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The Women’s Issue
Sorry for the slow posting everyone: I recently had food-poisoning, some editing deadlines and my students’ end of semester exams are looming, and on my days off I’ve been on a mini-whirlwind tour of...
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Korean Women’s Sexual Histories: Still a slippery subject
(Source) Remember last summer, when Korea’s first condom commercials came out? Showing a woman bringing condoms to a date, I hailed Durex Korea for challenging popular, slut-shaming attitudes that...
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I Read a Book: Susan Blumberg-Kason’s Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with...
Let me be honest: Good Chinese Wife is not something I would normally read. Susan’s ex-husband was Chinese; my wife is Korean. Susan’s relationship goes from friends to engaged in less than two...
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(KICKSTARTER) My Japanese Husband Thinks I’m Crazy: The Comic Book
(Source, all images: Texan in Tokyo) I’ve been asked to pass on the following: Deciding to move across the world for “love” is easy. People do it all the time. Thriving in that new country (without...
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“Fucking is Fun!”: Sexual Innuendos in Vintage Korean Advertising
(Source: Loading… 100%) Once upon a time, decent, honest Koreans wouldn’t stand for sex and nudity in their media. Gratuitous bikini models sparked outrage. Women had to appear demure and virginal in...
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Searching for Storytellers for Bawdy Storytelling Event
(Sources, edited: Left, “Meet Again” by Kimiaki Yaegashi, available at Thumbtack Press; Right, This Danielle Brown Page) I’ve been asked to pass on the following: Searching for Storytellers for Bawdy...
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Policing the Student Body: Sookmyung Women’s University students told to...
(Source: TVChosun) Watching a news report about the controversial new dress code for last week’s festival at Sookmyung Women’s University, I was surprised to hear that it was the student union that was...
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Korean Sociological Image #85: Just One 10 Minutes…to Improve Your Spouse’s...
(Source: Jinvas, left, right; edited) Two notebook covers, found by reader Stephanie Rosier at her local Kyobo bookstore. As she explains on the blog’s Facebook page, the left reads, “If I study for...
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Korean Sociological Image #86: Sex and the Single Korean (Household)
As of last year, one in four Korean households had just one person. That was the same as Australia, and just shy of the US. Yet just four years earlier, only Seoul was remotely close to that figure,...
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Sunday Fun: Bottoms!
My 8 year-old daughter Alice is really into comics these days, often hiding our home phone under her pillow to keep reading when she’s supposed to be asleep. To my chagrin, she couldn’t care less if...
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Announcements
(Source: Facebook Event Page) Hello everyone. Just to quickly let you know about an upcoming presentation not to be missed, some worthy causes, and some Youtubers that deserve more promoting. First up,...
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Korean Sociological Image #87: Normalizing Interracial Relationships
An extended commercial for Yoplait ‘Yopa’ yogurt, featuring five quick, humorous stories of foreign men in relationships with Korean women. It’s unremarkable in itself, and frankly not all that funny,...
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Announcements: A Rare Film About LGBT Asian-Americans, Bras for a Cause, and...
(Source: Kickstarter) Some worthy causes which would really benefit from just a little of your time or money this week: Spa Night – A Korean-American Film about Coming Out From the Kickstarter Page (my...
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Book Giveaway: Labyrinth of the Past by Zhang Yiwei (2014)
(Source: Tuttle) Sorry that I haven’t posted for so long everyone. I was very busy with offline work for two weeks, then I caught a terrible cold which lasted another two weeks…which means now I’m...
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Quick Hit: “Don’t Leave the Responsibility for Contraception to Men”
(Source: Wikitree) Let’s be clear: Korean women do, on the whole, leave contraception up to the men. So the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which issued this advertisement on Friday, does seem to have...
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Presentation, Yonsei University, Friday 12th: “Give it to Me? The Impact of...
(Source: *cough* Ilbe) The reason I’ve been soooo busy in recent weeks, and unable to properly reply to all your comments and tweets sorry. But, I’m happy to finally announce I’ll be presenting in the...
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Something Everybody Needs to Know About Yellow Fever
(Source, left: Kevin Jaako, CC BY-NC 2.0. Source, right: Isabel Santos Pilot, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, edited) Now, I’d be the last person in the world to victim-blame anyone who’s ever been the target of...
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Korea and the World: My Podcast Interview
(Source: Danny Choo; CC BY-SA 2.0) “Korea’s entertainment industry has become extremely popular abroad and conveys the image of a modern and attractive country. Watch any K-Pop video and you see plenty...
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“Sexy Concepts with James Turnbull”
(Source) Ahem. But really, they’re just a very small part of my July interview with Colin Marshall for the Notebook on Cities and Culture podcast, where we also discuss: …what Westerners find so...
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Korean Sociological Image #89: On Getting Knocked up in South Korea
As in, how many Korean women are pregnant when they walk down the aisle? How many get married after giving birth? How many mothers don’t get married at all? And how have public attitudes to all those...
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