“X FUNS cover” by Yuko Shimizu (2005; source). For more of her work, see Visual News, her website, or her Facebook page.

Body Image, Health

— Convincing Women in China They’re Too Hairy (Bloomberg)

— The Dark Side of K-Culture (Randomwire)

— True ‘Gangnam Style’ Fashion (The Huffington Post)

— A Brief History of the Double Eyelid (Korea You’re Beautiful)

— South Korean girls’ obsession with double eyelid surgery as they strive to look like ‘pretty western celebrities’ (The Daily Mail)

— Seoul rises as beauty destination (The Korea Herald)

— Hyori looks gorgeous for Elle, but netizens focus on her “sagging” tits (Asian Junkie)

— Jessica and Yunho named the ’2012 Barbie & Ken’ (Allkpop)

Censorship, Media

— COOL’s Yuri Isn’t Dead, but my Faith in Korea’s Media Is (Seoulbeats)

— KOCSC calls for regulations on outfits, choreography, slang, but do nothing to address real issues (Asian Junkie)

— Weighing the Pros and Cons of Pre-screening MV’s (Seoulbeats)

— Joking about North Korea gets young leftists thrown in jail (The Hankyoreh)

— Idols and Endorsements (Seoulbeats)

Crime

— Attempted rapist pleads drunkenness in appeal, gets HEAVIER sentence (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Woman’s biting off of man’s tongue deemed self-defense (The Hankyoreh; The Marmot’s Hole)

— Anger as Suwon Murderer Escapes Death Penalty (Korea BANG)

— Key East Entertainment manager arrested for repeated sexual assault … fucking ugh (Asian Junkie; Soompi)

— Taking Advantage of Passed Out Drunk Girls, Netizens Debate (Korea BANG)

— Which is on the rise? Sex crimes or media sensationalism? (The Korea Times)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Matchmaking industry swooning (The Korea Times)

— Picture of the Day: Baby Festival (ROK Drop)

— Japan Court Rejects Suit Challenging Outdated Remarriage Law (Japan Real Time)

— The Basics on Dating Chinese Men, Our Perceptions, And Stereotypes (Speaking of China)

— I’m a Feminist AND It’s Tradition in China? On Not Changing My Maiden Name (Speaking of China)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— SKorea: Principal under investigation for hitting students (Asian Correspondent)

— Interview: In New Film, Korean Adoptees Search for Roots, Redefine Family Tree (Asia Society)

— Korea – U.S. International Adoption Ornament is Racist and Ugly (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Are You Effing Kidding Me? (Geek in Heels)

— Japan’s Demographic Nightmare (The Diplomat)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces, Ladygate

— On My War Against the Window (On Becoming a Good Korean (Feminist) Wife)

— Japan’s women: Can they save the country’s economy? (BBC)

Gangnam Style

— Gangnam Style: how Seoul’s most exclusive neighbourhood went global (The Guardian)

— Japan’s deaf ear to Gangnam Style riles South Korea (The Telegraph; Japan Today)

— Psy reaches 500 million viewers in shortest time. And Japanese Youtube users suck (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Can Psy start a new Korean Wave? (Asia One)

— Dennis Hong debuts a robot that dances to “Gangnam Style” (TED)

— Big Trouble in Little China + Gangnam Style. John Carpenter approves (io9)

— From ‘Gangnam Style’ to ‘Dartmouth Style’ (3WM)

— Psy meets legendary American actress Betty White (Omona They Didn’t!)

— Ai Weiwei Parodies ‘Gangnam Style,’ Confuses Pundits (Asia Society; Scene Asia)

— Gangnam Style hits South Park (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Oppa earning $60K per Vegas gig (Omona They Didn’t!)

— The data behind Gangnam Style: The rise and rise of PSY (The Economist)

LGBT, Sexuality

— Gay-o?!: Glee and Call Me Maybe in the classroom (Alleyways)

— More elderly enjoy sex (The Korea Herald)

— A rise in abortions shows Chinese students need more sexual freedom, not less (Shanghaiist)

— “The true sign of rough economy is not the weakness of the country’s exports industry, or the difficulty fresh college graduates face in landing a decent job, but rather when a 73 year old woman gets arrested on prostitution charges.” (The Japan Daily Press)

— Reading List: Toward a Queer Korean American Diasporic History (The Kimchi Queen)

— The King and the Clown’s Love Story (Seoulbeats)

— Everything you wanted to know about sex in China, but were afraid to ask (Seeing Red in China)

— Japan allows male-to-female transgender children to attend school as “female students” (ILDA)

— If anyone ever tells you homosexuality was brought to Korea by the West… (The Kimchi Queen)

— A look at prostitution among teen runaways (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Miscellaneous

— Study: female N. Korean defectors suffer depression, sexual abuse (Yahoo! Korea; The Hankyoreh)

— Female athletes’ rights on radar as stars multiply (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Rain Under Fire For Special Military Treatment (MTVK)

— Seoul Fashion Week S/S2013 off to a Running…Fumble (Yahae!; Scene Asia)

— The Story of Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Geum-Soon Yoon, A Woman Farmer (The Next Women)

Pop Culture

— We’re famous for not having talents, though (Frank Kogan)

— The Pre-debut Touch (Seoulbeats)

— More thoughts on the question of SM trainees (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Counterpoint: Reasons I’d Want to be a K-Idol (Seoulbeats)

— K-pop’s ‘Music Factory’ Exports Knock on America’s Door (Asianaut)

— New York-Based K-pop Academy Scandal Put on Blast by Local News (MTVK)

Social Problems

— Steep increase in income inequality since 1990s (The Hankyoreh)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source: Stuff No One Told Me, via My Journal)

Sorry for the slow posting everyone: I’ve had a bad cold for 3 days. But I’m nearly better :)

Announcements

— Film Screening: Sa Bangji/사방지, Korean Queer Archive, Friday 26 October (The Kimchi Queen)

Body Image, Health

— Angry Little Asian Girl pokes fun at the Asian stereotype (Mochi Magazine)

— Beware of Image Changes (Seoulbeats)

— On Our Radar: DVF and China (Thick Dumpling Skin)

— Music Video Lessons: Ailee’s “I Will Show You” teaches us that it’s okay to be an asshole (Asian Junkie)

— Girls’ Generation, SECRET & more reveal their diet meal plans (My Journal)

— Roundtable: Picture Perfect (Seoulbeats)

— Modesty in Australia vs. China (Speaking of China)

— Hong Kong woman dies after shady ‘beauty’ treatment intended for cancer patients (Jezebel)

Censorship, Media

— Erroneous report of the murder of COOL’s Yuri basically sums up the state of the Korean media (Asian Junkie)

— Media manages to make false story of COOL’s Yuri’s murder worse by outing victim’s details (Asian Junkie)

— 40 Months for stealing Korean broadcasts (The Marmot’s Hole)

— This year’s collection of foreign teacher cartoons (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— More cartoons full of needles and gropers (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Why not the Corea? (Expat Hell)

— YG Entertainment & Lee Michelle may be having issues, so let’s invent narratives! (Asian Junkie)

— South Korea: Professor Acquitted in Obscenity Case (The New York Times)

— Bias Tracker: Why does allkpop trash certain events but not others? (Asian Junkie)

— Trending: China Skepticism (Seeing Red in China)

Crime

— Alarming Rise in Sex Crimes Committed by Teens (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Park Geun-hye pledges to expand police force to bolster public safety (The Korea Times)

— It’s Not Easy Being a Yakuza Boss, Part 1 (Japan Subculture Research Center)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Black and Asian Couple, Lily and James’s love story (Facebook Page)

— 10 examples of how lovers match their outfits in South Korea (MSN Now)

— Why Korean Men Marry Foreign Women (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Feeling Sexy as a Mom (Geek in Heels)

— Asian Women “Too Tempting” To Husbands/Boyfriends? Please (Speaking of China)

— Ask the Yangxifu: My Chinese Boyfriend Doesn’t Express His Feeings (Speaking of China)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— Spending the Last Year as a Teenager Outside of School (ILDA)

— Is Corporal Punishment Good or Bad? (Koreabridge)

— On Getting Behind in the Parenting Game (On Becoming a Good Korean (Feminist) Wife)

— ExamiNation: A short documentary (Lost in Traffic Lights)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces, Ladygate

— Korean Professor Uses Twitter to Critcise Online Misogyny Trend (Korea BANG)

— Cook, clean, and be pretty (The Korea Times)

— Seniority-based Promotions being Replaced by Merit-based Promotions in Korea (The Korea Law Blog)

— ‘Testosterone is the problem’ [in the finance industry] (The Korea Times)

— Cracks in the Asian glass ceiling (Business Without Borders)

— Feminist Feels Pity For Men in Continued Online Misogyny Debate (Korea BANG)

— “I’d rather sell my c*nt than my paintings”: Women artists’ position in China 20 years ago and today (The F-word)

— The All-China Women’s Federation, propping up patriarchy since 1949 (Shanghaiist)

— It’s easier for Chinese women to become astronauts than members of the Standing Committee (Shanghaiist)

— China’s ‘Leftover’ Women (The New York Times)

— Powerful Chinese men still straight pimpin’, all about the bitches (Shanghaiist)

Gangnam Style

— Why ‘Gangnam Style’ Didn’t Catch Fire Instantly in China and Japan (Asianaut)

— Gangnam Style out of the most viewed music chart due to YouTube changes (Omona They Didn’t!)

— How YouTube Just Screwed “Gangnam Style” [Update] (Kotaku)

— Should We Be Scared of Gangnam Style? (Seoulbeats)

History

— Cut your hair or go to jail (The Hankyoreh)

LGBT, Sexuality

— Interview with Harry: Being gay is nice because I don’t have to deal with aegyo (The Kimchi Queen)

— Chinese sex fair shows how prudishness and liberation sit side-by-side (The Guardian)

— K. Will’s New Single is Fantastic (The Kimchi Queen)

— Reaction to Seoulbeats Review of K.Will’s Please Don’t music video 케이윌 이러지마 제발 (Korean Gender Cafe)

— The Shifting Terrain of Sex in China (Scene Asia)

— Reading List: KoreAm Journal- The Queer Issue (The Kimchi Queen)

— Director set to marry his boyfriend (Korea Joongang Daily)

— How to come out to a Korean friend (Lost in Traffic Lights)

Miscellaneous

— My Korean identity: Michael Hurt (Groove Magazine)

— The 정 Challenge (Gord Sellar)

Pop Culture

— Unpopular Opinion: Enough with the Aegyo Bashing! (Seoulbeats)

— The Five Faces Of E.via (Frank Kogan)

— Working hypothesis on appropriation in pop culture: response to Occupied Territories (Occupied Territories)

— A Response to Occupied Territories (Frank Kogan)

— K-Pop Boot Camp: Video (Nightline)

— The grim reality behind the rise of the entertainment market (Omona They Didn’t!)

— Video: K-Pop Group 2NE1 Discuss Breaking Into the U.S (Wall Street Journal, Forbes, MTVK)

— Are Lost Foreigners a Lost Case in Variety? (Seoulbeats)

— Why would anyone sign up with SM Entertainment? (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Perspectives: K-pop in Japan (And a Bit About the World) (Seoulbeats)

— Dear Kpop Music Industry: Why is it so hard to find out the director of a video? (YAM Magazine)

Social Problems

— Daegu parents seek solution to student suicides (The Hankyoreh)

— Court Bans Sign Language Interpreters (Human Rights Monitor)

— A Few Things to Realize About Bullying (Gord Sellar)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

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

As I missed last week’s KGR, I decided to add last week’s links here too. Ending up with roughly one hundred and thirty of them though, rest assured I won’t ever be doing that again!

