gangnam Style”? (Asian Junkie)

LGBT, Sexuality

— Holy crap this is actually a Korean drama? What show is this?! (Angry K-Pop Fan)

— Gay Korea comes out (The Korea Times)

— Welcome to Room #305: Manhwa provides good insight into a heterosexual’s reaction to meeting a queer person (The Kimchi Queen)

— UPR of Republic of Korea: concerns remain on death penalty, gender equality, and military service (ILGA Asia)

— Do men and women experience orgasms differently? (io9)

Miscellaneous

— Honda Fit She’s, the world’s only car aimed exclusively at (Japanese) women (Sociological Images)

Pop Culture

— Stoffa: ‘Cloud Atlas’ is not really racist (Iowa State Daily)

— 60% of Korean Actresses ‘Accosted for Sex by Bigwigs’ (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin, and Some Thoughts on Culture-Specific Modes of Reading (Gord Sellar)

— How K-pop is Enhanced by not Knowing Korean (or English) (Seoulbeats)

— In Search of a Common Language: In Another Country, Starring Isabelle Huppert (The New York Times)

— Sexual Marketing: Teen Top vs. Nu’est (Seoulbeats)

— HyunA Tries to Fetishize Her Dark Skin in “Ice Cream” and it Doesn’t Sit Quite Right (McRoth’s Residence)

— When Idols and Fans Clash (Seoulbeats)

Social Problems

— Pakistani activist wins asylum in Korea (Asian Correspondent)

— True Meaning of Welfare For the Elderly Who Are Living in Poverty (South Korea Human Rights Monitor)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

A poster for Papa (파파; 2012), a rare Korean movie about a genuinely multicultural family. For a review, see YAM Magazine here.

Announcements

— Actresses! The Gwangju Vagina Monologues 2013! The Search Begins (KoreaMaria)

— KUMFA is looking for three volunteers to babysit while moms are receiving barista training (Tales of Wonderlost)

— Seoul’s LGBT Film Festival is Traveling [to other cities]! (The Kimchi Queen)

— Women’s Self-defense Classes in Busan (Busan Haps)

— 2012 Manhwa Art Exhibition : The Colour of Change at Korean Cultural Centre UK (London Korea Links)

Body Image, Health

— Destination: BK Plastic Surgery Museum (Travel Wire Asia)

— KARA member Nicole’s serious diet regimen attracts attention (Allkpop)

— Embracing My Monolids: How I Learned To Work With What I’ve Got (Mochi Magazine)

— Seoul schools cracking down on students’ hair length (The Hankyoreh)

— Is consumer nationalism relevant today? (The Korea Herald)

— Why Barbie Stumbled in China and How She Could Re-invent Herself (Forbes)

— Pic of the day: A quick vocabulary lesson in Chinese fashion buzzwords (Ministry of Tofu)

Censorship, Media

— The ROK Government’s War on Porn (Idiots’ Collective)

Crime

— ‘5 million robbery, theft cases unreported in 2011’ (The Korea Times)

— Police searching for suspect after English teacher sexually assaulted by taxi driver in Gwangju (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Abusive father sentenced to prison (The Hankyoreh)

— Korea’s new recreational drug problem. The “milk shot.” (Korea Law Today)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Dating Korean guy – the clash of prejudices (Loving Korean)

— For better luck in life and love, some Koreans change their names (The Korea Times)

— Four Lame Reasons Why Western Women Won’t Date Chinese Men (Speaking of China)

— ‘Asian Playboy’: You Know You Want to Be One (Radical Ramblings)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— Korean mother trying to get her kid back after English teacher husband runs away to America with child (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Chinese think tank urges end to one-child policy (Asian Correspondent)

— Elderly Chinese coming down with the “urbanization blues” (Want China Times)

— A declining Japan loses its once-hopeful champions (The Washington Post)

— Asia’s Competition for Brides (Asia Sentinel)

— For Asians, School Tests Are Vital Steppingstones (The New York Times)

— The politics of ageing in South Korea (My Sinchew)

— Singer of mixed ethnicity founds school for multicultural children (The Hankyoreh)

— Should the Adoption Tax Cut be Renewed? (Tales of Wonderlost)

— Divorcing couples with children to get mandatory education (Korea Joongang Daily)

— 30 percent of SNU postgrads can’t study because of excessive tasks demanded by supervisors (Human Rights Monitor)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces, Ladygate

— Korean Male Union & Sexual Harassment 남성연대와 성희롱 (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Opaque, top-down system leaves some expats bitter (The Korea Herald)

