Cultural Oddity Moment #10

That's right: they're back. After a brief wade back into an alternative culture, my sense of the idiosyncrasies around me in day to day life has been restored. It's time for a discussion of oddity that has been a long time coming.

Let's start with a little game: Can you determine the gender of this photo taken of a random Seoul citizen on the bus? Check the appropriate box below.


















[] male
[] female
Maybe you can't tell from the exposed stomach, tight jeans, teddy bear phone-dangly out the back pocket, or sensual curves, but the very fact that I posed the question should have clued you in that this is in fact a dude. And this is not abnormal.

The effeminate male syndrome (EMS {copyright 2007}) in Korea baffles me while at the same time turns my stomach. There are many factors that make the Korean male effeminate, but let's start with one that is the least their fault: inability to grow facial or other body hair of any kind. This lends both to the womanliness of the male population while simultaneously being a factor which makes it so difficult for Westerners to correctly place the age of Koreans. Whereas facial hair has always added years to my face, the baby skin of Korean men subtracts them.

It goes deeper of course than just unavoidable genetic factors. There is the issue of trend. Current Korean fashion allows for not only the acceptability of pink and purple clothing on men which I mentioned last September, but the immense popularity of tight fitted, low-rider jeans, open chested shirts, and the infamous man purse (a recent trend which permits men to carry what would be considered in the West as a slightly over sized leather purse with two straps that are worn on one shoulder).

It doesn't take a very deep analysis into trend of South Korea to note the immense popularity of the "shaggy" haircut. Whether this is a result of Anime culture or vice-versa, the influence of Japanimation has struck the peninsula. It is common for men to be as primpy in bathrooms and at public mirrors as girls are, if not more so. Highlights, facials, eye cream, and various forms of understated make-up are all acceptable modifications of the male face. In fact, Anime has influenced the style so much that guys here get facial plastic surgery in order to carve down their jaw bone and give themselves a pointier chin. Another popular plastic surgery (on girls as well) is an eye modification designed to make the Asian eye fold and look more like that of a Westerner.

As disturbing as the thought of plastic surgery, eye make up, and tight clothes on a hairless, un-built Asian male is, the effeminacy goes even beyond trend. It is preferred here by women that the man be sentimental, in touch with his feelings. Girls want a guy who will go shopping with them, and in role reversal I've met several Korean girls who complain about their boyfriends for spending too much time and money shopping for clothes or for taking too long to do their hair before they go out on a date. The ideal Korean man should not be afraid to cry or to cuddle, should enjoy romantic comedies, should be soft. While these may sound like things that American women want in a guy, it can be seen that time and time again these "nice guys" always lose, that it is the more masculine, muscular, facial haired, suave, and dangerous man who is idolized in the States. This is a picture of Bae Yong-joon, currently the highest paid actor in Korea for his role on the drama "Winter Sonata" in which he plays the sensitive guy who can't get over a girl.

It's not just everything outward, but everything inward as well. You'd be hard pressed to find a factor in the Korean male that could actually be called "masculine" other than their propensity to fist fight, which even then could simply be a genetic rubber band effect to the amount these men have pulled away from the hunter/protector role that a human male is supposed to play. Several interesting observations can be drawn about the women in this country, but I can't really relate the aggressive behavioural patterns and such to the lack of a strong male figure since EMS is not specific to Korea but rather to the whole East Asian region whereas the rough quality in Korean women can certainly not be found in the Japanese or Chinese female population.

This has been your cultural oddity moment of the day.