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Crimes by English teachers going down?

This post by Gusts of Popular Feeling almost got by me over the weekend (original story in Korean):

[T]he National Assembly’s Council of Education, Science and Technology
member Lee Gun-hyeon of the GNP announced on September 24 the number of native speaking English teachers who have committed crimes over the past three years. Over three years the total is 274, with 114 in 2007, 99 in 2008, and 61 up to
August of this year.

By type, at 84, most were arrested for violence, 57 for drugs, 17 for ‘intellectual crimes’ (likely forgery), 10 for rape, and 7 for theft. As for violence, cases had risen from 22 in 2007, 38 in 2008, and 24 to August this year.

61 crimes through August (2/3 of the year) projects to 91.5 - call it 92 if you like - for the year of 2009. Despite having MORE foreign English teachers, the number of crimes committed by them has DROPPED. While these numbers by themselves may not convince you how rarely it happens, Matt has done a more complete workup of the numbers - numbers reported by the government and talked about in Korean news.

Is it time to start quoting facts and changing people's minds? Here are a few key ones to memorize from Matt's post:

In that case, the statistics reveal that 114 teachers were arrested in 2007 and 99 were arrested in 2008. So, for 2007, 114 out of 17,721 teachers were arrested - a rate of 0.64%. In 2008, 99 out of 19,771 teachers were arrested - a rate of 0.50%.

As noted in Benjamin Wagner's report to the NHRCK, "The Korean Institute of Criminology... reported that in 2007 the overall “crime rate among [all] foreigners [in Korea] was 1.4% compared with the 3.5% rate among Korean citizens.” In other words, according to Lee's own figures, the foreign English teacher crime rate (0.64%) was more than five times less than the crime rate among Koreans (3.5%) in 2007 and half the rate of other foreigners.

To recap, using 2007 numbers:
Foreign English teachers: 0.64% - about 1 out of 156 has been arrested for a crime
Foreigners living in Korea: 1.4% - about 1 out of 71 has been arrested for a crime
Native Koreans: 3.5% - about 1 out of 28 has been arrested for a crime

If I had the statistical wherewithal to take the foreign English teachers out of the second sample (all foreigners living in Korea), I'd find that the non-teachers must commit quite a few more crimes to bring the average to 1.4%. Even then, a English teacher is five times less likely to commit a crime than a Korean. Next time you're on a bus with about 30 other Koreans, think about those stats above.

And some people still think foreigners are dangerous.

Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

 

Feb, 2004- Sept. 2009, RIP

Thursday was a sad day as I bid goodbye to an old friend, one that had been loyal, devoted, unpretentious for almost six years.


She was a good car, she was. And what she lacked in style in life, she made up for in her death. It was on Thursday afternoon, following a trip to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia with Re., that we returned to my faithful 1996 Nissan Sentra down the road at a metered parking space, only to find she would not start. She would not start, she would not start. And time was running out on the meter, which charged 25 cents per every TEN MINUTES.

We called E., who was home and lived nearby, who drove over to this heavily trafficked roadway and sidled up to the Sentra in a vain attempt to jump it. With that option taken off the table, we pooled together our quarters, dimes and nickels, and fed the evil meter until 8 p.m., when it would be free to park until the next morning.

When me and Re. got back to the car in the morning, the tow truck had not called yet so we fed the evil meter another 75 cents and went for breakfast at Au Bon Pain. Hey! I know I try to align myself as some sort of eat local dork or something, but man, that was a good breakfast sandwich. Shitty coffee. It's in the yellow cup I'm holding in my hand in the picture above. Yuck.

So, the tow guy calls me and we head back JUST DOWN THE ROAD. As we turn the corner, what do I see but a large, imposing black woman in a Philadelphia Parking Authority uniform walking away from my car, having left me the THIRD ticket I have received in Philly in the last, what, three weeks? I swear, from a distance, she lookalikeaman.

The tow guy came, hitched my car, and off he went. Forever. And ever.


See ya, lil soldier.


—John Dunphy

Destination: Ppuri Park (Daejeon)



Offering a look into the origins of Korean family names, Ppuri Park (뿌리 공원) combines history and beauty in Daejeon. With 136 statues recognizing as many family names and origins across the Korean peninsula, it's a chance for the locals to learn more about where their family names come from. For us foreign visitors, it's a chance to learn more about how much Korean family names mean to them.



Definitely an unusual sight in an otherwise peaceful place. The fairly large grassy area is being transformed into a Traffic Safety Education Place for Children, thus explaining the signs waiting on standby. Not pictured are the traffic lights, one-lane roads, and excessive amount of traffic signs already in place.



One of the the 136 statues in the park - this one (#16) is of the Kim family from the Buan area. While the carvings are entirely in Korean or Chinese, the brochure gave enough information for us English-speakers to get by.



#13 - the Lee family from the Gapyeong area. Remember that the Kim family name and the Lee family name originate from multiple areas of the country - these two family names are the equivalent of 'Smith' and 'Jones' in the U.S.



For some unknown reason, this is called the 'Deep-root fountain' - with four animal heads and fountains around it to boot.



Exhibit #52 - the Lee family from Hongyang. According to Wikipedia, the Lee family name comprises 14.8% of all Korean family names. Again, the Korean description is large, but every statue is unique.



A place to rest - walk up the stairs to Palgakjeong and enjoy the view, or just take in the recently painted ceiling:



Walking up the hill a little further we see this interesting sight:



Established 1 November 1997, the Samnam Monument serves as an observatory to the area.



Pretty - but can anyone identify?



The Jeongja 12 Zodiacal Animal Figures - Chinese astrology is based on the year of your birth, not the month-long periods Westerners associate with astrology. Each year is named for an animal - the Year of the Dog, the Rat, and so on - whichever one you believe, the twelve animals are all on display here.

While the history of family names doesn't sound all that interesting to foreigners, but names mean quite a bit to Koreans. The area offers plenty of other sights to make it worth visiting for an afternoon, or part of a weekend in Daejeon.

Now, for the Taeguks (out of 5):

Ease to arrive:


Foreigner-friendly:


Convenience facilities:


Worth the visit:


Uniqueness:


Directions to Ppuri Park: From Seoul Station, Daejeon is a one-hour train ride by KTX (two hours by Muganghwa-class train), making it daytrippable from Korea's largest city. Once at Daejeon station, walk to the street and cross straight. If going through the subway, look for the exit for Samseong-dong. Either way, find bus 312 or 313 to the bus's last stop, which should be Ppuri Park. Walk through the parking lot, over the bridge, and look left for the park. Open from 7am-9pm from October - February, and 6am-10pm from March - September. Free admission; don't forget to pick up a brochure from the office near the entrance - that'll be the only English explanation you get!

Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

Mystery Vaccine

Am I my brother's keeper?

Perhaps not, but I can't help but worry about the people who are going to get the swine flu vaccine, thinking it will protect them from an arguably harmless virus.

Koreans, particularly, seem overly trustful of vaccines.

Before being injected with the mystery vaccine, a few stories need to be brought to light.

First, we have to look at the track record of the swine flu vaccine maker Baxter BioPharma Solutions.

Last year Baxter tested its H5N1 bird flu vaccine on 350 Polish homeless people.  The lucky folks at the homeless shelter were paid roughly $3 for their participation which left 21 of them dead. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/2235676/Homeless-people-die-after-bird-flu-vaccine-trial-in-Poland.html

A few months later Baxter sent out 158 pounds of vaccine to Europe for human injection. Luckily a Czeck research team tested the vaccine on some ferrets, all of which died. The World Health Organization was then notified and a catastrophe was avoided. Baxter, in turn, said it was a "mistake" that the vaccine they sent out was infected with a live bird flu virus (H5N1).

A mistake eh? Many don't seem to think so.

Jane Burgermeister is an experience and respected journalist. She has filed allegations of bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder against the World Health Organization(WHO), the United Nations (UN), and others with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) . Her website is here. http://www.theflucase.com/

Unfortunately these are just a few out of many vaccine horror stories. 

And looks like we are in the midst one of at least 2 swine flu scams.

In 1976 a similar case of swine flu hysteria was induced in the United States via main stream media outlets. 40 million people got vaccinated and 4000 of them either died or became paralyzed. Here is part 1 of  the 1979  60 Minutes report on the so-called pandemic which turned out to be a fraud. Watching this 60 Minutes special will forever change the way you think about vaccines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEJyUgt7lY8 

I've talked to some of my Korean co-workers and their eyes seem to gloss over when I suggest that taking the swine flu vaccine might not be such a good idea. Lots of them are planning to get it as soon as it comes out because they are worried there won't be enough to go around. 

Personally I'd take my chances with the flu.

Incidentally, Korea is recieving a large portion of its swine flu vaccine stockpile from Sinovac, the largest vaccine producer in China. South Korea will also produce its own vaccine domestically through Green Cross.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Don't you love birthday parties?
Ps. Yes, it is a dress.

putting the word CULT back into the word CULTURE

                             

                   

      

25 years ago, a little independent film emerged from the City of Quartz – a film that would become a cult legend in its own time; much like The Big Lebowski – which also takes place in Los Angeles – would also become a cult legend, years later as the new millennium began in 2001. Before we look at the two films themselves, let’s look at Los Angeles in 1984 for what it stood for in terms of CINEMA – and to prelude understanding why these two films have become interwoven into the lives of so many people. 

 

It’s 1984. LA is the capitol city of the film industry.  Whatever happens in regards to American cinema happens first in LA. With the digital revolution over a decade away and even video tapes (remember Betamax?) and cable TV (remember the Z channel or ON Subscription TV) still in their infancy, cinema in 1984 was still a limited feast; in that, if you wanted to see a movie, you had to go to a movie theatre. That was your only option, unless you owned a projector and movie reels. Videos and video players existed, but they weren’t standard household items just yet. Only the very rich and knowledgeable of the latest technology owned them. “Straight to video” movies were a very recent thing outside the porn industry, and thousands of people didn’t own their own production companies like now. The result was a relatively limited number of new films being released each month – relative to NOW, that is. As a result, theatres tended to show movies for a much longer duration and there wasn’t that huge a choice as to what to see.  That would change virtually overnight.

 

Being from LA, I had the opportunity to witness this change first hand. As a youth going with my older brother to see Star Wars or The Spy Who Loved Me (years after) many times over a year long period where they showed continuously for months at one theater, only to reappear at another theater for what seemed like forever; to the creation of multiplexes where a list of different current films would show, concurrently on different screens, many getting replaced weekly. It all happened overnight – one morning we all woke up with VCRs and Blockbuster stores were everywhere. And everybody had 24 hour cable with HBO.  It’s hard to remember a time before infomercials and infotainment. Televangelists were some of the first pioneers of the early 1980s to use cable TV for financial gain: PTL, Tammy Faye and Jim Baker, et al.

 

The first MULTIPLEX – a new word coined in the early 80’s to denote what had previously never existed – in the LA area was located in the then newly created Beverly Center which opened for business not long before 1984. The Beverly Center is located on that monstrous strip of real estate between 3rd St. and Beverly Blvd. (which run parallel east-west), and between La Cienega Blvd. and San Vicente Blvd. (which run parallel north-south) in West Hollywood, near an area, known to older residents, as the Miracle Mile district. All 4 of those streets were/are still fairly busy thoroughfares so this rectangular block of land was/is quite huge. And there it is – right smack in the middle of a lot of traffic. Furthermore, over the last 25 years, the Beverly Center has grown substantially, as has everything else around it. Commercial development never stops in West Los Angeles. The Beverly Center has always had nearly 5 floors of above ground parking. And sometimes it’s hard to find a space.

 

Most people don’t remember what was there on that plot of land before it became the Beverly Center. I remember, because I grew up near there and had spent several birthdays there as a youth. It was two entertainment venues side by side, sharing the same space harmoniously. One side– a sprawling amusement park (large, but nowhere near the size of Disneyland) called Kiddie Land; next to it was a small equestrian village called Pony Land, where adults and kids could rent horses or ponies and ride around a track. Some horses were fast, some were slow.  Some were led around the track by a cowboy (for the kiddies). You got to choose your horse. I liked Pony Land. Kiddie Land had awesome rides like a big rollercoaster and a haunted house and it was quite fun, if you were 9, and that’s how old I was when I spent my last birthday there. A few years later they tore down two side by side landmarks of my childhood. It was my own personal 9-11. After the demolition, nothing remained but an empty lot for a short time that seemed like forever in the mind of a child. Then, construction of this new entertainment venue began, which took a long time, and coincided with my puberty. As childish concerns faded from my life, so did my memories of Kiddie Land and Pony Land. And everybody else’s as well. By the time the Beverly Center finally opened, I was finally able to get an erection.