Announcements

— Factory Girl Literature: Sexuality, Violence and Representation in Industrializing Korea — Presentation by Ruth Barraclough, 4-5:30pm, Monday October 22 2012, University of Minnesota

— BOOb Crawl : 붑 투어, Saturday October 13, Itaewon 9pm (Bras for a cause)

— The Sae Gil Womens Shelter Charity Drive (Busan Haps)

Body Image, Health

— Defending My Daughters from the Media/Fashion-Industry Complex (Thick Dumpling Skin)

— SECRET’s Hyosung asks portal sites to edit her weight (Omona They Didn’t!)

— Shin So Yul of ‘Reply 1997′ reveals her weight loss story on ‘Strong Heart’ (Allkpop)

— More Men Opt for Plastic Surgery (Korea Realtime; Jezebel)

— Vignettes on Weight-Loss: 1, 2, 3 (My Journal)

— Gap in Receiving Health Care Services (Human Rights Monitor)

— Diabetes Creates More Stress for Married Korean Women (Newswise)

— Breast cancer quadruples in 15 years (The Korea Herald)

— Is Korea the most beauty obsessed country? (Whatawaygook)

— Dr. Wang Shuping: How I Discovered the HIV Epidemic and What happened to me Afterwards (Seeing Red in China)

— Cosmetic surgery bookings surge over the holiday week (Want China Times)

Censorship, Media

— Can the Government Stop the Objectification of Minors in K-pop? (Seoulbeats)

— “Previewing” MVs (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Banned: Is the KMRB’s Intervention a Good Idea? (MTVK)

— JYJ’s Xia Junsu Denied Coverage From SBS? (MTVK)

— The National Para Games apologizes to JYJ’s Junsu and his fans (Omona They Didn’t!)

— K-Data Blackout: A Necessary Measure? (Seoulbeats)

— YG Disappointed in KBS Review Standards for G-Dragon (Soompi)

— Psy’s “Right Now” and 2PM’s “Hands Up” cleared of previous ban (Allkpop)

— MOGEF Gives Second Chances to Banned Tracks (MTVK)

— Appeal by 8 Members of Tajinyo Rejected and Declared Guilty Ending Tablo′s Controversy (Enewsworld)

— Media reliance on Naver growing concern (The Korea Herald)

— Don’t believe the 하이프 (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Asia Institute Seminar with Robert McChesney “Korean Media in Comparative Perspective” (Korea: Circles and Squares)

— Why is Lee Min Jung considered a victim in her relationship with Lee Byung Hun? Netizens! (Asian Junkie)

— Asia Institute Seminar with Noam Chomsky: “The Problem of the Media in Korea” (Korea: Circles and Squares)

— Korea: Wired (AlJazeera English Video)

Crime

— New crime stats for teachers, both Korean and foreign (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— On-street questioning revives after a series of sex crimes (Human Rights Monitor)

— Korean police crack down on men who hit their foreign wives (Asian Correspondent)

— Convicted rapist claims he was treated unfairly because of his nationality (The Marmot’s Hole)

— For Whom Does the Death Penalty Exist? (Human Rights Monitor)

— Hawaii job offer becomes a nightmare for women (Korea Joongang Daily)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Korean girl seeks fake apartment to fool protective parents (Asia News Network)

— BIFF Movie Review: In Another Country (Busan Haps)

— Familiar ad trope: Pairing white men and Asian American women (Tales of Wonderlost)

— Uzbek Wife Married to South Korean Man a Hit on Korean TV (KoreaBANG)

— Seeking: Attractive Asian male. Why you’ll never find the above on Craiglist (The Daily Pennsylvanian)

— Give Us A Chance! Why You Should Date an Asian Man (The Steel Closet)

— I am an Asian Woman and I Think Asian Boyfriends Are Superior (Well, Mine Is Anyway) (xoJane)

— Korean lonely-hearts feel cheated by pricey matchmakers (The Korea Herald)

— [Movie] “Time” (시간) by Kim Ki-duk, 2006 (Out of Korea)

— Interracial Dating in China is Not Just for White Men (Speaking of China)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— Academy seeks local role models to help young Koreans (The New Zealand Herald)

— School where South Korea’s dropouts flourish (BBC)

— What makes Korean unwed mothers give up their children? (Ilda)

— What to do with Anti-Japan Sentiments in ESL Classes? (Ask a Korean!)

— The plight of abandoned Korean babies (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Foreign schools show Korea’s social divide (The Korea Herald)

— 1 in 3 students at Seoul National University is a binge drinker (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Mekong Delta girls “eager” in learning to become wives of Korean men (Vietnam Net)

— A Society Where Multicultural Students Can Live Without Difficulties (Human Rights Monitor)

— Vietnamese Migrant Wives Now Outnumber Chinese (The Chosun Ilbo)

— University Entrance Exams Near, Netizens Share Education Jokes (KoreaBANG)

— Lack of Teachers for Students with Disabilities (Human Rights Monitor)

— No comment necessary. An entire class of high school students receive IV drips while cramming for exams (Ministry of Tofu)

— The Unintended Consequences Of China’s One-child Policy (io9)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces

— New generation quits boring jobs quickly: Report (Korea Joongang Daily)

— SKorea: Elite schools still dominate national prosecutors’ office (Asian Correspondent)

— Leaving the Chaebol (Korea Realtime)

— Women in finance cut off from executive posts (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Young Koreans: Give Us Freedom, Not Mortgages (Korea Realtime)

— Busan vs. Seoul (Meet me at the Wall)

— South Korean Voters Call for Longer Poll Hours (Global Voices)

— Women in China Face Rising University Entry Barriers (The New York Times)

— The Importance of ‘Face’ for Chinese Jobseekers (China Real Time Report)

— Japan’s Lost Art of Innovation (The Diplomat)

Gangnam Style

— AAK’s definitive guide for PSY and Gangnam Style (Ask a Korean!)

— Asian Stars and The USA: A History (Hootvintage)

— Psy tries to trademark “Gangnam style.” Oh, and he gets wasted on stage too. (Korean Law Today)

— Ten things you need to know about PSY’s Gangnam Style and Korean hip-hop (The Telegraph)

— Why China Lacks Gangnam Style (The New Yorker)

— Pop Music Brings a Lot More Readers than Social Science: Follow-up on ‘Kangnam Style’ (Asian Security Blog)

— Gangnam Style Tops Global Charts, Korean Twitter Reactions (KoreaBANG)

— Is ‘Gangnam Style’ the Peak of K-pop’s International Success? (Asianaut)

— South Korea puzzles over oddball success of ‘Gangnam Style’ (Los Angeles Times)

— Gangnam points to our future (Brisbane Times)

— Where to Find Your Gangnam Style (Korea Realtime)

— His Style Is Gangnam, and Viral Too (The New York Times)

— Why BBC Radio 4 Is Wrong about “Gangnam Style” (The Unlikely Expat)

— Where to Find Your Gangnam Style (Korea Realtime)

History

— Power & Gender in the Early Korean State (Korean Gender Cafe)

— The good daughter. The fascinating life of Park Geun-hye. (Korea Law Today)

— On Gisaeng and Ginyeo (Lost in Traffic Lights)

— Reading List: Male Concubinage: Notes on Late Choson Homosexuality by an American Naval Attache (The Kimchi Queen)

— What’s the story behind those hats Korean men used to wear? (Lost in Traffic Lights)

LGBT, Sexuality

— The Number of Room Salons and Hostess Bars at All-Time Highs In Korea (The Korea Times)

— BIFF 2012: Park Chul-soo’s B·E·D (Modern Korean Cinema)

— Gayspeak: Talking About 세이프 섹스 in Korean (The Kimchi Queen)

— Reading List: Memento Mori and Other Ghostly Sexualities (The Kimchi Queen)

— Chongqing University providing free condoms, admits students all be sexing each other (Shanghaiist)

— Watch: Taiwan Pride 2012’s campaign video for same-sex marriage (Shanghaiist)

Miscellaneous

— Report Reveals South Korean Soldiers Fed Poor Quality Food (KoreaBANG)

— What Counts as Racially Offensive in Our Postracial World? (Korean Bodega)

Pop Culture

— Factory Girls: Cultural technology and the making of K-pop (The New Yorker)

— The New Yorker Rides the Hallyu Wave (SNSD-FFA)

— The New Yorker examines K-pop (Korea Law Today)

— K-Town Cast and K-pop Fans (Seoulbeats)

— From Ikea to Korea: Writing for K-pop (Mark Russel’s Website)

— Jun-jin, Joo-hyun, and The Idol Dating Game (Seoulbeats)

— “An argument could be made that, historically, the vibrancy of any given pop scene can be measured by the amount of appropriation going on.” (Occupied Territories)

— Tiger JK’s Sorry, But Where’s the Real Apology? (Seoulbeats)

— ‘Middle Powers’ Like South Korea Can’t Do Without Soft Power And Network Power (Global Asia)

— K-pop’s Rooted Use of Labels: [insert title here] Idols (Seoulbeats)

— “Sometimes I really don’t think K-pop labels know what they have on their hands…” (Occupied Territories)

Social Problems

— What Keeps South Koreans Up at Night? (Korea Realtime)

— Why does Korea interpret netizen comments as public sentiment? (Omona They Didn’t!)

— Our Homeland shows family torn by N Korea-Japan relocation program (Visual Anthropology of Japan)

— The lives of female runaways in Seoul, Part 2 of 6 (The Hankyoreh)

— Why Koreans Are Angry: The Social Cost of Spectacular Growth (KoreaBANG)

— The Good sans the Bad and the Ugly: September (Seoulbeats)

— Social Workers’ Human Rights (Human Rights Monitor)

— Asia Institute Seminar with Dr. Eckhard Schroeter: “Korean Social Welfare in Comparative Perspective” (Korea: Circles and Squares)

— Dogani and South Korean culture’s major problems with abuse (The Unlikely Expat)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(“Oohlala Spouses makes best poster ever” — Dramabeans. Source)

This new theme is AWESOME, yes?^^ Have a happy Chuseok everybody!

Body Image, Health

— Seoul Cosmetic Surgery Clinic Looking for (Naked) Before and After Models (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Why the Rise of Asia In Fashion Isn’t As Beautiful As It Seems (Speakeasy)

— Korean eunuchs reveal clues to why women live longer than men (BBC; see also Science)

— What rejuvenates my vagina?!?! Not Lasers!!! (Korean Gender Cafe)

— It takes hundreds of employees, thousands of hours and millions of dollars to launch a mass market lingerie line. And one blogger to take it all down. (Racebending; see also Bitch)

— How do you explain the Gramscian concept of hegemony to a 10 year old? (Tales of Wonderlost)

Censorship, Media

— Teen sexualization on TV faces stronger censorship (The Korea Times; see also The Korea Herald)

— New Term: “White Endorsement Monkey” and “White Defamation Monkey” (Gord Sellar)

— Men finally behave badly (The Korea Times)

— “Unqualified foreign instructor” problem…in 1973 (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Crime

— I cannot remember a period of time in my life when I was not scared by older ahjussis (Lost in Traffic Lights)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Culture and Language Issues in Foreign/Korean Relationships (I’m No Picasso II)

— Dating Asian Women When You’re an Asian Guy (Radical Ramblings)

— Marriages between North American(?) men, Korean women top 2,000 in 2011 (The Korea Times)

— Male writer and I have a Korea / dating column starting in October’s 10mag (Meet me at the wall)

— What’s the REAL appeal of a Samsung or LG guy? (Dating in Korea)

— SECRET’s Hyosung says her ideal type is a stalker … great (Asian Junkie)

— Ask the Yangxifu: Chinese Parents Refuse to Meet Me (Speaking of China)

— Why I have no female Chinese friends (Seeing Red in China)

— Are Yangxifu (The Western Wives of Chinese Men) More Difficult Wives? (Speaking of China)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— Breaking the promise of universal day care (The Hankyoreh; see also Korea Joongang Daily)

— Funny, sad, and revealing answers to questions from Korean students (South Korea)

— Adventures in Parenting Abroad Pt. 3: The End is Just the Beginning (The Three Wise Monkeys)

— “The Challenges of Korean Education in Historical Perspective” Asia Institute Seminar with Professor Michael Seth (Korea: Circles and Squares)

— A Trojan Wall of Separation: The Battle Over South Korean Textbooks (Busan Haps)

— South Korea to probe corruption in international high schools (Asian Correspondent)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces

— Low Unemployment Rates, But No Jobs for Youths or Women (The Korea Economic Daily)

— Park Geun-hye: Female President, Patriarchal Society? (Roboseyo)

— Feeling the pinch: The housewives of Japan are giving less spending money to their husbands (The Economist)

— Asia Institute Seminar on ‘Women in Science’ in Seoul (Korea: Circles and Squares)

Gangnam Style

— The Obligatory Gangnam Style Post (Ask a Korean!)

