Day 102: Sex Sells

I know I've mentioned this before in past blog entries, but in case you forgot, Korea is a very conservative society. (At least in comparison to Western cultures, and even in comparison to other places in Asia, such as Japan.) This conservativeness applies to a lot of things in Korean culture, but particularly applies to romance, dating, and sexuality. In Korea public displays of affection are a big no-no - the most you'll ever see between a couple in public is the holding of hands or arms around each other's shoulders. Anything above that is considered offensive and inappropriate for public display.

Most fashion also tends to reflect this conservativeness, although this is rapidly changing with the latest fashion trends among the younger generations. The older generation still lives in a conservative world where necklines are high, skirts go down to the floor, and a woman's place is in the home serving her husband. This is in complete contrast to the generation of people my age and younger, who are eager to embrace and adopt Western standards of fashion, gender equality - and overt sexuality. Turn on M-Net here in Korea (the Korean equivalent of MuchMusic or MTV) and any of today's hottest Korean pop stars look like carboncopies of Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, Asian-style of course. This contrast has created a huge generation gap - never before have I encountered such a distinct and pronounced difference of values between living generations.

Korea is also a very consumer-based society - wealth and status are measured by how much money one makes, how nice their home is, how extensive their wardrobe is, what labels they wear, what kind of car they drive, etc. The meeting of these two worlds - the consumption-obsessed society with a younger, more sexually overt generation has resulted in a new phenomenon for Korea that marketers have latched onto like a leech - using sex to sell products. This concept is certainly not a new one back home - marketers and advertising execs have realized that for sometime now, but here it's just beginning.

Turn on the TV in Korea and within minutes a commercial will come on featuring some pop-star lookalike hawking a brand of soda pop or instant noodles or mobile phone. Every single home shopping network has *at least* one pretty young thing to keep the male gaze on the screen, and convince the female viewers that they too can look like that if they purchase such said product. Billboards and posters all across Seoul are now full of Asian Abercrombie & Fitch look-alikes - tight shirts, short skirts, sexy poses, pouty lips, sexually-aggressive embraces, and 'come here big boy' stares in their eyes. This has resulted in an *explosion* of sales of products that use these advertising tools to attract consumers. It has been successful beyond belief, and really has appeared out of nowhere. Using sex to sell has taken Korea by storm, and like a tsunami racing towards shore, it keeps growning and growing. And all of this is happening much to the horror of the older generation, who react with shock, disapproval, and pure and utter confusion. It really is two worlds colliding - the old and the young, and the consumerism with sexiness.

I've seen two examples of this in the last week. I was walking to school the other day and could hear loud music coming from across the street. I looked across the busy street and saw streamers blowing in the air, loudspeakers BLASTING out pop music, shiny fabric being waved around, and two scantily-clad cheerleader-type girls dancing in perfect choreography - all to announce the opening of a new...bakery...??? Wow - talk about a way to attract customers to come and check out your hot new buns! ;-) Ajimas (Korean for 'older women') on my side of the street just gawked in horror and disbelief - their eyes were literally bulging out of their heads...

And then today I was walking home from school and once again heard loud music coming from the direction of the street. This time a large open-air pickup truck drove past, very slowly, decked out in bright colours, ribbons, balloons, and glitter. Again speakers were blasting out some technopop music at unbelievably high decibals, while two young Korean girls in itty-bitty silver bikinis danced in the back of the truck. This time it was to announce that some department store was having a 50% off sale tomorrow! I've been over-exposed to a lot of overt sexuality in the media and advertising world back home - practically numbed to it if you will, but this sight caught me off-guard, and certainly caused my head to turn and stare - I can only imagine the effect this would have on the Koreans!

Korean culture seems to almost be at war with itself - half the country is desperately holding onto traditional, more conservative Confucian values, while the other half can't get their clothes off fast enough to make a buck or two for 'the man'. It's a strange phenomenon to watch firsthand, but I enjoy being right in the middle of the battle zone.