Korean Women Are Not Alphabets
2009-05-09 01:58 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ashiva.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
omonatheydid
It is well known that singer Son Dam-bi dons a corset on stage since her comeback in May last year. But few can deny that it's cute the way the singer tightens a miniature corset around a bottle of Today's Tea in her latest commercial.
While modern corsets lack the uncomfortable body-shaping functions of their Victorian counterparts, they remain an enduring symbol of the pressures women can be under to conform to often impossible ideals of appearance. And despite its lightheartedness, this commercial provides an excellent illustration of a distinctly Korean spin on this.
Beverage producer Lotte Chilsung invented the term bellyline for use in this commercial. The bellyline is where the corset and, supposedly, the drink will help with slimming.
In itself, doing so is not at all worthy of any criticism, nor is the term dissimilar to, say, the English equivalent of waistline, which would actually have been a much more appropriate choice here. But with that perfectly good term existing already, why invent a new one?
The term is merely the latest in a spate of naming particular female body parts after English letters in recent years, a very curious fashion that seems unique to Korea so far. Consider the following best-known examples of this:
• M-line (abdominals, for men)
• S-line (breasts and buttocks, viewed from the side)
• U-line (exposed lower back)
• V-line (one for face, and another for the line in-between breasts)
• W-line (breasts)
• X-line (long legs and arms, with a narrow waist)
And so integral to Korean pop culture are S-lines and V-lines in particular, that within five minutes of turning on a television, you are likely to see either female celebrities strutting them on talk-shows, or prominent Ss and Vs displayed in commercials.
Indeed, such is the current mania surrounding them that you can even come across examples completely unrelated to the original body parts involved, including in commercials for cell-phones, school uniforms, and even gas boilers.
Although this practice seems frivolous on the surface, says blogger Javabeans (www.dramabeans.com), "it actually belies much more pernicious trends in society at large", and something is surely seriously amiss when, rather than the media, you have a majority of female celebrities "vocally espousing their alphabet-lines and therefore actually objectifying themselves as a conglomeration of "perfect" body parts rather than as whole, genuine people.'' But, why their alacrity in doing so?
A clue is that this quote was made in the context of a breast cancer fundraising party in October last year, the producers of which saw absolutely no irony in naming Love Your W.
And if nothing is viewed as untoward in doing so for an event supposedly about empowering women by encouraging them to respect more and take better care of their bodies, then you can imagine that there are few inhibitions for promoting the use of 'lines' to teenagers and young girls either.
Accordingly, there are even educational videos that promote healthy food such as fermented bean paste ("dwenjang") to elementary-school children that mention that eating it will be good for their S-lines and V-lines.
And one probable direct effect of this is the fact that many Korean middle-school girls have face roller's, the repeated application of which is supposed to flatten one's face toward a desired, angular, V shape.
To be sure, the Korean media is not unique in placing undue emphasis on women's appearances rather than their intelligence ― the American media obsession with Michelle Obama's fashion choices being a notorious recent example ― nor is it in providing often unobtainable and unnatural role models and body ideals for women and girls.
But the contexts in which those are received are important, and whereas videos like the above would rapidly be banned in schools in many other developed countries, and/or educators that criticized children because of their appearance rapidly fired, unfortunately both are par for the course in Korea.
To an extent, this lack of awareness and/or concern is understandable when a child's entire life prospects are almost entirely determined by a single exam: parents have other priorities.
But on the other hand, when a majority of netizens did not take pride in astronaut Yi So-yeon for being the first Korean to go into space last year, but instead criticized her for her appearance during the flight, then teenage girls will hardly be encouraged to study harder.
And on a wider scale, Korea again faces an economic crisis. In order to recover from it, it is worth pondering what lies behind the fact that Korea has long had one of the lowest rates of working women in the OECD.
Surely a good start to using this underutilized human resource, one of the best-educated in the world, would be to encourage both sexes to stop judging women entirely on their appearance.
The writer specializes in Korean gender issues and pop culture. He can be reached via his blog at thegrandnarrative.wordpress.com
Sources: 1, 2
ETA: Examples of S-, M-, V-, and U-line and double V-line.
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This isnt what a v-line is??
Date: 2009-05-08 11:33 pm (UTC)Re: This isnt what a v-line is??
Date: 2009-05-08 11:38 pm (UTC)Re: This isnt what a v-line is??
Date: 2009-05-08 11:49 pm (UTC)o__o i love him.
Re: This isnt what a v-line is??
Date: 2009-05-09 12:35 am (UTC)Re: This isnt what a v-line is??
Date: 2009-05-09 12:55 am (UTC)Re: This isnt what a v-line is??
Date: 2009-05-09 04:39 am (UTC)Re: This isnt what a v-line is??
Date: 2009-05-08 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-08 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-08 11:40 pm (UTC)I think it's funny how the girl wearing the shirt is an I-line
no subject
Date: 2009-05-08 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 12:46 am (UTC)Kim Sun Ah is a celebrity that comes to mind with pretty great curves, though.
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Date: 2009-05-09 04:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 03:22 am (UTC)I just realized I absolutely love your username! XD
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Date: 2009-05-09 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 12:40 am (UTC)one step forward and two steps back, ladies.
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Date: 2009-05-09 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 06:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-09 12:33 am (UTC)like moobs?
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Date: 2009-05-09 12:52 am (UTC)I still don't get what a face V-line looks like though. That face roller thing sounds really disturbing.
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Date: 2009-05-09 12:59 am (UTC)http://popseoul.com/2007/04/23/what-line-are-you/
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Date: 2009-05-09 02:12 am (UTC)& the roller thing isn't as scary as it sounds lol. It looks like this (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zw-HVeFmKSY/SPHhyy4CQbI/AAAAAAAAAj0/cVZotJFcDVc/s1600/2%2Bin%2B1%2Bface%2Bup%2Broller.jpg) and it, supposedly, feels pretty nice.
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Date: 2009-05-09 03:19 am (UTC)