— PSY And The Acceptable Asian Man (Racialicious)

— Is “Gangnam Style” a Hit Because of Our Asian Stereotypes? (Mother Jones)

— Growing Up Gangnam-Style: What the Seoul Neighborhood Was Really Like (The Atlantic)

— Dead horse (Liminality)

— Gangnam Style’s Irony is Missed b/c of the Publicity Wave (Asian Security Blog)

— On Gangnam Style (The Korea Times)

— What’s so funny about Gangnam Style? (The Guardian)

— Why Psy and not JYP? (The Korea Times)

— A Few Things JYP Can Learn From Psy for Wonder Girls’ American Venture (Seoulbeats)

— The Gangnam Phenom (Foreign Policy)

LGBT, Sexuality

— A Different Color of Sexual Identity (The Yonsei Annals)

— Former senior police officer: “Registered brothels needed” (The Korea Times)

— Queering Korean Literature: Author and Activist Yi Gwang-su (The Three Wise Monkeys)

— Beware of people asking you for 키알 / 섹알 (Hangukdrama and Korean)

— Why are men so obsessed with breasts? (io9)

— Reading List: Mapping the Vicissitudes of Homosexual Identities in South Korea (The Kimchi Queen)

— Dirty Little Secrets: A variety of Korean Sex Links (The Marmot’s Hole)

Miscellaneous

— The death of the red ink taboo in Korea (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Meeting the Mannam Cult: My Korean volunteerism at an end (Travel Blog)

— Crazy beautiful: Understanding the Korean mind (WND Diversions)

Pop Culture

— The Korean Wave and the Question of Soft Power (Seoulbeats)

— Nice Guy: Han Jae Hee Character Analysis (Idle Revelry)

“Courtship is usually portrayed (in heterosexual pairings) as something a man does; it’s an act he performs, while the woman is passive and simply receives his love. If she rejects him, it doesn’t mean he should stop, it simply means he has to try harder.”

— Review: Words of Farewell Fiction by Korean female writers (Korean Modern Literature in Translation)

— Revisiting the women who changed Korea with their pens (Yahoo!)

— I ain’t here to make you honkies laugh! (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Review: “Style” by RaNia (Mixtapes and Liner Notes)

— Review: T-ara’s “Sexy Love” is the sound of the girl group in crisis, and the song’s mock-seductive chorus goes just a step too far (Occupied Territories)

— Nothing like a healthy dose of fangirling (Hangukdrama and Korean)

— This is why you can’t lump “Asia” together (SNSD Free For All)

— How to make sure there are more “Pieta”s for the Korean film business (The Hankyoreh; see also this interview of Cho Min-soo)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

Yes, my KTX tickets and hotel are all booked. Hope to see you at Gyeongbokgung Station (경복궁), exit 3, at 6pm tomorrow! :D

Announcements

— Korean Unwed Mothers Families’ Association looking for 10 volunteers to go on this year’s Chuseok camp to Yeoncheon (Tales of Wonderlost; see also What is KUMFA)

Body Image,Health

— Pandora by KARA: Appropriate for Playing on City Buses? (Alleyways)

— Hands, Hips, Legs and Butts: Girl Groups’ Dances (Seoulbeats)

— Beautiful Genes? But ‘Idol’ Looks Good On Everyone (Seoulbeats)

— G-Dragon receives attention for his womanly curves in “Crayon” MV (Allkpop; see also Occupied Territories)

Censorship, Media

— Does Secret Need To Change Their Choreography? (Seoulbeats; see also What’s Your Poison and SB Exchange #25: It’s Secret Time)

— Sadism, incest, bestiality, oh my! (The Marmot’s Hole; see also The Herald Voice on Facebook)

— Regulation of Users Required to Use Real Name Online Abolished (Human Rights Monitor)

— New Regulations on Downloading Porn Confuse Netizens (Korea BANG)

Crime

— More sex offenders to be chemically castrated (The Hankyoreh)

— Sexual Assault Against Children (Human Rights Monitor)

— Random Stabbings in Seoul Brings Social Instability (Human Rights Monitor)

— So, did banning prostitution lead to increase in sex crimes? (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Sex Criminal Escapes from Jail In Daegu (ROK Drop)

— Amy Arrested for Illegally Using Propofol (Omona They Didn’t!)

— Foreign teacher sent to prison for molesting students (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Dating, Relationships, Marriage

— Comparing Marriage in the Middle Ages and Korea’s Choson Dynasty: 서양의 중세 초기와 조선의 결혼비교 (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Marry my Asian Daughter: For all the sassified, successfully single sisters who are in constant disappointment to their loving Asian mothers

— Craigslist ad (Dating in Korea)

— Guy Talk: I Date Outside My Race Because My Race Doesn’t Want To Date Me (The Frisky)

Education, Parenting, Demographics

— Tiger mothers in Singapore: The prime minister goes into battle against pushy parents (The Economist)

— Non-traditional families on the rise in South Korea (Asian Correspondent)

— Why the Korean School System Is Not Superior (New Politics)

— Korean-Australian woman finds she was falsely adopted (Tales of Wonderlost)

— Went to see 미쓰마마 (Bittersweet Joke), a documentary about unwed mothers in Korea (Tales of Wonderlost)

— Babies’ Lead Levels: Who knew baby-proofing could reach such heights? (Shotgun Adventures)

— Schools successfully experimenting with vegetarian meals (The Hankyoreh)

— Multicultural students jump 5-fold over past 6 years (The Korea Times)

Economics, Politics, Workplaces

— Mother’s Job Most Important Factor in Having 2nd Child (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Mistreatment of Part-time Workers (Human Rights Monitor)

— Nobody Told Asia About “The End of Men”: Mara Hvistendahl takes on Hanna Rosin (Foreign Policy)

— Directing all my rage at Slate’s logrolling of “The End of Men” (Feminéma)

— The-End-of-Men-Richer-Sex Reality Check #6 (Sociological Images)

— What is Violence in the Workplace? 2-Page Guide Translated into Korean (Worksafe BC; PDF)

LGBT, Sexuality

— Reading List: Korean Lesbians and Heteronormativity: From the Experiences of Six South Korean Lesbians (The Kimchi Queen)

— Queer Offerings at the Busan International Film Festival (The Kimchi Queen)

— Survey: Japanese school girls having less sex (Asian Correspondent)

— South Korean host bars – for women (BBC)

— What is a Room Salon? (Korea Law Today)

— S Korea transgender show scrapped after protests (The Hong Kong Standard; Korea Joongang Daily)

Pop Culture

— Koreans Have No Idea Why Americans Love Psy But They Can Learn From It (Asian Junkie)

— Commentary: Psy and the Acceptable Asian Man (Init_Music)

— Viral Video Gets North Korean Propaganda Treatment (The New York Times)

— Korean wave and the Gangnam style (ABC Radio Australia; radio program)

— Graphic: Number of views of K-pop Videos on Youtube, 2011 (SERI World)

— An Ode to the Stellar Females in Variety (Seoulbeats)

— Why have Korean dramas eclipsed even Mexican or Latin American serials and long-running American soaps? (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

— Review: Wayfarer: New Fiction By Korean Women (Korean Modern Literature in Translation)

Social Problems

— The Truth Behind Students’ Suicide (Human Rights Monitor)

— September Issue: Opening the Dialogue on Suicide (KoreAm)

— Runaways flee abuse at home, end up in prostitution (The Hankyoreh)

— South Korea: Golden Lion Winner ‘Pieta’ Reveals Society’s Dark Side (Global Voices)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

On the 27th of September, at 7:45 pm, there is a gay short-film festival taking place at the Seoul Art Cinema in Jongno, with all the films recorded on cell phones. See The Kimchi Queen for further details.

Meanwhile, I’ve rejigged the categories a little to make things easier to find, although of course there is still a lot of overlap: please let me know what you think. Also, with 1/3rd to 1/2 of the stories coming from outside of Korea, and with most not really being about “gender issues” per se (or maybe they are — it’s a very vague term really), I’ve been thinking of renaming these posts for a while now. If anyone has any suggestions for a new name, please let me know!

Update: Please let me know if you have any suggestions for Korean dating and relationship blogs to follow too. Not that Speaking of China isn’t a great site of course, but I would like to include some more Korean links here!

Body Image/Health/Socialization

— Female Restaurant Workers Tell Customers ‘Don’t Call Us Ajumma’ (Korea BANG)

— A Racist Little Outfit: Victoria’s Secret’s “Sexy Little Geisha” Lingerie (Bust)

— Korean Movie: Beautiful/아름답다 (Journey Into the Well)

— Thinking Pink: A History of Products “For Her” (Bitch)

— Fat For an Asian: The pressure to be naturally perfect (Escher Girls)

— Boys Throw Better Than Girls. Good Job? (XX Factor)

— The Omniscient Breasts: The Male Gaze Through Female Eyes (SF Signal)

Censorship

— Sex and Censorship During the Occupation of Japan (The Asia-Pacific Journal)

— More on vice. Eminem, Lady Gaga, and more. (Korea Law Today)

— S. Korea to beef up age-rating system for music videos (10Asia)

China/Taiwan

— Feminism Around the World: Awesome Activists Protest in China (Bust)

— Internal child trafficking in China (International Institute for Asian Studies)

— Surge in demand for British milk from China (The Telegraph)

Crime

— Street harassment in Incheon (I’m No Picasso II)

— Only 1/3 of Child Sex Crime Victims File Charges (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Government to toughen penalty for raping minors (The Korea Times)

— Crackdown alone can’t solve child abuse issue (The Korea Times)

— Amy was Threatened by an Attempted Rapist (ENewsWorld)

— Does the ROK Army Have A Sexual Assault Problem? (ROK Drop)

— Physical and Sexual Absuse in the ROK Military: A conscript’s perspective (Sorry, I was drunk)

— SKorea: Govt moves to expand prosecution of sex offenses (Asian Correspondent)

— How should Korea combat pedophilia? (The Korea Herald)

— Child Rape Survivor Sends Stuffed Toy to Naju Rape Victim (Korea Bang)

— Castration would reduce sex crimes: Saenuri reps (Korea Joongang Daily)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage

— From the Archives: On Finding Courage in Love (Speaking of China)

— Double Happiness: The Volunteer Who Went to China and Found Her True Love (Speaking of China)

Demographics/Multiculturalism

— One-child Policy Encourages Trafficking of NK Women (Mercator Net)

— 10 myths of the UK’s far right (The Guardian)

— Ignorance breeds racism (The Korea Times)

— The Gender Politics of Moving Back Home (The F-word)

— Grown Korean adoptees return to birth country to fill in the missing gap (Alleyways)

Education/Pregnancy/Childbirth/Parenting

— No. of Elementary School Students Hits Record Low (KBS World)

— South Korea will keep evolution in its high school textbooks! (io9)

— Grandmother gives birth to her own grandchild (io9)

— Why do fathers’ testosterone levels drop when sleeping near their children? (io9)

History

— Namsan: Of vanished history and unfulfilled plans (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

LGBT/Sexuality

— Sexually aroused women find everything less disgusting (io9)

— Reading List: En-gendering re-gendered romance of multiple lives: reincarnation in Bungee Jumping of Their Own (The Kimchi Queen)

— 17 Euphemisms for Sex From the 1800s (Mental Floss)

— Getting Tested for HIV/AIDS in Korea (The Kimchi Queen)

— Study Reveals Teens’ Warped Perceptions of Sex (The Chosun Ilbo)

— The problem with Naomi Wolf’s vagina (New Statesman)

— Men Like Heavier Women…Especially When Stressed Out! (Psychology Today)

— First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage: A Night at the Drive-in (Nursing Clio)

— Video: Gay in Korea (ROK On!)