 

And to this day, I’ve never heard or seen referenced or mentioned anywhere: Kiddie Land or Pony Land. As if they never existed. As if my childhood never existed, or never ended. I still remember the sign on the large wooden fence behind which the new shopping center was erected: COMING SOON! THE BEVERLY CENTER! No pun intended.

 

Anticipation and hype took the city by storm. The high octane pomp welcoming and fanfare that this new mall received, bequeathed by the citizens of West Los Angeles rivaled what you would think the 2nd coming might be like. People were so ‘into’ the Beverly Center when it first opened. The nearest real shopping malls up until that time were located in the San Fernando Valley and nobody from LA ever went to the valley, even if it was only a short drive, less than 10 miles over the hill. It’s like, oh my god, let’s go to the mall. I’m so sure. I didn’t enter the Beverly Center for over a year on principle. I remember mentally boycotting it as a pre-teen adolescent.

 

I also remember that scene from the Indy film Suburbia, another movie set in LA, where the punk rockers steal that roll up lawn and then break into the mall with it after closing time and laid it out in front of the electronics store and sat on the grass while they watched TV through the large storefront window. It’s a beautiful scene in an otherwise schlockish movie. Punk rock squatter, alive and well in Los Angeles, if only on celluloid.

 

Cut back to 1984, as if we ever left – my older brother by 16 months worked part time as an usher at the Beverly Center’s ‘Cineplex’, as it is/was called. Cineplex – a new concept in 1984; now a common expression like ‘multiplex,’ or ‘home entertainment center.’

 

I remember going to see a movie there for the first time, the original Terminator there at the Cineplex, stoned off my ass with Julie Peck in 1984, and thinking how small the screen was. The theatre was very cramped with walls too near, not enough people, and the screen was tiny. It wasn’t a movie theatre. It was a screening room. I was accustomed to seeing films at the Chinese Theater, or the Cinerama Dome, or the Pan Pacific, with screens that stretched farther than your eyes could reach, that made each feature film larger than life. And here I am watching Arnold S. tear the hell out of LA looking for Sarah Conner and it was as if I were watching it on a large screen TV! It was a little disappointing. Still, that was a bitchin’ movie in 1984. Even now. It’s my favorite of the Terminator series because Arnold’s the villain.

 

The Beverly Center – because it showed so many different films at once, many of them independent; and since it was located in the heart of West Hollywood; and since many people on LA’s Westside work for ‘the industry’ – became a showcase for independent films; and many industry people began frequenting the Beverly Center to watch independent films while sipping gourmet coffee, which the Cineplex served. For this reason, many young aspiring actors would get jobs at the Cineplex to hopefully get ‘noticed’ by someone in the biz. My older brother was tall and fit and handsome, with thick hair and occasionally he would get casually ‘hit on’ by industry people, that is, somebody who worked in any of the many aspects of film making, under the guise of a promising career. I’m sure when my brother realized that many of the ushers and concession stand clerks and ticket takers that he worked with were aspiring actors and actresses and models hoping to get noticed, he was just as surprised as I was to hear that.  I was really surprised the first time I’d heard that. I had no idea. My brother’s friend Steve told me and I was like “Really? No way!” I’m sure someone had to tell my brother too; that he didn’t just figure it out on his own. And when my brother did hear about that entertainment biz ‘perk’ for the first time – probably from his friend Steve, who also worked at the Cineplex – he probably reacted with surprise and said, “Really? No way!” My brother and I were smart, got good grades in high school, but we were slackers and underachievers and didn’t possess any future aspiration whatsoever in 1984.

 

 

Anywho, I’d visit my brother at work on weekends in 1984, usually at the time he got off work, with friends and girlfriends and we’d all go out afterward. I basically picked him up from work cuz we basically shared a car. I was 16 years old and just got my license. At those times waiting for him to get off work, standing in front of the Cineplex, up on the 8th floor of the Beverly Center which was then no more than the theater and a small food court: there was Früzen Glaje Ice Cream parlor where my brother’s girlfriend worked, and Mrs. Fields Cookies where my girlfriend worked. On the big neon Cineplex marquee I’d see these titles of these movies that I’d never see but whose names remained lodged in my head, like they were somehow more TELLING of REALITY than Hollywood’s latest. I would watch some of them years later on video or DVD or late night on cable by chance, or on a computer, and I would remember some of their names: Stranger than Paradise, Spetters, Repo Man. These days, there are so many more opportunities to watch movies than there were 25 years ago. 

 

Repo Man. It was there at Berkeley in college 2 years later in 1986 that I would learn just how deep Repo Man jargon and culture had dug itself into the collective psyche of young people. ‘Put it on a plate son, you’ll enjoy it more.’ (Otto’s standing in the kitchen, eating out of can labeled FOOD) ‘Are you using a scrambler?’ ‘I can’t hear you.  I’m using a scrambler.’ ‘We’re sending bibles to El Salvador!’ (said while holding in a hit of grass)  ‘Shut up, Rent-a-cop!’ It was 1986 and David Letterman was harassing his guests nightly with witty sass and uncomfortable questions on Late Night and the generation that would later be termed, Generation X, was laughing hysterically in college or otherwise finally on their own, or living at home brooding in their parents’ basement or attic or garage.  The US was funding death squads in Central America and few people in America knew, or cared. Most didn’t really let it affect their lives. Except members of SAICA.  Who’s SAICA? Exactly! Reagan and Thatcher personified what everybody should have been angry at, but most people weren’t angry at all. Most people were happy just to have shopping malls. You couldn’t see all the new homeless people from the inside of an indoor air conditioned shopping mall. You couldn’t ride a rollercoaster or ride a pony in West LA anymore, but you could shop like it was no one’s business and watch Indy flicks and drink gourmet coffee in little rooms on small screens – not very cinematic. And all the while, marijuana crops were being burned in Northern California and longtime growers and small possessors were being incarcerated while cocaine was dropping in price like an old computer. 1984 - 1986. Cheap smoke-able cocaine for the first time hit the streets, first in the ghettos, then all over. Street corners in LA where medium grade Mexican weed had always been safely available became crack corners, where only crack could be procured and the scourged walked the earth in circles. Wealth quickly becoming concentrated into fewer and fewer hands and Ronnie and Maggie were quickly becoming two of the most popular leaders the Western world had ever seen, largely because of corporate controlled media on the newly available cable television, but mostly from apathy on the part of their critics. No movie captured the misplaced absurd stylish nihilistic angst of gen x’ers more than Repo Man. It’s no wonder why so many people starting hanging those pine air fresheners shaped liked trees from their rear view mirrors. ‘Find one in every car. You’ll see…’ And why so many of us remembered so many lines from the movie. They had about as much meaning as anything you heard in real life, and just as much relevance. I mean – just as little reverence.