— Koreans Don’t Want Male Nurses, Men Rejected from Nursing Schools (Human Rights Monitor)

— Issue of Temporary Workers a Hot Potato Topic (Human Rights Monitor)

— GM Korea commits to goal of 25% female workforce by 2015 (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Samsung now hires more women, underprivileged (Korea Joongang Daily)

— The Korean gender equality myth (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Despite facing some inequality, women worldwide rate their well-being nearly the same as men (Deseret News)

Gangnam Style

— Gangnam Style Is Now the Third Most Popular YouTube Video Ever. Here Are Numbers 1 and 2. (The Atlantic)

— China, South Korea: Gangnam Style in Chinese Universities (Global Voices)

— Gangnam jockeying for center of ‘hallyu’ tourism (The Korea Times)

— ‘Glee’ Goes ‘Gangnam Style’ (Korea Realtime)

— Why PSY? (Big Hominid’s Hairy Chasms)

— “Gangnam Style” creates tourism boom for Korea (Brand Republic)

— Gangnam Style exposes Seoul’s folly (FT)

— Riding the Korean Wave From ‘Gangnam Style’ To Global Recognition (Global Asia)

— Psy’s follow up song to “Gangnam Style” postponed (Allkpop)

LGBT, Sexuality

— Cops looking at Japanese websites on Korean prostitution (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Imbalance of Power and Rape in the Korean Gay Community (Korean Gender Cafe)

— [Special reportage- part III] Runaways’ prostitution (The Hankyoreh)

— [Special reportage- part IV] Runaways live with the pain of rape (The Hankyoreh)

— Gay Celebrity Tweets Halloween Party Photos, Netizens Argue (Korea BANG)

— One woman’s controversial campaign to legalize prostitution in China (The Economist)

— Coming out in the countryside (Seeing Red in China)

— Taiwan Gay Pride Draws Thousands Pushing For Same-Sex Marriage (The Huntington Post)

— The Most Influential LGBT Asian Icons (The Huntington Post)

Miscellaneous

— Rise of the Tiger Nation (The Wall Street Journal)

— UN body recommends alternative to military service (The Hankyoreh)

— Beautiful Defectors: An Exploration of South Korea’s “Now on My Way to Meet You” (Sino-NK)

— One in nine defector women work in tea houses, bars (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Tackling the Myth of the ‘Super-Asian’ (Scene Asia)

— Is Ladies’ Paradise (of consumerism) a Man’s Creation? (Korean Gender Cafe)

Pop Culture

— “No sluts allowed in dramaland?” Yoochun’s fans demand firing of his co-star (Dramabeans)

— Bad Girls Do It Well: Policing Korea’s Idols, Part I (Mixtapes and Liner Notes)

— TV Hosts Too Sexy For Morning Show, Netizens Disagree (Korea BANG)

— Cloud Atlas under fire for casting white actors in ‘yellowface’ makeup (The Guardian)

— 50 Shades of Racism: Cloud Atlas Yellowface (Asianaut)

— Variety As a Source of Controversy: What Gives? (Seoulbeats)

— How big is Iron Man 3’s “Fu Manchu” problem? (io9)

— What’s Happened to DSP Media? (Seoulbeats)

— NU’EST detained because of their fans (new levels of obsession unlocked!) (Enewsworld)

— K-pop and Escaping Real Life (Seoulbeats)

— With Suzy as JYP’s sole breadwinner, is JYP at risk of losing their ‘Big 3’ title? – Basically a Suz (Omona They Didnt!)

— Why Do You Like K-Pop? (The Atlantic Wire)

— The K-pop Formula: Cute or Sexy, Pick Your Poison (Seoulbeats)

— K-Pop Film Shortlisted for Amsterdam Docu Awards (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Solbi reveals how she proved it wasn’t her in alleged sex tape (Allkpop)

— Twitter: where idols publicize private matters (Angry K-pop Fan)

— On the T-Ara Scandal: Look out, kid, they keep it all hid (Frank Kogan)

— Cultural Appropriation in J-pop (J-Popping)

— Big in Japan: J-Pop, by Canadians (Scene Asia)

Social Problems

— Half a million disabled suffer for 12 hours a day (The Hankyoreh)

— Three Teenage Girls Jump to Their Death in Busan (Busan Haps)

— Experts call for overhaul of system to assist the disabled (The Hankyoreh)

— South Korea: Need to show more commitment to improve its human rights record (Human Rights Monitor)

— Revised rules restrict migrant workers’ rights to choose jobs (The Hankyoreh)

— Hospital banned from providing free medical care to the poor (The Hankyoreh)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)