— MBLAQ’s Lee Joon reveals his mom gifted him with birth control for college entrance (Omona They Didn’t)

North Korea

— Jennifer Lind on the DPRK government’s resilience (and women in IR) (Korean Kontext)

— Professor Robert Kelly’s Trip to North Korea (Asian Security Blog; continued in part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces

— For 40-something women, jobs scarce (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Korean women buy large, imported cars to avoid being bullied by male drivers (The Star)

Pop Culture

— Is It Too Soon for T-ara to Come Back? (Seoulbeats)

— Hallyu Tsunami: The Unstoppable (and Terrifying) Rise of K-Pop Fandom (Grantland)

— Roundtable: The Broken Fountain of Youth (Seoulbeats)

— Parade’s End director says sexism is still rife in [UK] drama world (The Guardian)

— Golden Time ponders extension — dude, you have one episode left (Dramabeans; see also “Golden Time confirms three-episode extension“)

— Tough Ladies Report to the Dance Floor (Seoulbeats)

Social Problems

— South Korea’s Blight: Suicide Gets Worse (Korea Real Time)

— Solbi speaks against suicide on World Suicide Prevention Day 2012 (AllKpop)

— Celebrity Suicides: An Unfortunate Trend (Seoulbeats)

— Suicides among Japanese students hit record level in 2011 (The Japan Times)

— Killing Yourself To Make A Living: In Japan Financial Incentives Reward Suicide (Japanese Subculture Research Center)

— 89% of US Army Suicides Are By Soldiers Who Never Saw Combat (ROK Drop)

— Living in a closet, tape a window to the wall (The Hankyoreh)

— Everyday Sexism: It isn’t restricted to adults – even young girls in school uniform share their experiences (The Telegraph)

— Ilyo Sisa denounces the barbarity of white men against Korean women (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Chuseok and 차례 and sexist traditions (I’m no Picasso)

— Korea’s new war on vice (Alleyways)

— Seoul adopts rights ordinance (The Korea Times)

(Links don’t necessarily imply endorsements)

Not really related to Korea sorry, but Derek Kim and Les McClaine, two of my favorite cartoonists, do need to sell 8-10,000 physical copies of the first chapter of Tune to keep the excellent web-series going. Just $9.86 on Amazon, or — I’m very happy to report for Korea-based readers — 20, 390 won at What The Book, I’m just about to order a copy for myself and (hopefully) my daughters. See here for the details, and please: don’t click on page 1 of Chapter 1 unless you’ve got a few hours to spare!

Announcements

— Video: Girls’ Generation? Gender, (Dis)Empowerment and K-pop by Dr. Stephen Epstein (Royal Asiatic Society)

— Busan Biennale 2012, September 22 – November 24 (Busan Haps)

Body Image/Health:

— Breast in show: the art of plastic surgeon Han Xiao (Want China Times)

— Queer Corner: Gendered Beauty Standards (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Plastic-Fantastic or Robotronic-Loverholic? (Seoulbeats)

— How Savvy Chinese People Avoid Toxic Food, Goods Produced in China (Asia Society)

— German magazine rethinking ‘no models’ policy (The Korea Herald)

— Objectifying Cyclist Jenny Fletcher (Sociological Images)

— Firms focus more on employees’ health (The Korea Times)

— Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams (The Guardian)

— The Daegu International Body Painting Festival 2012 in South Korea (The Telegraph)

— Look at Me! I’m on a Diet! The Girls Generation Diet!! (The Unlikely Expat)

— The Mosquito Truck (Ask a Korean!)

Censorship/Protest:

— G-Dragon new MV ‘That beeeeep’ will be censored with lots of annoying beeeeeeeeeeeps (Omona They Didnt)

— Protecting Sources & Risking Lives: The Ethical Dilemmas of Japanese Journalism (Japan Subculture Research Center)

— Constitutional Court of Korea Declares Internet Real-Name Online Identification System Unconstitutional (The Korea Law Blog)

— Military’s moral education has a political agenda (The Hankyoreh)

— Protests, public space in Seoul, and cyberspace – Part 5 (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Filming curtailed in ‘suicide forest’ (Visual Anthropology of Japan)

Crime:

— Suspect in Naju’s child abduction-rape case admits to crime (Yonhap)

— Drunk Man Kidnaps, Rapes and Leaves Girl with Internal Injuries (Korea Bang)

— Police request arrest warrant against child rape suspect (The Korea Times)

— Police revive stop and search to help fight violent crimes (The Korea Herald; The Korea Times)

— Need systematic crackdown on child pornography; South Korea is world’s sixth largest distributor of child porn (The Hankyoreh)

— Courts slammed for light sentences on sex offenders (The Korea Times)

— The War on Crime (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Crimes rekindle debate over capital punishment (The Korea Herald; The Korea Times; The Hankyoreh; Korea Real Time)

— SKorean juries give sex offenders harsher punishments (Asian Correspondent)

— Ex-doctor proposes surgical castration (The Korea Herald)

— Government to recruit 1,250 more police, probation officers (The Korea Times)

— Korea’s new war on vice (Korea Law Today)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— Ask the Yangxifu: Should I Wear a Qipao in My Chinese Wedding? (Speaking of China)

— Korean Hugs vs American Hugs (Gyopo Keith)

— Reply to “I’M AN ASIAN WOMAN AND I REFUSE TO EVER DATE AN ASIAN MAN” (AMWW Magazine)

— A Story of Sexism, Chinese Men and Who Should Wash the Dishes (Speaking of China)

— Does Waiting Six Months To Have Sex Improve Relationships? (XX Factor)

— A love letter from the past (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Yangxifu Pride: Pinterest Boards on Chinese Men and Western Women in Love (Speaking of China)

History:

— The Anti-Rising Sun Flag:Are the ghosts of the past still haunting us? (The Marmot’s Hole)

LGBT/Sexuality:

— Tokyo women weigh in on the possibility of participating in porn pictures (The Tokyo Reporter)

— K-dramas and “Pseudo-Homosexuality”: What Gives? (Seoulbeats)

— Gay groups up in arms over sexuality education textbook in Hangzhou (Shanghaiist)

— Reading List- Remembered Branches: Towards a Future of Korean Homosexual Film (The Kimchi Queen)

— K-Drama’s More Literal (And Laudable) Takes On Homosexuality (Seoulbeats)

— Queer Corner: Violence in a Label – 마짜, 때짜, 올 (Korean Gender Cafe)

— More to learn about LGBT travel trends from South Korea (Travel Daily News)

— Gayspeak: 떼박/Orgy (The Kimchi Queen)

— Gender-bendy hijinks from Oohlala Spouses (Dramabeans)

Miscellaneous:

— A Culture of Copying (ZenKimchi)

— In the Victorian Age, astronomy and nudity went hand in hand (io9; NSFW)

— Paper Tigers: What happens to all the Asian-American overachievers when the test-taking ends? (New York Magazine)

— Goodbye Reverend Moon (1920-2012). Let’s consider what happens next. (Korea Law Today)

— Do men and women really (literally) see the world differently? (io9)

Naomi Wolf’s Vagina:

— Ariel Levy on Naomi Wolf’s “Vagina” (Bitch)

— Neuroscientists take aim at Naomi Wolf’s theory of the “conscious vagina” (io9)

— Naomi Wolf: ‘Neural wiring explained vaginal v clitoral orgasms. Not culture. Not Freud’ (The Guardian)

— Naomi Wolf’s book Vagina: self-help marketed as feminism (The Guardian)

— Tunnel of Love (The Economist)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— For ‘losers’, Korean society is unforgiving (The Hankyoreh)

— In Japan, Retirees Go On Working (Bloomberg Business Week)

— How the 5-day workweek changed Korean employment (The Hankyoreh)

— Cancer, Death and Samsung’s Semiconductor Factories (The Three Wise Monkeys)

— Inside Korean Work Culture: Overworked and Underappreciated (The Three Wise Monkeys)

— The Greying Radicals in Korea and How they May Harm Your Korean Business (The Korean Law Blog)

— Female muscle: Now is not a good time to be a man (The Economist)

Pop Culture:

— Unpopular Opinion: Psy Isn’t Doing K-pop Any Favors (Seoulbeats)

— Gangnam Style: After 100 million downloads, maybe I should say something (Korea Law Today)

— There is No Such Thing as ‘Gangnam Style’ (The Three Wise Monkeys)

— What does Gangnam Style mean? (Cute in Korea)

— Why do the opinions of netizens bear so much weight on the K-Pop industry? (Netizen Buzz)

— Korean Culture Through K-pop 102: Will You Marry Me? (Seoulbeats)

— Why It Makes Me Sorry That Hwayoung Is Sorry (Seoulbeats)

— Netizens label YG Entertainment’s Jennie Kim a bullying bitch based on … uh … nothing (Asian Junkie)

— G-Dragon, “One of a Kind”: a 3-and-a-half-minute ego trip (My First Love Story)

— Is K-Pop Sustainable? Tom Coyner by IPG’s Senior Adviser (The Korean Law Blog)

Pregnancy/Abortion/Childbirth/Demographics/Parenting/Education/Multiculturalism:

— For the Love of All That’s Holy: You Don’t Lose Your Identity When You Become a Parent, You Lose Your Minutes (Jezebel)

— South Korea Struggles With Fewer Troops; U.S. Military With Fewer Dollars (Real Clear Politics)

— Dinosaurs and indoor pools – the lighter side of childhood in China (Seeing Red in China)

— Grown Korean adoptees return to birth country to fill in the missing gap (The Korea Times)

— More Or Less: Why, as people get richer, do they have fewer children? (The Economist)

— As education levels rise, fertility drops (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Number of women giving birth over 40 doubles in a decade (The Korea Times)

— Statistics on foreigners in Korea, and the ROK before the CERD (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— On Feeding (On Becoming a Good Korean (Feminist) Wife)

— Multiracial families and military service (The Korea Times)

— Korean scientists counter creationists on textbook controversy (The Hankyoreh)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

Not really related to Korea sorry, but the book sounds interesting, and I was impressed by the writing style of the reviewer at io9:

There’s also some heavy intellectual lifting going on in the background. The book doesn’t shy away from things like the politicization of the pregnant body, though it’s done so non-didactically, I wonder if a teen reader would even notice that what seems to be a standoff in a doctor’s office is really about the way different individuals view pregnant bodies and place value on them.

Click on the links for more. Meanwhile, I’ll be adding an “announcements” section to each KGR from now on, so if you ever have any fundraisers, meet-ups, public lectures and screenings, surveys, requests for information about lost loves etc., please let me know and I’ll add them here!

Announcements:

— Busan, Saturday 25th: Public screening of Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, an award winning documentary about sex-trafficking. See Busan Haps for details.