 

Things had changed a lot in 2 short years. 1986. My first roommate in college had a VCR and we’d rent movies. He also had a computer. It was a 386 with no hard drive, just a 5¼ inch floppy disc drive, and on a 5¼ inch floppy disc was the ‘dos’ program so the computer would run; and there was an archaic WP program and we could save writing on the floppy. I spent hundreds of hours in my free time over that semester writing maybe a hundred pages of fiction, mostly short stories, only to have it become ‘lost’ on a ‘corrupt’ floppy. My roommate and I had a big fight at the start of our second semester together, after which we were never friends again. It was entirely my fault – the end result was the floppy, my writing, was unreadable. So much for all that time. 6 years later, in order to graduate, I wrote a senior thesis. First, I wrote it long hand in a notebook.  Then I typed it on a typewriter. Then I edited it, and totally revised it analog style, and then only after I’d reorganized the lot and made it read-worthy did I retype it once again on that same heavy electronic typewriter.  It was close to 50 pages each time. And like…20 years later…if I’m with a group of people and I say something like:

 

‘I can get you a toe. I can get you a toe before 3 o’clock. With nail polish.’


Somebody in that room is going to turn around and say, ‘You’re killing your father, Larry.’ Or something equally as non-sequeterish (sic), something that only makes sense to someone who recognizes the cult reference.

 

‘I believe Asian-American is the preferred nomenclature.’

 

The Big Lebowski is by far the most quoted movie of the last 10 years and there are hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of people all over this world (mostly in America and Canada) that would never shy away from an opportunity to pay homage to the dude and Walter. Film books and awards elude certain movies that are re-watched continually because the authors and judges just don’t get it. They are not part of the culture – that is, people who have re-watched a single movie enough times to recognize key dialog and love it when they have the chance to recite lines aloud to others who know the line verbatim and its direct source, and can appreciate the shared joy of a cultural connection. Much like Muslims do with the Koran or Christians with the Bible or Chinese with the Little Red Book.

 

Certain movies are considered cult movies, and some movies ARE cult movies. Heavy Metal, The Song Remains the Same, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and The Wall WERE cult favorites of the past, but they owed their popularity largely to large screen cinema and frequent midnight showings for people high on drugs with a group of friends, or just in the mood to party with a crowd after midnight in a safe venue that allowed booze and other party-ables (if you could sneak them in – it was easier back then to do that). 

 

On the small screen, the past popularity of these films can not endure. People may own these movies on VHS or DVD but they will not get the kind of repeated viewings that a copy of Lebowski or Repo Man will get. There is just something about the lackadaisical dude; the crazy, potentially dangerous, but well intentioned Walter; the innocent, simple victim Donny; and ‘a case of mistaken identity’ that takes us from one Lebowski’s world to another; from the simple life of a youthful middle aged herb smoking hippy, into the helter-skelter world of a wealthy, physically challenged ‘overachiever’ with a ‘kidnapped’ trophy wife, a group of nihilists, a pornographer named Jackie Treehorn, the Malibu PD, a stolen Chevy (‘We got ‘em working in shifts!’), and an old Sioux City Sarsaparilla sipping cowboy narrator with a big white moustache and a pleasant voice – there is just something that never gets tired. Plus, we have the dude quoting George Bush Sr. from news footage of the original Gulf War that we see on a TV set that plays in the background of Ralph’s Market during the first scene of the movie, to keep us, from the beginning of the movie, locked in a time capsule of 1991. ‘This aggression…it will not stand.’ Then the dude writes a check for 67 cents after first opening the ‘Half and Half’ carton to smell if it’s not sour. Watching The Big Lewbowski is like visiting an old friend and hearing what he has to say again. Oh, he’s just repeating what he always says, but you love him just the same. He’s family. It’s the things he says. The things they say. ‘The bums lost! Condolences!’ I’d venture to say that somewhere in the world right now, somebody is watching The Big Lebowski. And probably on a computer!

 

25 years ago, before computers were a household item, there was Repo Man, where our hero was an unemployed slacker named Otto, whose ID says he’s 21, but who is really 18 and who gets a job at the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation, repossessing cars from deadbeats who don’t pay their bills; where everybody is trying to track down a 1964 Chevy Malibu with a 20,000 dollar finder’s fee paid by Double X Finance, and with 4 dead aliens in the trunk; and a lobotomized physicist, wearing sunglasses with one eye missing, at the wheel. ‘Looks like sausage.’ ‘It isn’t sausage, Otto, that’s a picture of 4 dead aliens!’ Otto laughs. ‘Laugh away, fuckface! That picture’s going to be on the cover of every major newspaper in two days time!’ Everybody wants that car. Everybody, that is, the 4 other Helping Hand repo men aptly named Bud, Oly, Miller, and Lite; Marlene, the hot Helping Hand receptionist who changes sides to work with rival repo men known as the Rodriguez brothers, or ‘God damned dipshit Rodriguez gypsy dildo punks!’ as Bud refers to them. ‘Hermanos Rodriguez don’t approve of drugs,’ Lagarto Rodriguez says to his hermano, Napoleon, as they smoke joints with Marlene who is dressed covert like a Black Panther. She responds to Lagarto, “I don’t either, but today’s my birthday.’ They all smoke their own joints, even Marlene using a flashy roach clip. There’s a secret outfit, a UFO watch group called United Fruitcake Outlet, where Layla, Otto’s love interest works, also looking for the car. And there is another agency pursuing the car, whose agents are all tall, blonde white men – hombres secretos – who all wear dark suits, sunglasses, and who shout ‘Not in my face!’ when fighting. Their leader is an older humorless woman with a metal hand – ‘It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes.’ 

 

There’s the Reverend Larry, who hosts a TV telethon and promises, with your donation, to wipe out ‘…the twin evils of godless communism abroad and liberal humanism at home.’ He’s looking for the car, too.

 

There’s the book DioretixThe Science of Matter over Mind. ‘You read that book I gave you? You better read it, and quick. That book’ll change your life. I found it in a Maserati in Beverly Hills. Know what I mean?’