— The Noble Cause: Busan Salim Women`s Shelter (Busan Haps)

— Bras for a Cause (Seoul), August 24-September 30 (Facebook Group)

— UK Chinese Studies Student Seeks Chinese/Non-Chinese Couples for Dissertation Survey (Speaking of China)

— Lost love at first sight (Noona Blog: Seoul)

— Itaewon, Seoul: Auditions for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, September 1-2 (The Kimichi Queen)

— Gay Friends in Seoul Meetup: Sunday 26th, Jongkak (The Kimchi Queen)

— Volunteer Positions to Teach English to North Korean Defectors at Canadian Embassy (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Body Image/Health:

— About G.NA’s Malnutrition and Fans’ Hypocrisy (Seoulbeats)

— How Alysia Montano reminds the boys that they are getting beat by a girl (Yahoo!, via 10Confessions)

— Doctors Misuse and Abuse Sleep Inducers on Patients (Human Rights Monitor: South Korea)

— “Girls Get Curves” – combining math and body positivism (Work That Matters)

Censorship:

— Controversial Launch of Online Music Video Rating (Global Voices)

— Korea Policing the Net. Twist? It’s South Korea (The New York Times)

— Music video ratings strike an off note (Korea Joongang Daily)

— KARA may need to adjust “Pandora” dance for KBS’s ‘Music Bank’ (Allkpop)

— Ding dong, the online real name system is dead (The Marmot’s Hole)

Crime:

— Admission officer system fails to sort out sexual offender (The Korea Times)

— North Korea: Human Traffickers and the Chinese Market for Brides (The Daily Beast)

— Victim of sexual violence tells her heartbreaking story (The Hankyoreh)

— Ex-multiple rapist wearing electronic anklet nabbed for rape and murder (The Korea Times)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— Double Happiness: Chinese Wedding Stories from Four Western Women (Speaking of China)

— One Introvert, Finding Refuge (And Love) in China (Speaking of China)

LGBT/Sexuality:

— Trans-Roadmap: a space for the transgender people (Ilda)

— Struggling for acceptance, gay Christians find their own place of worship (Yonhap)

— Getting It On: The Covert History of the American Condom (Collectors Weekly)

— Thinking “Out of Bounds”: Masculinity, Male-to-Male Affection, and Athletics (The Feminist Wire)

— Are Women More Bisexual Than Men? (Femiblogged)

— XX파일 : X?파일 1회) XY로 태어나 XX의 삶을 선택한 그녀들의 고백 (Insite TV; video)

— Taiwan women in same-sex Buddhist wedding (Diva Asia)

— Taiwan same-sex union points to Asia shift on gay rights (France 24)

— How one sociologist sizes up China’s sex trade (Shanghaiist)

— Gayspeak: 철수 and 영희 (The Kimchi Queen)

— Shin Dong Yeop, Hong Seok Cheon Become MCs for Korea’s First Transgender Talk Show (E News World)

— Some reading on Korean attitudes towards AIDS (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Introducing Queer Corner 퀴어 코너 소개 with Guest Blogger Enzo Cho’Gath (Korean Gender Cafe)

— 공창제를 허하라, Should Korean government allow Licensed Prostitution? (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Queer Corner: Five Questions / 게이생활: 동성애자의 첫인상 칠문 (Korean Gender Cafe)

Miscellaneous:

— Preachers and Drunkards: Seoul Subway Users’ Worst Enemy (Korea Bang)

— Women allowed on bicycles as N. Korea turns wheels of change (itv News)

— Photos from a Day in Taipei: A Monument, a Climb, and a Japanese AV Actress (Shanghai Shiok)

— NYC Comedian Gets Attacked For Harassing Asians in Audience (I’m No Picasso II)

— Should South Korea do more to assist North Korean women? (Korean Gender Cafe)

— Smart Girls at the Party: “a fun reminder that you don’t have to be famous to be interesting, to matter, or to make a difference” (Thick Dumpling Skin)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— More housewives become breadwinners (The Korea Times)

— In Seoul, more women have become victims of the financial crisis than men (The Korea Times)

— Call center workers suffer from sexual harassment, small pay (The Korea Times)

Pop Culture:

— What exactly IS the message of PSY’s “Gangnam Style” and what does it say about gender or dating? (Korean Gender Cafe; a follow-up to a previous post)

— “There’s another entire discussion to be had about why Psy’s ‘Have enough self-confidence, and your dorkiness will become awesome’ message doesn’t seem to apply to females, who still need to be smoking hawt.” (SNSD Free for all)

— Being White in K-Pop: Chad Future’s “Hello” MV (Seoulbeats)

— Ma Boy serves up gender-bender school romance… with a twist (Dramabeans)

— Why Psy’s “Gangnam Style” style went “American-style” and is the “Apt Pupil” of K-Pop (Scribblings of the Metropolitican)

— Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea’s Music Video Sensation (The Atlantic)

— Smokin’ Hot or Smokin’ Not: Idols on Their Not-so-Best Behavior (Seoulbeats)

— KBS casts body-swapper drama Oohlala Spouses (Dramabeans)

Pregnancy/Abortion/Childbirth/Demographics/Parenting/Education/Multiculturalism:

— Korea charged with racial discrimination regarding HIV testing (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— To Boldly Go … Where Foreign Faces Speak Mandarin (Asia Society)

— Hollywood and the Helpless Husband: “…if you’re watching a film about men taking care of babies, you’re watching a comedy. That hasn’t changed since the dawn of American cinema.” (Women’s Voices for Change)

— Just Wait Until Your Mother Gets Home: Dads are taking over as full-time parents (New York Times)

— The Myth of Looming Female Dominance (Sociological Images; a critique of the NYT article)

— What am I teaching my son (mostly about driving)? (Surprises Aplenty)

— South Korea upholds abortion ban (The Guardian)

— Why is Samsung poking fun at foreigners speaking Korean? (Travel Wire Asia)

— Foreign instructor at a university in Daejeon to be fired for internet postings (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Study: The older the dad, the more mutations he’s likely to pass on (io9; The Economist; The Washington Post)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

Body Image/Health:

— Sneaking in on Sarah in the shower (Matador)

— Miss plastic fantastic? (The Korea Times)

— Are tattoos still taboo in South Korea? (Angry K-pop Fan)

— More Lookism: Koreans’ Nose Obsession (The Unlikely Expat)

— Humanizing the Olympic Body (Nursing Clio)

— Low-income women and high-income men show high obesity rate (The Korea Times)

— The “underground rules” of China’s beauty pageant (Want China Times)

— Street Harassment in Spain: What’s better? A culture where the objectification of women is in your face daily – but people acknowledge it exists? Or one where you know it’s there, but it hides malevolently? (Develled Dish)

— After Bikini-Girl Ban, Cosplay in Spotlight (China Real Time Report)

— Can women be in ads without someone yelling foul? (Adland.tv)

— The Benefits(?) of Wearing a Short Skirt in China (You Offend Me You Offend My Family)

Crime:

— New sex scandal at Korea University (Asian Correspondent)

— Korean Supreme Court overturns molestation conviction of pants-dropper (Asian Correspondent)

— Child pornography VERY poorly monitored (The Korea Times)

— Man Scolds 16-year-old for Spitting, Gets Beaten-up and Dies (Korea Bang)

— Is the Punishment for Rape & Sexual Assault Too Light In Korea? (ROK Drop)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— “Did you always want to marry an Asian guy?” (Speaking of China)

— Korea to tighten rules on international marriage brokers (The Korea Herald)

— Race as reflected in gender ratios within fictional bi-racial marriages (Hafu)

“The Reality and Twisted Values of Some White Men” Series at Gusts of Popular Feeling:

— Part 9: The ‘Hidden camera sex video’ could spread… anxious police, idle university

LGBT/Sexuality:

— Dinner, Movie, and a Dirty Sanchez (GQ)

— PiFan 2012: Super Virgin (숫호구, Suthogoo) 2012 (Modern Korean Cinema)

— Popular Korean Comic Book Depicts Exploitation, Abuse, & Murder of Prostitutes (With Conviction)

History:

— The Torture Chambers of Seoul (And With Your Help, I’ll Get That Chicken)

Misc:

— Blog Shoutout: Korean Gender Café 한국 젠더 카페

— Newspaper Reports on Online Misogyny ‘Ladygate’ Trend in Korea (Korea Bang)

— The truly inspiring story of the Chinese rubbish collector who saved and raised THIRTY babies abandoned at the roadside (The Daily Mail)

— Actress Lee Shi Young wins amateur boxing championship, is actual baddest female in K-entertainment (Asian Junkie)

— Getting a modeling job in Korea (Noona Blog: Seoul)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— Female work force boosted as child care burden eases (Korea Joongang Daily)

— North Korean grassroots capitalism has a female face (The Korea Times)

— One-third of Korean workers bullied at office (Asian Correspondent; also see Women Bullying Women)

— Shadow of the Japanese housewife (The Japan Times)

— Samsung’s Female Executives Shatter South Korea’s Glass Ceiling (The Daily Beast)

Pop Culture:

— Trying to make sense of the T-Ara controversy (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Guilty until proven innocent: The lynch mob against T-ara and who’s really to blame (The Prophet Blog)

— Why Homoerotic Fanservice is Just Not Okay (Seoulbeats)

— Verbal Jint reveals “You Deserve Better” was inspired by story of domestic violence (Allkpop)

— Idols, Twitter and Online Harassment (Seoulbeats)

— A Debut Novel Considers the Angry Asian (Scene Asia)

Pregnancy/Abortion/Childbirth/Demographics/Parenting/Education/Multiculturalism:

— Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Paternity Testing (Psychology Today)

— Caesarean sections result in infections for one in ten patients, study finds (The Guardian; also see Pregnancy, Caesareans and Body Image in Korea)

— Disney Princesses Circa 2012: I’m Too Sexy For My Gown? (Peggy Orenstein)

— Introducing: Cinderella 2012 (Peggy Orenstein)

— Deadbeat Dads and No Show Moms: 1 million orphans in Korea (Occidentalism)

— Will the foreigners PLEASE stop molesting women at the beach, Part II (The Marmot’s Hole)

— More support on way for interracial families (The Korea Times)

— Generational warfare: Young and old have different ideas on how to rebuild tsunami-stricken communities (The Economist)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(“Less Births, Better Births” by IISG; edited)

Body Image/Health:

— On Korean ‘dieting’ and why I need to have a chat with my gym (I’m No Picasso)

— Teacher Small Face: On Beauty in South Korea (The Culture Muncher)

— Myths about corrective jaw surgery debunked (The Korea Times)

— Opinion: On Photoshopping (Niche)

— Fashion: A thin line between sexy and trashy (The Korea Times)

— Asian beauty, redefined (Thick Dumpling Skin)

— Colon cancer rates among Korean men highest in Asia (Arirang; see here for a cached version)

— What happened to f(x) Luna’s muscular legs? (Korea.com)

— Problems will arise at the conversion of oral contraceptives to prescription-only (Ilda)

— Taking morning-after pills in time is the key (Ilda)

— Even the peer-reviewed science of penis size is burdened by a lack of consistent data (i09)

Crime:

— Police investigating foreign instructor for hidden camera sex videos (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Sex, an English Teacher and (Secretly Recorded) Videotape (The Marmot’s Hole)

— NoCut News celebrates another victory in battle against foreign instructor (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Student Finds Secret Sex Tapes on Foreign Teacher’s Computer (Korea Bang)

— Open World Entertainment CEO Jang Seok Woo threatens victims (Asian Junkie)

— Open World Entertainment CEO threatens victims, is reprimanded by judge (K-Pop Express)

— Six celebrities’ online malls fined for fake customer reviews (Korea Law Today)

— Spy cameras help Peeping Toms go on the prowl (The Korea Herald)

— South Korean violent crime rate “at least twice as high as US” (Asian Correspondent)

— Korean Tourism Official Says American Men with Korean Women Are To Blame For Wild Nightlife In Shinchon & Itaewon (ROK Drop)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— How the Logic of “Friendzoning” Would Work If Applied in Other Instances (Kim Yuri)

— [Korean App] TTTing – Fun with Social Dating (Hangukdrama and Korean)

— My Korean Family (Asiapundits)

— Avoiding Generalizations about Korean Men (I’m No Picasso II)

The English Spectrum Series at Gusts of Popular Feeling:

— Part 37: Warrant for the arrest of a man in his 30s for breaking into home of foreign instructors

LGBT/Sexuality:

— Smut and Fanservice in Anime (The Dragorol; NSFW)

— Why You Can’t Bulletpoint Gay Travel (Waegook Tom)

— Harisu, More Beautiful Than A Woman: LGBT In The Entertainment Industry (Seoulbeats)

— Lesbians now allowed to donate blood; gay men still barred (Shanghaiist)