 

And of course, like the ransom money seeking nihilists in The Big Lebowski that provide abstract relief with their faux German-ness and funky minimalist clothes, ‘We’re gonna come back and cut off your Johnson!’ Repo Man gives us a madcap trio of punk rockers on a never ending crime spree – the dopey leather clad, mohawked Archie: ‘Dukie wookie hurt his wittle hand’ ‘Fuck you, Archie! Just for that, yer not in the gang anymore!’ Duke is the group’s leader with the shaved head, who just got out of the slammer (juvenile detention), and his girl Debbie with the British accent, whom Duke stole away from Otto at a punk rock party at the beginning of the movie, completes the trio.  ‘Come on Duke, let’s go do those crimes!’ She says after Archie gets vaporized opening the truck of the Chevy, leaving only a pair of smoking black army boots. ‘Yeah, let’s go get sushi and not pay.’

 

And to top it off, there’s a kick ass soundtrack featuring Iggy Pop, Black Flag, Fear, Circle Jerks, East LA’s own – The Plugz, and Suicidal Tendencies. “All I wanted was a Pepsi. I’m not crazy. Institution! Yer that one that’s crazy. Institution! Yer driving me crazy. Institution! It doesn’t matter. I’ll probably get hit by a car anyway.”

 

Where did punk rock originate? I’ve had this conversation many times with many educated people. I’ve heard opinions like – It started in 1969 with Iggy and the Stooges. It started in the late 70’s in NYC with the Ramones and other CBGB punk bands. It started in London with The Sex Pistols.

 

My answer to all these so called brainiacs is this: no one band or one city created punk rock. Punk rock is more than just a style of music.  It’s a lifestyle.  As Cheech says to Chong in Up in Smoke before the battle of the bands, “Relax. It’s punk rock. You don’t have to be a musician. You just have to be a punk.” And that about sums it up – punk rock is a way of life. “It’s a way of looking at that wave and saying, ‘Hey bud, let’s party!’” Wrong movie.

 

Punk is a mode of expression like a language or culture, in the same way Ebonics is a language and culture. Ebonics is NOT a REGIONALISM. A regionalism is just that – something that originates in one region. Ebonics did not appear in one place and spread. It evolved independently in many urban centers around America simultaneously. You can take an inner city youth from LA, NY, Philadelphia, and Atlanta and put them all in a room and they can all understand each other, even if a white suburban American can’t. That’s beyond regional. That’s culture. There are rules. There is a structure.

 

‘This isn’t Nam. There are rules.’

 

Same goes with punk rock. Every urban area in America felt it at more or less the same time – and those who responded to its calling found others who shared similar life views and they started a new lifestyle dressing similarly and squatting in the same abandoned building or garage and expressing their angst using instruments many could hardly play at all. Not all punk rockers were musicians. Some were just punks living the life, doing other stuff. And it didn’t matter from where in the world you were from. If you were a punk rocker, it was pretty obvious, and you were accepted. Even some of the musicians weren’t really musicians. They were just punks with enough attitude and expressive ability to be entertaining. The 80’s were a very conservative time, with mainstream men all wearing short hair and preppy clothes; and Wall Street and brand names going hand in hand with every commodity; and draconian drug laws replacing the long hair, free love, wide collar and lapels, lax attitude about drugs of the 70’s. Skeeball and Slip ‘n’ Slide had been replaced by Pong and Space Invaders. Punk rock, like every social movement was a reaction. Like every product in Repo Man having a plain wrap label.

 

The music reflected that reaction. Some people adopted the culture long before the 80’s began because they could see where the world was headed back in 70’s. In life, things don’t just happen without reason. Everything is a progression. 

 

In LA, the punk rock movement thrived on the East side long before people on the West side even took notice – ‘Beverly Hills, Century City, don’t you know yer so damned pretty.’ Downtown, East LA and the industrial ‘warehouse district’ that lies between the two, the area the paved LA river runs through– that was where punk rock was spawned in LA – the Troy Café, Al’s Bar – before it became fashionable, and that is exactly the place where the movie Repo Man takes place.

 

Alex Cox, director of Sid and Nancy, wrote and directed Repo Man and it is an incredible piece of film that only its fans recognize as genius. I just re-watched it and I could watch it again and still laugh. I just might. 

 

Not many movies withstand the test of time. Those that do can be called ‘art,’ or just good movies. Emilio Estevez recently wrote and directed and played a small role in a movie called Robert about the ‘other’ Kennedy assassination and I found it to be a wonderful film on many levels, with a superb ensemble cast and script. I saw it on an airplane. Since I don’t live in America, I don’t know what the reaction to the film was, nor if it won any awards, but that definitely was an award winning piece of work. Still, for me, Emilio’s ‘Gilligan,’ that is, the role that he will always be remembered as, is Otto Maddox.   

 

“Otto? Auto Parts?”

 

Otto was every teenager, coming of age, becoming an adult, dissatisfied with everything and everyone, having no clue as to what to do with his life and living every moment damned proud of it and regretting nothing. ‘The dude’ was that same person 15 – 20 years in the future finding peace and serenity in marijuana, drinking Caucasians and league bowling with his knuckleheaded friends.

 

The scene where Estevez, I mean Otto, is driving around with Bud, played by Harry Dean Stanton, and Bud is showing Otto the ropes always makes me laugh, no matter how many times I see it. The entire scene takes place in Bud’s old Impala. Bud is driving and Otto is riding shotgun. The same music plays in the background, but day becomes night becomes day again. Bud honks and yells at a driver, ‘Come on, dickhead!” Then he talks seriously to Otto. It’s night again.

 

--It helps if you dress like a detective too. Detectives dress kind of square. People think,   

   ‘This guy’s a cop.’ They’re gonna think yer packin’ something. They don’t fuck with

    you so much.

-- Are you?

-- Am I what?

-- Packing something.

-- Only an asshole gets killed for a car. The guys that make it are the guys that get in

    their cars anytime. Get in at 3 am, get up at 4. That’s why there ain’t a repo man I

    know that don’t take speed.

-- Speed, huh?

 

Cut to them parked and snorting painful lines of crank. Bud starts yapping about the Repo code and then turns his attention to people across the street.

 

-- Hey look, look at that. Look at those assholes over there. Ordinary fucking people, I  

    hate ‘em.

-- Me too.

-- What do you know? See…an ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense  

situations. Repo man spends his life getting into tense situations. (Looks out window) Assholes! (Looks at Otto) Let’s get a drink.

 

-- Have a nice day…night…day. Night, day, it doesn’t mean shit.