— 400 prostitutes working in a single brothel in Seoul? (Occidentalism)

— Family in forced abortion case compensated RMB70,000 (Shanghaiist)

Misc:

— ‘K-Town’ Gets Its Own Reality Show With A Hard-Partying, Foul-Mouthed, Purse-Throwing Cast (LAist)

— Gendercide and the Role of Media: Chinese Missing Girls (Democracy x Peace)

— Korea and Vietnam: Learn from History (The Korea Times)

— “You’re overthinking things”: A response (The F-Word)

— Asian-American Exceptionalism: An Inconvenient Truth (Via Korea)

— Still think Westerners are better critical thinkers than Asians?? (The Diplomat)

— Culturalism in the context of the Fukushima Disaster the instinctive response to blame (Asian) culture to explain any and all behavior (Ask a Korean)

— Stop blaming Fukushima on Japan’s culture (East Asia Forum)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— Asian Values and Women in the Boardroom (The Unlikely Expat)

— “It remains realistically difficult to take maternity leave [in Korea]” (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Most new workers are past retirement age while young people struggle to start careers (The Hankyoreh)

— Stereotypes of women in the workplace (Korea Joongang Daily)

Pop Culture:

— Obvious sexism and outdated gender roles on A Gentleman’s Dignity (Loverholic, Lobotronic)

— The Dark Side: Skin Colour and K-pop (Seoulbeats)

— Tired of all of the new groups appearing? So are the groups themselves! (Asian Junkie)

— 2NE1′s Minzy & CEO Yang Hyun Suk make a compromise regarding sexy dances (Allkpop)

— T-ARA’s Eunjung Wasn’t Feeling Bo Peep Bo Peep (MTV-K)

Pregnancy/Abortion/Childbirth/Demographics/Parenting/Education/Multiculturalism:

— Dressing the Part: Should Moms Dress More Conservatively? (Geek in Heels)

— “Wild Goose Families” on NPR’s All Things Considered (The Unlikely Expat)

— Adventures in Parenting Abroad Part 1: Knocked Up (The Three Wise Monkeys)

— Multiculturalism: a choice, not an inevitability (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Diplomats discuss migrants’ welfare (The Korea Herald)

— South Korea’s Shutdown Curfew For Minors Challenged In Court (Gaming Blend)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

A poster for the upcoming movie Plump Revolution, in which Lee So-jeong puts on weight for a man (Lee Hyeon-jin) whose ideal type is a plump woman. Hopefully, it will have more helpful social messages than 200 Pounds Beauty (2006) did!

Body Image/Health:

— Lookism or Insecurity: Cosmetic Surgery in South Korea (Kim Yuri; video by Jean Chung)

— Unrealistic Representations of Women in G-Market Ads: Part 1, Part 2 (Kim Yuri)

— In China, a Radical Solution for the Sunburn (The Atlantic)

— Where is the ‘S-Line’? Male-Female Split in Netizen Opinion (Korea Bang)

— Rainbow’s leader wins suit against plastic surgeon (Korea Joongang Daily)

— When Idolizing Idols Goes Too Far (Seoulbeats)

— North Korean women can wear trousers and high heels at last (Daily News)

— Confessions of a Retoucher (gemmaruthwilson{dot}com)

Censorship:

— MV Censorship to Hit Online Content Next Month (MTV-K)

— New Regulation That Might Shake Up K-Pop World: Music Videos Require Review Before Online Releases (Soompi)

— Korean Groups Declare War on Internet Pornography (Korea Bang)

Crime:

— School Employee Sentenced to 12 Years for Raping Deaf Student (Omona They Didnt)

— Supreme Court puts to rest Korea University molestation case (Asian Correspondent)

— Women’s rights group protests violence against women (The Korea Herald)

— Odd Sexual Harassment Ruling Gets Mocked Online (Global Voices)

— Korean police seek reforms to ‘prevent another Oh Won-chun’ (Asian Correspondent)

— Man ‘Molests’ Girl at Driving Range, is Fined. Netizens Divided (Korea Bang)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— Growing up with Banana Fever (The F-Word)

— Touching the Opposite Sex in Korea (Seoulistic Videos)

— The menace of ‘foreign peril’ media (Groove Korea)

— Response(s) to the MBC report (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

History:

— The dangers of the call of nature (The Marmot’s Hole)

LGBT/Sexuality:

— In Pictures: Korean Sex Workers’ Day (Research Project Korea)

— Decriminalizing prostitution in Korea (The Korea Herald)

— Seoul court rules to prevent posters advocating for gay rights (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Korean prostitutes caught on tape in Tokyo (The Tokyo Reporter)

— Can Korea ever accept homosexuals? (The Korea Herald)

— When We Acknowledge Difference, Life Becomes a Festival: Participating in the 13th Korea Queer Culture Festival’s Parade (Ilda)

Misc:

— North Korea has Girl Groups Similar to Girls’ Generation? (Soompi)

— Poor Treatment of Female Inmates in North Korean Gulags (Korea Bang)

— Spotting Suicidal Tendencies on Social Networks (Technology Review)

— The gentleman’s syndrome: A look into the real-life 40-something man-about-town (The Korea Herald)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— To people who ask, “What is it that women’s organizations have done?”: The hate underlying the “__ Girl series” and criticism of women’s organizations (Ilda)

— ‘Strikingly’ few women in Asia’s top jobs (Rappler)

— Seoul City initiatives to improve lives of women (Korea: Circles and Squares)

— Park Chu-young’s Military Service Mess (The Diplomat)

— Women can help save the Korean economy (The Dong-a Ilbo)

— Lookism, Snarkiness, and Judgment at Work in Korea (The Unlikely Expat)

— Income Gap between Men and Women Widens in Korea (Arirang)

— The place of young women: Girl power up (The Economist; China)

— New-fangled feminism: Self-dignified indeed (The Economist; China)

Pop Culture:

— What’s it like to be women in Korea’s indie scene? (MTV-K; video automatically opens)

— The Baddest Female Seoul City Ever Had: CL, artist of the year 2011 (Frank Kogan)

— Photos of Tanned K-pop Band Spark Controversy over Skin Colour (Korea Bang)

— A Gentleman’s Dignity: Dumped for Wearing a Sexy Dress (Lobotronic)

— Only Caucasian Actress/Models Sought for B2ST MV (Omona They Didn’t; Asian Junkie)

— 4-Minute sings Hindi: Re-visiting cultural insensitivity and why society sucks (Angry K-Pop Fan)

— Four Minutes to Build a Case for Cultural Sensitivity (Seoulbeats)

— More on cross-cultural encounters: a response to Seoulbeats (Radio Palava)

Pregnancy/Abortion/Childbirth/Demographics/Parenting/Education/Multiculturalism:

— Electronic Wristlet Rental Service for Children at Haeundae Beach (Busan Haps)

— Turning One (Lee’s Korea Blog)

— More Older Singles Are a Challenge for the Government (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Many Prefer to Stay Single Forever (The Chosun Ilbo)

— …Or maybe it should be titled Many have no choice but to stay single forever (Alleyways)

— Should Mommy Blogs Be Censored? (Geek in Heels)

— Dads of Reddit: How has having daughters changed your perception of women? (Reddit)

— Asians Are Immigrations New Face (The New York Times; The Unlikely Expat; ROK Drop)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

With apologies for the short notice (my fault!), today is Korean Sex Workers’ Day, with a variety of cultural and informational activities planned, and a potluck dinner on Sunday. Please see Research Project Korea for further details.

Body Image/Health:

— Hyomin’s thigh is smaller than her manager’s calf (Allkpop)

— Seoul: Where even kids are fashionistas (Shanna’s 수다)

— Tackling the overweight problem: “healthy” Japan is no exception (International Institute for Asian Studies)

— Participant on ‘Hello’ struggles with her husband’s wish for her to be as slim as After School’s Uee (Allkpop)

— Beauty Inside the DPRK: North Korean Ladies’ Hairstyles (Korea Bang)

Censorship:

— Unnecessary Pixelating on Television (Dear Korea)

Crime:

— Rape victim suffered ‘ping-pong’ investigation (Asian Correspondent)

— Shanghai Metro tells sexily-dressed female passengers to expect harassment (Shanghaiist)

— Supreme court confirms a messy case of sexual harassment by police (The Hankyoreh)

— Message sent from Korean victim of sex trafficking (The Korea Times)

— Taekwondo Academy Director Detained for Rape of Pupils (Korea Bang)

— Private tutor gets probation for molesting student (Asian Correspondent)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— Is there a difference when someone refers to you as “애인” vs “여자친구”? (I’m No Picasso)

— Getting Married in South Korea for 20 cents (Vegan Urbanite)

— Who Do You Love?: Korean Ethnocentrism, International Couples and the Dating Dilemma (The Three Wise Monkeys)

— Many Prefer to Stay Single Forever (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Interracial Dating (cultural/ethnic) Black, White & Asian: PART 1 (The Vanguard Element)

The English Spectrum Series at Gusts of Popular Feeling:

— Part 36: Viewers shocked by shameless acts of unqualified foreign instructors

Misc:

— Women Facing Harsh New Pressures in North Korea (International Herald Tribune)

— Foreign English teachers get high and mock immigration (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Women and Girls Are the Solution, Not the Problem (The Unlikely Expat)

— China’s Child-Swap Reality Show Highlights Class Divide (Tea Leaf Nation)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— Should Koreans work less? (The Korea Herald)

— Older Women Outnumber Younger Women in Employment (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Company Loyalty: Cultural or Generational? (Geek in Heels)

Pop Culture:

— Director says ‘Concubine’ sex scenes are complicated (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Academic sources for K-pop/Hallyu studies (Angry K-pop Fan)

— How Korean and Japanese youth culture has impacted the youth culture of Thailand: academic links (Angry K-pop Fan)

— When fandoms become something more, again (SNSD Free-For-All)

— “A primer for how weird Korean fans are so you know whether you’re creepier than them” (My First Love Story)

— Four Minutes to Build a Case for Cultural Sensitivity (Seoulbeats)

— A word about fan behavior (Angry K-pop Fan)

— I’m Just a Fan: Korea’s Dedicated Pop Stalkers (Leisure Only; some NSFW images in sidebar)

— At Odds: Idol Working Conditions and The Entertainment Biz (Seoulbeats)

— Agencies will take steps to protect teenage entertainers (The Korea Times)

— Confucianism and The Female Roles in K-dramas (Seoulbeats)

— K-Pop ‘boom’ faltering in Japan, 70% of housewives dislike Hallyu (Omona They Didnt)

— Do YouTube Views Really Matter? (Seoulbeats)

Pregnancy/Abortion/Childbirth/Demographics/Parenting/Education/Multiculturalism:

— Chinese woman under house arrest for telling her story of forced abortion to German press (Want China Times)

— School demographics (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Baby-Dearth Generation Start Primary School (The Chosun Ilbo)

— How will a low birth rate and aging population affect Korea? (The Dong-a Ilbo)

— KAIST chief objects to professors’ sense of privilege (The Korea Times)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

A reminder that Busan’s first ever drag prom is happening tomorrow, with all proceeds going to charity. Please click on the image for the details, or here for the Facebook page. Hope to see you there!^^

Update: I’ve just been asked to also pass on the news that, on Sunday, celebrated author Krys Lee will be coming to the 10 Magazine Book Club meeting to discuss Drifting House, her internationally acclaimed debut collection of short stories (many of which deal with many issues prevalent in Korean society and recent Korean history). Held at 2pm in the Cafe Bene Book Cafe in Itaewon, see the Facebook page for the details.

Body Image/Health:

— Overheard in a Cafe: Korean-Koreans Lamenting Their Weight (Korean Bodega)

— Actress Lee Chae-young under fire for tweets degrading the overweight (Allkpop; Korea Bang)

— Korea has many beautiful people. Korea also has many wealthy cosmetic surgeons. (Alleyways; see here and srslsly also)

— Takeaway Trolling: Attack of the Midnight Snack (Korea Bang)

— A Tumblr of photoshopped blue-eyed K-pop idols? (My First Love Story; update)

Crime:

— Closure still not brought to allegedly abused Indonesian crews (The Hankyoreh)

— Suwon murderer sentenced to death (The Korea Times)

— Sexual Harassment on Korean Buses (I’m No Picasso)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— 5 Famous, Inspiring Asian Men Who Also Married Non-Asian Women (Speaking of China)

— Facebook Group Shout-out: Western Girls Married to Korean Guys

— $60,000 Will Buy You a North Korean Wife (The Marmot’s Hole)

The English Spectrum Series at Gusts of Popular Feeling:

— Part 34: The rising tide of unqualified foreign instructors

— Part 35: Warrant for Canadian English instructor who molested hagwon owner

History:

— Picture of the Day: 1904 Gisaeng School In South Korea (ROK Drop)

— Parents of Girls Killed In 2002 USFK Armored Vehicle Accident React To the 10 Year Anniversary of the Tragedy (ROK Drop)

— The Camptown Prostitution Workshop (Hello Korea!)

— Photo: Feet of Chinese woman, bound, compared with tea cup and an American woman’s shoe (via Sociological Cinema)

— May, 1970: Juvenile Delinquency Up (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Picture of the Day: Korean Women In 1904 (ROK Drop)

— Defense Ministry finally admits thousands of child soldiers were drafted during Korean War (The Chosun Ilbo)

LGBT/Sexuality:

— Law on Contraceptive Pill Changes (Korea Bang; Kitty Kitty Korea)

— Sex, Anti-Korean Sentiment and Videotape (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Queer Comrades: Interview with Stijn Deklerck (YAM Magazine)

— Two Weddings and a Funeral: Interview with Kim Jho Kwang-soo (YAM Magazine)

— The Importance of Kim Jho Kwang-Soo (YAM Magazine)

— Male Homosexuality in the Japanese Media (YAM Magazine)

— Korea’s only openly gay comedian reveals split with boyfriend (K-Pop Express)

— Can Korea ever accept homosexuals? (Asia One News)

— China, Hong Kong: ‘Happy Ad’ for Student Abortions Ignites Debate (Global Voices)

— Oh my gay and lesbian K-pop Tumblrs (Occupied Territories; update/disclaimer)

— Bumper Year for Adult-Oriented Korean Movies (The Chosun Ilbo)

Misc:

— Meet fighter pilot Liu Yang, China’s first woman in space (io9)

— For Liu Yang, sexism is still the final frontier (Want China Times)

— ‘Sexy’ Mandarin language school slammed by Chinese feminists (The Telegraph)

— Guangdong TV apologizes for bikini hosts (China Daily USA)

— Why China Doesn’t Like Barbie, Best Buy or DIY (Daily Finance)

— Humor, tears on North Korean defector TV show (The Chicago Tribune; The Telegraph {automatic video})

(The worst and best G20 countries for women, Thomson Reuters Foundation)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— Celebrity Suicides, Netizen Trolling, and the “Success” of the Real Name System (Gord Sellar)

— The Importance of Women for the Future of Korea (The Hankyoreh)

— Too early for a woman president: Lee Jae-oh (The Marmot’s Hole; The Wall Street Journal)

— Young Korean men will still have to choose between jail and the barracks (The Hankyoreh)

— Lady Business: When Men Are Condescending at Work (Bitch Magazine)

Pop Culture:

— Celebrity Suicides: An Unfortunate Trend (Seoulbeats)

— Understanding K-pop Fan Fiction (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Latest K-Pop Invasion: The Fans (The Wall Street Journal)

— Young At Heart: Debunking K-Pop’s Age Limit Myth (Seoulbeats)

— Far East Movement try to break Asian stereotypes with “Fetish” (MTVK; note that the music video automatically opens)

— Counterpoint: f(x) Still Has the Math Right (Seoulbeats)

— Opinion: Asian-American women pay price for lurid rumors about actress Zhang Ziyi (inAmerica)

— Making Sense of English phrases in K-pop songs (Angry K-pop Fan; see here and here also)

Pregnancy/Childbirth/Demographics/Parenting/Education/Multiculturalism:

— Multicultural Military ‘Inevitable’ (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Military Becomes More Multicultural (The Chosun Ilbo)

— On Shock and Awe in Intercultural Parenting (On Becoming a Good Korean {Feminist} Wife)

— Happy Father’s Day! 5 Most Famous Dads in Korean Entertainment! (Soompi)

— Korean society struggles to embrace multiculturalism (The Korea Herald)

— Sungkyunkwan University won’t accept bullies (The Korea Times)

— Korean Airlines Gaffe: Kenya’s “indigenous people full of primitive energy” (AlJazeera; see also The Marmot’s Hole)

— Word of the Day: Pinkerton Syndrome – and Korean Racism/Racialized Insecurity (The Unlikely Expat)

— Mongolian Kids in Korea (The Unlikely Expat)

— My Kid’s Not Cold; or The Possible Reason Korea Has the Lowest Birthrate in the World (Asia Pundits)

— Korean society aging fastest (The Korea Times)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

For any readers who don’t already know, this Sunday the 17th there will be “International Couples and Friends Picnic” from 12pm to 6pm in Yeoido Park in Seoul. See here for the details and a press release, while here are some of the most recent blog posts about the original MBC story:

— MBC to Mixed-Race Couples: Maybe you have a guilty conscience (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— MBC, The Vilification of Foreigners, and Hallyu (Seoulbeats)

— Thoughts on the MBC Clip and the Facebook Reaction (Gord Sellar)

— Media Strike in Korea (Ask a Korean)

— MBC’s “Shocking Truth” Is Another Black Mark (Infidel World)

Meanwhile, on Sunday the 16th at 2pm,  a recent North Korean defector will speak and take questions at Busan National University. See Busan Haps or the North Korea Awareness Facebook page for further details.

Here are this week’s regular categories:

Body Image/Health:

— On Babies and Body Image (On Becoming a Good Korean Feminist Wife)

— South Korea: Birth Control Regulation Changes Provoke Debate (Global Voices)

— Uncomfortable in our skin: the body-image report (The Guardian)

Crime:

— Dude with Asian Fetish in Boston Public Library (Korean Bodega)

— The fine line between ‘obedience’ and rape in North Korea (Women Under Siege)

— Government investigation finds foreign workers on Korean vessels were abused (The Hankyoreh)

— Oh Won-chun (Suwon rapist & murderer) sentenced to death (The Marmot’s Hole)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— Loving Day: the 45th Anniversary of Anti-Miscegenation Laws in the United States (Shotgun Korea)

— Radiation likened to angry Japanese wife (The News)

— A brief guide to Korean weddings (Alleyways)

— Finding Love on the Internet: Does it Work? (Psychology Today)

The English Spectrum Series at Gusts of Popular Feeling:

— Part 32: Invasion of Privacy Degrades Korean Women Twice Over

— Part 33: 60 unqualified native speaking instructors hired for English instruction

History:

— The 2002 USFK tank accident, ten years later (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Remembering the 10th Anniversary of the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident (ROK Drop)

— Tenth anniversary of girls killed by US military vehicle (The Hankyoreh)

LGBT/Sexuality:

— Male Homosexuality Study: Gay Men Have Evolutionary Benefit For Their Families, New Research Suggests (The Huffington Post)

— 16 Million Chinese Women Married To Men… Who Like Men (Überfacts)

— Tired of beating up on drunks, Chosun declares war on Korean prostitutes abroad (The Marmot’s Hole)

Misc:

— China to send first female taikonaut into space (io9)

— Ladygate: ‘Cup Noodle Girl’ Divides Netizen Opinion (Korea Bang)

— Korean Soju is World’s Most Popular Spirit (Korea Bang)

— North Korean Defectors A Hit On Popular South Korean TV Show (ROK Drop)

— American v. Korean Communication: Talking v. Listening (The Unlikely Expat)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— S Korea: long slog to a tricky future (Financial Times)

— Easy Economic Boost: More Women at Work (The Wall Street Journal)

— The Trials and Tribulations of MC Mong (Seoulbeats)

Pop Culture:

— T-ara Pure (Frank Kogan)

— 귀엽다 Korea: The World’s (second) Cutest Nation (The Culture Muncher)

— The Best Kdrama Kiss as Selected by Netizens (Soompi)

— Apparently MBC thinks Egyptians are the same as Native Americans (Asian Junkie)

— SNSD Unit Group “TaeTiSeo” Changing Members Tomorrow, Replacing Seohyun with 8-year old girl (The Yangpa)

Pregnancy/Childbirth/Demographics/Parenting/Education/Multiculturalism:

— Depression and Motherhood (Geek in Heels)

— Chinese students bitching (The Marmot’s Hole)

— S. Korean Army to appoint first mixed-race officers (Yonhap)

— Cabby fined for refusing to pick up foreigners (The Marmot’s Hole)

— 40% of multiracial children have difficulty with Korean (The Korea Times)

— Men In Blackness in Korea: Will Smith & Life (The Vanguard Element)

— ‘Forced abortion’ picture causes uproar in China (The Korea Herald)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

For anyone following the response to the MBC video, please note than an “International Couples and Friends Picnic” event is being held in Seoul on Sunday June 17th, which you can read more about here. It also has a handy list of the most recent links about the video.

Update: For those of you not on Facebook, here is a Microsoft Word file with the information in the link.

Next, as you can see above, Busan’s first drag prom will be on the Saturday after that, with all proceeds going to charity. For further details, please see the Facebook event page (you don’t need to be logged in).

Finally, here are this week’s stories. Probably the one that will impact the most readers is the news that the contraceptive pill will now require a prescription, while ironically the morning-after pill is to be made available over the counter (see the links in “Body Image/Health” below). I’ll write a more detailed post on it the week after next (next week is the last week of the semester sorry!), but in the meantime thanks to Alex for providing the rationale for the move over on the blog’s Facebook page:

My wife (Korean nurse) says it has to do with the doctors vs pharmacists lobby. Basically the doctors want a certain amount of drugs to require prescriptions so they can get their cut but the pharmacists want to give out the morning after pill so it’s easily accessible in times of need (ie when the doctors clinic isn’t open). So the government cut a deal to basically swap the situations of the pill and the morning after pill. Then the doctors ‘lobby’ decided to make some stuff up about how the pill should need a prescription even though they’ve been giving it out for years (decades?) without one. This news should be on the mouth of all sexually responsible women in Korea, but it hasn’t really blown up that big yet.

Body Image/Health:

— Single Women in Seoul More Likely to Drink, Smoke (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Morning-after pills now available OTC, but regular contraceptive pills now made prescription only (The Korea Herald)

— Contraception and women`s health (The Dong-a Ilbo)

— South Korean FDA drops prescriptions for emergency contraception (Lifesitenews)

— Emergency Contraception Is Not Abortion (XX Factor)

— Celebrity Worship is for Chicks (Via Korea)

— Word of the Day: Lookism (The Unlikely Expat)

Censorship:

— South Korea: Court Upholds Military Ban on “Subversive” Books (Global Voices)

— Malaysian Officials Denounce K-pop’s “Indecency” (MTVK)

— Is hallyu guidebook censorship? (The Korea Times)

Crime:

— Mother kills daughters, self over divorce issues (Asian Correspondent)

— Go Young Wook rape charges dropped by police due to lack of “physical damage” (Asian Junkie)

— Ladygate: ‘Hair Ripping Girl’ is Identified After Attack (Korea Bang)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— HK Women – White Men Dating Ad Sparks Outcry (The Wall Street Journal)

— A Girl You Should Date (Nonamerah)

— The Benefits of Sharing a Bed (The Wall Street Journal)

— Ladygate: ‘Date Girl’ Picks up Coffee Bill, Feels Cheated (Korea Bang)

The English Spectrum Series at Gusts of Popular Feeling:

— Part 30: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?