 

Repo Man is the quintessential punk rock movie.  It’s like the movie Suburbia, only good. Repo Man combines an engaging story, quality acting with memorable and likeable characters, and themes that really question our connection with eternity in a materialistic age. At the very least, it pokes fun at all that most people hold sacred. The film is so densely packed with dramatic and iconic stimuli, a multimedia mosaic of background noise and subliminal shading all intentionally and tastefully positioned along the journey. Like GB senior’s cameo in The Big Lebowski’s background TV footage, TV backgrounds in Repo Man, other than the Reverend Larry’s Telethon, show news footage of war torn Central America. One would need at least 5 to 10 viewings to notice all the nuances – a lot like a Simpson’s episode. Like the The Big Lebowski, Repo Man is probably the most spiritually invigorating film ever made – for atheists who wish for something to believe in.  

 

In the end, there’s only one thing left to be said. “Shut the fuck up, Donny!”

Or maybe the cowboy narrator has a better closing, “Do you have to curse so much?”

 

Bravo

Kashmir, August 2009

Question from a reader: Come to Korea to find a job?

Another reader writes in a question - I LOVE questions from readers! If you have one that's not already been answered in other posts (please search first!), e-mail me at chrisinsouthkorea AT gmail DOT com. The reader writes:

Hey, Chris,


First off, thanks! Thank you for sharing your experience and offering support via your website to people unknown to you. As Spike Lee said in one of his first movies, "That's mighty white of you" (She's Gotta Have It).

I am taking the Bridge online 120-hour course. I have the time now, and figured it couldn't hurt, although I have no idea if this will help me secure a better-conditions, higher-paying job.

Question (I accept your invitation to ask): Bridge tells me that one cannot obtain a visa once in korea. Is that true? I still feel uncomfortable committing to a year knowing nothing about a school and local neighborhood conditions (I realize in the interviews I will learn more about these things). Do people arrive there, investigate places personally, talk to people (EFL teachers) in bars, and then nail down the best jobs, or do you simply have to pay your dues that first year?

I have travelled to 18 countries, having lived in Spain, England, Thailand and India. I'm no tenderfoot, however, it seems all of the EFL stuff is done via internet and phone when it comes to Korea.

Oh yeah, I'm thinking of Busan and not Seoul (I am a sea-side kind of guy, and 3 million is a good -sized city for me). Any thoughts?

Hi D.

Thanks for reading! Obtaining a visa for a long-term stay is done either before you come to Korea or before you can enter Korea for a long-term stay. By obtaining the visa I mean actually having the visa physically placed in your passport. That's the case if yoiu're going to be a teacher for at least one year, meaning the Korean embassy in your home country is in charge of getting all the visa stuff taken care of. Once you're here, renewing your visa becomes another situation to take care of. If you're renewing with the same school, there's one set of paperwork to take care of. If you're starting at another school, most people have to do a visa run (e.g. visit the Korean embassy in another country to actually pick up the visa) to obtain their new visa.

The idea of coming to check out the neighborhoods and THEN deciding on a job isn't a bad idea - at least in theory. In reality, however, most schools either pay for your flight over here or reimburse you once you arrive. If you get a job with them after you arrive in Korea to find it, they don't pay for your flight to Korea. Instead, they'll pay for a flight to do a visa run (since you probably came on a 'tourist visa', which doesn't allow working for profit). At that point you've taken two flights and will have to pay for the cost of one. Some can afford to front or eat that cost - others can't. The average twentysomething recent college graduate fascinated with getting an English teaching job in a foreign country is not as likely to afford it as the slightly older, perhaps more financially stable person.

As far as what's the best way to inquire about a neighborhood, one idea is to take a look at a subway map of the city in question. Korea's six largest cities have a subway system of some kind - Seoul's is obviously the largest, but Busan has an excellent three-line system as well. There's more information on Wikipedia about subways in South Korea (warning: some details are out of date - I may actually have to edit Wikipedia to update things). The best way to learn about a neighborhood is to talk to the native English teachers at the school in question. They're going to know the area, the people, and socioeconomic status, and what's really going on in a given area. Make it a point to ask about talking to them, and consider any school that doesn't honor that request as suspect.

Do people arrive there, investigate places personally, talk to people (EFL teachers) in bars, and then nail down the best jobs, or do you simply have to pay your dues that first year? In a word, no. Most people coming to Korea - and this is admittedly a fairly stereotypical approach - learn about the opportunity to teach English in Korea through the internet or online. They apply for the job, talk to a recruiter, get interviewed by the school, and eventually are given an offer to come teach. A contract is sent, printed out, signed, and sent to Korea along with the rest of the paperwork to get a visa. You usually have to take a trip to your nearest Korean embassy for an in-person interview (if anyone did NOT have to do an in-person interview, say so in the comments!), then get ready to leave your home country for a year.

I'm afraid I don't have any statistics on how many foreigners stay through their first full year, so I can't offer any numbers. Anecdotally speaking, a recent poll on this blog suggested about half of my readers had been in Korea for at least a year - take an online poll with a grain of salt, of course, but once you're here it becomes obvious whether you'll try to make it work or not. Most of the expats that have been here for more than a couple years would talk about their first year as 'paying their dues' in a manner that suggests it was spent learning the ins and outs of Korean culture, or at least the Korean way. Once their first job (or first year) is done, they have a much better idea on how to get what it is they want out of life - whether it's a job at a university, a job teaching adults, a job teaching kids, or getting the heck out of Korea. To a certain extent, most people do enter Korea somewhat blind, but that's because for most teachers, this is their first international experience. Someone with your experience has learned to be a little wary of what people say - especially if you can see the conflict of interest.

It's always possible for a job to not be as expected, despite your best efforts. In those cases, jumping ship and finding another job isn't usually too difficult to do. I've written before about 'discernment from afar' and how difficult it is. I dare say that the majority of longer-term expats in Korea have managed to jump ship at one point or another to escape some unbearable or asinine situation. That doesn't sound good, but consider that they're still here, working as an English teacher and doing the best job they can.

Oh yeah, I'm thinking of Busan and not Seoul (I am a sea-side kind of guy, and 3 million is a good -sized city for me). Any thoughts? As an English teacher based in Seoul, I'm afraid my observations regarding Busan are limited to a few visits to the area (check those out at http://chrisinsouthkorea.blogspot.com/search/label/Busan for every post I've ever done about Busan). I've heard Busan referred to as 'Seoul lite', although the sea is one distinctive factor of the area. There are certainly more than enough foreigners around the area, and I'd recommend it if you're OK with the size. Check out Busan Haps for a magazine made by expats for expats in the Busan area.