— Part 31: Foreign instructor: “In two years I slept with 20 Korean women”

History:

— Crows and Japanese brides (The Marmot’s Hole)

LGBT/Sexuality:

— Pride Breakdown (Chincha?!)

— Blog of the Week: The Kimchi Queen (Chincha?!)

— The stress of being bisexual drives young people to drink (io9)

Misc:

— Binge Drinking Rife Among University Students (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Singing North Korean waitresses: Why I was not amused (Korea Law Today)

— High Heels for Korean Men (Seoulistic)

— Foreign teachers in the news (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— 47 members of new parliament won exemption from military service (The Korea Herald)

Pop Culture:

— Girl’s Day’s Oh! My God (Frank Kogan)

— Re-structuring T-Ara: The Addition of Dani (Seoulbeats)

— T-ara’s Dani’s tale of discovery probably outs CEO Kim Kwang Soo as a pedophile (Asian Junkie)

— The Babies of K-pop: How Young is Too Young? (Seoulbeats)

— When (Korean) women do rap (Occupied Territories)

— Idol History: K-pop By The Numbers (Seoulbeats)

— Are We NOT MEN? Part 1 (Frank Kogan)

— Dal★shabet, “Mr. Bang Bang” MV (Occupied Territories)

Pregnancy/Childbirth/Demographics/Parenting/Education/Multiculturalism:

— Free child care feared to deepen moral hazard among young mothers (The Korea Times)

— S.Korean Parents Use of Childcare Facilities, a Concern (KBS World)

— Migrant workers’ children face discrimination in South Korea (The Washington Times)

— Int`l marriage in Korea to decline due to falling farmer pop. (The Dong-a Ilbo)

— Discipline in Korean Schools: Divide and conquer (Hello Korea!)

— Evolution To be Dropped From Korean Science Textbooks (Gord Sellar; also see Surprises Aplenty, io9, The Marmot’s Hole, and ROK Drop)

— Privileges for varsity athletes (Surprises Aplenty)

— “I want to make it better for my kids” (The Korea Times)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source; edited)

As Hello Korea! aptly describes the above program, “after years spent learning to groom yourself into a living doll, you can then strive to be a Stepford wife.”

Meanwhile, for those very few readers unaware, MBC recently screened a blatantly sexist and racist report titled “The Shocking Reality of Relationships with Foreigners.” For more information and perspective on it, here are some of the longer blog posts about it I’ve been able to find, in chronological order:

— A tasty xenophobic morsel (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Racist MBC Video: Some Perspective and Marching Orders (Roboseyo)

— The Shocking Reality of Korea’s Racist Yellow Journalism (Expat Hell)

— More Korean Media Ignorance: The Shocking Reality About Relationships With Foreigners (The Unlikely Expat)

— Exclusive: Does MBC Deserve the Pulitzer? (Busan Haps)

— The Shocking Truth About Sexist/Racist MBC Programming (And What We’re Doing About It) (Gord Sellar)

Also, now there’s now an over 7000-strong Facebook group coordinating a response. And thanks very much to the reader who emailed me the following about how to make an official complaint:

I found the government office, where you can complain about the program officially. It is the Press Arbitration Commission (언론중재위원회). It don’t look like the English site has all the forms, unlike the Korean link, but there is a call number at the bottom of the website.

Korean: http://www.pac.or.kr/html/consult/cs_chatting.asp

English: http://www.pac.or.kr/html/eng/main.asp

Update — Unfortunately, it turns out that the PAC can’t do anything, but the Korean Broadcast Commission can:

We had a friend in Korea try the PAC office and she said that the PAC can only take complaints from those who were filmed. PAC redirected her to the Korean Broadcast Commission (방송통신위환회) at 02-750-1114 …press 2 for English. They will take your complaint in English :-). She was told KBC takes & follows-up on all other complaints about broadcasts.

And now for the regular categories. To make things easier to find, I’ll be putting them in alphabetical order from now on:

Body Image/Health

— Insatiable craving for getting thinner (The Korea Times)

— Lee Hyori admits her pictorials are photoshopped (Allkpop)

— IU reveals her true height and weight on ‘Strong Heart’ (Omona)

Censorship:

— Lawyer Calls Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-il ‘Sons of Bitches’ (Korea Bang)

— Netizen Also Calls President a ‘Son of a Bitch’, Gets Indicted (Korea Bang)

— Banned! 7 Music Videos That Can Only Air After 10PM (MTVK)

Crime:

— The sad reality of Korea’s most infamous export: sex workers (Korea Law Today)

— Arrest warrant for Ko is rejected (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Dog food company Ko endorses covers his face with sticker on packaging (Allkpop)

— Men sentenced to 5, 10 years for raping teen (The Korea Times)

— Treating the ‘home-made’ criminal (Korea Joongang Daily)

— South Korea: Support for Castration of Repeat Child Rapists (Global Voices)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage/Demographics:

— Ask the Yangxifu: The Guy Who Changed Her Mind About Dating Chinese Men (Speaking of China)

— Economics of Dating in South Korea: Netizens Tell Us How (Korea Bang)

— Brokered Marriages: Matchmaking or Exploitation? (Asia Society)

— In response to Roboseyo: On dipshit spaces (I’m No Picasso)

— More adults in 30s and 40s live with parents (The Korea Times)

— Foreigners Push Korea’s Population Above 50 Million (The Chosun Ilbo)

The English Spectrum Series at Gusts of Popular Feeling:

— Part 28: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges

— Part 29: Internet real name system debated

History:

— Female companionship at gold mines (The Korea Times)

— Haenyeo: The Last Mermaids (10 Confessions)

— Pin-up Girls as Korean-War Propaganda (The American Psyop Organization During the Korean War; scroll to about half-way down)

LGBT/Sexuality:

— 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Being Queer in Korea (Chincha?!)

— New Jeju Sex Park Worries Authorities (The Chosun llbo)

— Queer young South Koreans getting on the march (The Hankyoreh)

— Korean Artist Kim Hyun-hwa “shows what Asian girls want from boys”? (Microcosm; maybe NSFW)

— Response to Homosexuals Joining Police Sparks Controversy (Korea Bang)

Misc:

— Military Draft Quandary (Ask a Korean!)

Politics/Economics/Workplaces:

— Childish Employers (Gord Sellar)

— Young and Global Need Not Apply in Japan (The New York Times)

— Getting Tough: Korean Smokers Passed Over for Job Promotions (Busan Haps; Idle Worship)

Pop Culture:

— Double Standards: When Gender Politics Meets K-pop (Seoulbeats)

— K-pop and the male gaze — or the absence thereof (Frank Kogan)

— Lim Sang-Soo: foreigners can’t understand my very korean movie, that’s why I failed at Cannes (Omona)

— Im Sang-soo’s The Taste of Money: Great Sets and Sexism (Moviefone)

— North Korean ‘Girls Generation’ Used as Army Morale Booster (Korea Bang)

— What About Sex? (Seoulbeats)

— T-ara’s ninth member, Dani, is 12-years-old … alrighty then (Asian Junkie)

— Why do Koreans Take on Black Music? (Ask a Korean!)

Pregnancy/Childbirth/Parenting/Education:

— SK Takes New Step To Prevent Kidnappings (Korea Realtime)

— Students Make Teacher Kneel and Apologise to Class (Korea Bang)

— Sungmisan School in Seoul: A remarkable Approach to education (Korea: Circles and Squares)

— All of the terribly important things I’ve learned about being a mom (Shotgun Adventures)

— SKorea: A different approach to student rights in Gyeongsangnam-do (Asian Correspondent)

— “I think you are very strong” (Hello Korea!)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)

(Source)

Pop Culture:

— “Gee,” Female Subjectivity, and the Male Gaze (Occupied Territories)

— Korean Men’s Association Files a Petition to Ban Baek Ji Young’s “Good Boy” for Derogatory Lyrics Toward Men (KoreaBang, Soompi, Asian Junkie; see here for a review of the song itself)

— Korean Movies Get Racier to Fend off Hollywood (The Chosunilbo)

— K-pop Star Finalists Embrace Their Inner Dolls for Elle Girl (Seoulbeats)

— The dark shades of Korean dramas (The Hankyoreh)

— Oppa, your face is blocking Namsan Tower (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Your Company and Fans Know Best: The Babying of Idols (Seoulbeats)

— Why I Write “Strong Female Characters” (io9)

— K-pop’s Archetypes (Seoulbeats)

— Contents Media alleged to pay male escort to keep quiet about relationship with Actress Lee Mi-sook (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Are ‘idol x reader’ fics unique to the K-pop fandom? (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Song Hye Kyo is a fat, disgusting pig and no man wants to have sex with her anymore (Asian Junkie)

— Annotation #1: K-Pop Idols & Construction of Identity (My First Love Story)

Censorship:

— Jang Yoon-jung’s music video banned on terrestrial networks (Korea Joongang Daily)

Dating/Relationships/Marriage:

— K-girls, K-boys… both in the wrong? (Roboseyo)

— Why white people date white people: Exposed! (I’m no Picasso)

— Survey: More women than men regret marriage (Asian Correspondent)

— Old bachelors, bachelorettes seen as ‘flawed, incomplete’ (Korea Times)

LGBT/Sexuality:

— 13th Korea Queer Culture Festival Begins in Seoul (KQCF)

— Sex work, sex workers, and the Korean sex industry on the Charlie Spice Show (Research Project Korea; see here for his second appearance)

— YAM Magazine LGBT Blogathon, June 11-17 (YAM Magazine)

— Korea begins debating gay marriage (Asian Correspondent)

— The Most Liberal Korean-Korean Man I Know Does Not Believe in Gay Rights (Korean Bodega)

— ‘Sponsors’ pay university students for sex (The Korea Times)

— 60% of Men Over 40 Suffer Sexual Dysfunctions (The Chosun Ilbo)

— Beat Takeshi criticized for comparing gay marriage to bestiality, says he was misunderstood (Asian Junkie)

— Shinhwa To Do Another Nude Photoshoot? (Omona)

History:

— Korea In Depth: New Perspectives: Women and the Chosǒn Dynasty with Dr. Michael Pettid (The Korea Society)

Pregnancy/Childbirth/Parenting:

— Bullied over being mixed race, Korean teen turns to arson (Asian Correspondent)

— Korea, US agree on school bullying study (The Korea Times)

— Demography: A new science of population (The Economist)

Economics/Politics:

— Heed France’s integration success (The Hankyoreh)

— Lady Business: How Do You Navigate Boys Club Culture? (Bitch Magazine)

The English Spectrum Series at Gusts of Popular Feeling:

— Part 25: Don’t Imagine

— Part 26: ‘Foreign instructor’ takes third place

— Part 27: Art From Outsider’s Point of View

Multiculturalism:

— A little bit of xenophobia keeps the foreigners well-behaved (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Sick, Corrupt, Racist, Paranoid, Xenophobic? – The Chinese Government Speaks (The Marmot’s Hole)

— Probably NSFW Taiwanese take on xenophobic Chinese rant (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

— Anti-racism law (The Korea Times)

Crime:

— South Korea to chemically castrate rapist (Korea Law Today; Korea Realtime; The Marmot’s Hole; The Korea Herald; Reuters; CNN)

— Get ‘em trashed and then crashed (The Marmot’s Hole)

Misc:

— To Korean men, every inch counts (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Gendered assumptions in daily life (The F-word Blog)

— Plastic surgery: achieving ‘natural’ via unnatural means? (Angry K-pop Fan)

— Help Fund Tropes vs Women in Video Games (Feminist Frequency)

— One size fits small for ajumma shoppers (Korea Joongang Daily)

— Chinese business looking for a few good Jews (Foreign Policy)

— Ink Bomb International Tattoo Convention 2012 (Chincha?!; also, see “The Shogun of Osaka” at the Economist)

— What We Look Like: A Comic About Women in Media (Truthout)

— Italian fashion brand redefines “models” (Work That Matters)

Shout-outs:

— Send me to the Sex Worker Freedom Festival! (Research Project Korea)

(Links are not necessarily endorsements)