Also worth noting: a satellite city of Seoul might be worth looking into - these include Ilsan and Paju to the north, Bucheon and Incheon to the west, Guri to the east, and Bundang or Gwangmyeong to the south. These are all connected to the Seoul subway system, although you're aways from the city limits in some cases. They're close enough to come into town on the weekend, but far enough away that catching the last subway train home becomes very important. Check out this question asked by another reader about smaller cities as well.

Best of luck :)

Creative Commons License © Chris Backe - 2009

Korean Sociological Image #19: Gee, Gee, Gee…Using Girls’ Generation to Study Gender Roles in Korean Advertising


Girls' Generation Shinhan Card Commercial

As pointed out by Gwen at Sociological Images, pretty and/or sexually-available women are often presented as the faces of political viewpoints or causes, presumably to make them more popular among heterosexual men. One feels somewhat manipulative with the choice of the following commercial featuring the photogenic girl band Girls’ Generation (소녀시대) as a subject of examination here then, let alone with those of other recent topics on the blog, but I’d be hard-pressed to find something else which demonstrates quite so many aspects of contemporary Korean gender issues in a mere 15 seconds. It’s really quite bizarre.

And in more ways than one: the more I watch it, the more unnatural, almost disturbing I find this commercial, and I’m not being facetious when I say that that it may make you squirm in your seat a little:

An exaggeration? If you think so, then you’re in good company, for I’ve shown the commercial to a number of my students this week to elicit their own first impressions and opinions of it, only to receive blank looks from most. But while I don’t mean to sound patronizing, one might surmise that in their case that is because most of their adult lives have been spent in an environment in which both doumi (도우미) or female “assistants” and scantily-clad “narrator models” (나레이터 머델) have become ubiquitous, and gender issues as an academic discipline still somewhat lagging its development in Western countries, let alone as a subject of popular discourse. So it’s natural that – yes – the mini-shorts in particular wouldn’t have triggered the same reaction that they would have in most Western viewers. Or to put it more simply, while your average Western viewer may well disagree that the advertisement is sexist, he or she is probably more likely to be aware of why others might think so.

Readers may well acknowledge the tendency towards exhibitionism and objectification inherent to the use of mini-shorts in advertising though, and yet still that feel my description of this particular commercial is an exaggeration. Moreover, members of Girls’ Generation are actually notorious for wearing them (as they are of jeans that are several sizes too small), and in so doing have played no small part in popularizing them among young Korean women this summer, albeit very much building on the preexisting popularity of mini-skirts in the process. So it may seem misguided, almost disingenuous of me to single out this commercial in this regard.

Sooyoung Girls' Generation Viliv( Source: Naver )

But then, I’m not. Forgive me for acknowledging my own male gaze here (I’ll try to keep it to a minimum), but not only do I happen to like mini-shorts on women, I also find most members of Girl’s Generation sexually attractive too, so by no means am I categorically against the use of either by advertisers. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t still much that is objectionable about this commercial though: the mini-shorts were merely a good starting-point because I feel confident that that’s where the majority of readers literally did start, and expected that I would also. But let’s move on from those by considering them as parts of entire outfits rather than in isolation.

Looked at from that perspective, what they are wearing strikes me as much more reminiscent of the hypersexual representations of women and girls prevailing in Japanese manga more than anything that you’d find ever in real life. Alternatively, perhaps women’s Vaudeville costumes of the 1880s to 1930s would be more appropriate, and I think it’s telling that the most similar costume I could find via a Google Image search was this one from aSexyCostume.com. True, this is the media we’re talking about, to which the public standards of fashion don’t (and usually shouldn’t) apply. But having established their novelty and their suggestiveness, what purposes do such outfits serve?

Rare Objectification of Korean MenWell, consider what impression the commercial would have given if the men in it had also been wearing mini-shorts, assuming that they also had legs that the opposite sex would find attractive (well-muscled ones say). Intellectually, this probably sounds perfectly fine, but I suspect that if we were all to actually see such a commercial, that regardless of our feminist beliefs we’d probably find the result somewhat comical.

And yet it would not necessarily be a betrayal of those beliefs to do so: partially because, even in the US, “shorts suits” are still only on the fringes of respectability, and hence we’re unused to them, but primarily because men and women use different criteria for judging sexual attractiveness, so it’s to be expected that men often look absurd in similar clothes and poses to what advertisers place women in. On top of that, recall that this is a commercial for a bank, so something akin to a curious blend of a traditional Vaudeville show and the Chippendales wouldn’t exactly have conveyed the level-headiness consumers desire in such an institution.

But then, does just having the women in mini-shorts either? Well, that’s the strange thing: in this particular commercial, it does. Let me explain, using what is actually being said in the commercial to do so:

First, the text in blue box: “끝없이 ‘고객만족’을 생각하는 카드”.

“The card that unceasingly thinks about customer satisfaction”.

Then what the men are saying while that is visible: “생각, 생각, 생각, 생각”.

“Think, think, think, think.”

Next Girls’ Generation, dancing with their shoulders while sitting on a bench: “어떡하면, 원하는걸, 다 이뤄줄수 있으까?”.

“How shall [the card] achieve everything [the customer] wishes?”.

Girls' Generation Shinhan Card Screenshot( Source: Paranzui )

Then the men again, while the girls are do their leggy dance, then stand in a line with the men and supposedly sing along with them (but we only hear the men’s voices): “손잡고 힘을 모아 다 함께 생각 생각”.

“Let’s cooperate [with the customer] and collect our energy together and think about all that”.

Finally in the voiceover, with the men sitting in contemplative poses and the girls standing behind them clapping : “카드의 길을 생각하다”.

“What is a card’s purpose? Let’s think about that”.

With this text in the blue box above them: “끝없는 제휴혜택으로 더 큰 고객만족을”.

“The card that can be used anywhere in order to increase customer satisfaction!”.

Easy to miss on a single viewing, it emerges that it is only the men that do the thinking in this commercial, and by default, for the bank also. Yes, really: even when they all say “How shall [the card] achieve everything [the customer] wishes?,” if you look closely at roughly 0:08 into the commercial when the girls actually finish saying that (see above), they clearly turn to the men for an answer. Rest assured then, that if you invest your money in this bank, that it will be in the hands of those that take your concerns very seriously. They just won’t be women, that’s all.

Again, exaggeration? Hardly. Consider the facts: according to a recent report in the Korea Times, there are no female CEOs in the entire financial industry here; there are only 2 women out of a total of 220 team managers in the Financial Supervisory Service (and no executives); there are no women with either position in the Bank of Korea. Moreover, one anonymous (male) government official in finance argued that this is somehow justified by “the country’s financial bureaucrats [having] been overwhelmed with too “serious tasks” to pay attention to gender equality” (but referring to the period since the early 1960’s, not just recent events), and it’s telling that even Rep. Lee Sung-nam (이성남) of the Democratic Party, a woman and former worker at the FSS, feels that women’s weak point in finance is their “competitive edge.”

gender-advertisements-erving-goffmanGranted, given that Korea has one of the lowest women’s workforce participation rates in the OECD, and that Korea has a surprisingly low “Gender Empowerment Measure” relative to its level of development, which is based on “factors such as the number of female legislators, the percentage of women in senior official and managerial positions, the percentage of women in professional and technical positions, and the income differential between men and women,” then it might seem unfair to single out the financial sector for criticism in this regard. But then if I’d wanted to highlight the lack of women there in particular, then I couldn’t have selected a better commercial to illustrate why that might be so.

Nor for explaining “function ranking” either, a common sexist motif in advertisements. A quick summary:

Activities can also be expressive and symbolic – who is shown doing what in the image?  For example which gender is most likely to shown caring for children? Very commonly when persons in the image have functions, these functions are ranked, with the male carrying out the senior functions, the female the junior functions.  Men act, and women help men act.  Males are more likely to be shown in the executive or leadership role, with females in the supportive, assistant, or decorative accessory role (source).

That and other motifs were first outlined by the late sociologist Erving Goffman in his 1979 work Gender Advertisements, and which is still very much the framework by which sociologists study how gender roles are perpetuated in advertising; I offer it in the remainder of this post for those of you interested in a more systematic way of analyzing the commercial, and advertising in general. For instance, consider how poignant the following sounds in light of all the above:

In our society where a man and a woman collaborate face to face in an undertaking, the man – it would seem – is likely to perform the executive role, providing only that one can be fashioned. This arrangement seems widely represented in advertisements, in part, no doubt, to facilitate interpretability at a glance (p.32).

And the next also, albeit if we reverse the sexes and the locations:

….Which raises the questions of how males are pictured when in the domains of the traditional authority and competence of females – the kitchen, the nursery, and the living room when it is being cleaned. One answer, borrowed from life and possibly underrepresented, is to picture the male engaged in no contributing role at all, in this way avoiding either subordination or contamination with a “female” task (p.36).

Another answer, I think, it so present the man as ludicrous or childlike, unrealistically so, as if perhaps in making him candidly unreal the competency image of real makes could be preserved (p. 36).

And to introduce the next relevant motif, consider how a similarly strong gender binary is created by the following advertisement I came across last November, which also happened to be for a bank:

erving-goffman-relative-size

Here, it is largely the “relative sizes” of the sexes that makes it so problematic. See here for an in-depth discussion of this motif, but in sum:

…when females and males are shown together, males are mostly shown as taller than females, even though if females and males were randomly paired together, in one in six pairs the woman would be taller.  However the tall female with the short male displays a relationship in which the female has power, according to conventional indicative codes, and so the reverse is preferred, since the cultural ideal is the the male “should wear the pants”.  Therefore the most common image is the taller male, and the shorter female. Exceptions occur where the male is weakened by sickness or old age, or is of lower social status (such as a servant) than the female. Height routinely symbolizes social rank (source).

In light of this, one might point out that in opening image of the Shinhan Bank commercial the men and women are actually the same size – indeed, hilariously so because in fact many of the women are standing on wooden blocks – but I argue that this just makes the difference in their outfits all the more glaring.

Finally, the commercial doesn’t quite render irrelevant one of Goffman’s other motifs, that entitled “Ritualization of Subordination,” but it certainly qualifies it in the Korean context, as while he:

…read that lying or sitting conveys a sense of sexual availability and lowering oneself physically indicates deference or admittance of inferiority.

And which made sense given his full arguments and examples, as Nam Kyoungtae, Lee, Guiohk & Hwang, Jang-Sunin in their 2007 paper “Gender Role Stereotypes Depicted by Western and Korean Advertising Models in Korean Adolescent Girls’ Magazines“ (downloadable here) explain, this:

…may not be an accurate interpretation of Korean advertising. In a Korean culture which is accustomed to sitting on the floor, a seated person might have a higher status than people who are standing nearby because he takes a more relaxed and comfortable position.

Shinhan Bank Shinhan Credit Card Girl's GenerationTrue, the men posed at 0:12 on the right (source) are hardly “relaxed and comfortable,” but they’re easily of a more higher status than the women clapping behind them. Against that interpretation, there is the fact that in Korea, one often claps oneself or one’s group for achieving some feat, but there is little else in the commercial to suggest that the women are any more than passive members of the team that is thinking about “a card’s purpose” and so on. Or indeed, that overall, that any enhancement in the bank’s reputation gained by the commercial isn’t very much at the expense of women’s as a whole.

…And upon writing that note, my original intention was to move on to the 3 or 4 other “aspects of contemporary Korean gender issues” that I felt that the commercial demonstrated, but I’ll wisely stop there, hopefully having providing readers a new means by which to critically look at commercials and advertisements in the process, and not just Korean ones. But by all means feel free to point out anything you feel that I missed, or alternatively overemphasized: with having watched the commercial at least 50 times now, and now a raging flu to boot, then I concede that I may well have started missing the forest for the trees quite some time ago now!

Girls' Generation Girls' Dreams Come True( Source: Naver)

Update: See here for another recent commercial from Shinhan Bank with just the men for comparison.

(For all posts in my “Korean Sociological Images” series, see here)

Activities can also be expressive and symbolic – who is shown doing what in the image?  For example which gender is most likely to shown caring for children?  Very commonly when persons in the image have functions, these functions are ranked, with the male carrying out the senior functions, the female the junior functions.  Men act, and women help men act.  Males are more likely to be shown in the executive or leadership role, with females in the supportive, assistant, or decorative accessory role.

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Posted in Korean Advertisements, Korean Men's Body Images, Korean Sexism, Korean Sociological Images, Korean Women's Body Images Tagged: Erving Goffman, Gender Advertisments, Girls' Generation, Goffman, 소녀시대, 신한은행, 신한카드, Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card
  

 

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