South Korea is one of the most gender unequal developed societies right now, and part of the reason is the deep pervasive influence of Confucianism which is inherently gender unequal.
The women are traditionally tasked with more responsibilities such as taking care of the baby, cooking, taking care of her husband, her husband’s parents, preparing all the food for Chuseok etc
In modern Korean society puts even more pressure and burden on them, women are also expected to dress up everyday, look pretty all the time, and also work.
Korean men on the other hand, just have to work. That’s it. they don’t have these auxiliary responsibilities.
In addition, there’s other problems in Korean society working against women. Women are discriminated for their appearance, women can be fired if they become pregnant, women are mostly the victims of sex crimes, which the male perpetrators are often given lenient sentences for, women often receive 3x-4x the punishment for crimes than males do because the law is uneven, abortion was only legalized in 2019 (for comparison China legalized it in the 1980s), which goes to show how behind Korea is for women’s rights.
This results, unsurprisingly, in a society with the highest young female suicide rates and many young women who don’t want to marry (with a very different reason from young Chinese women FYI – young Chinese women want to stay single because they value career over marriage, young Korean women stay single because they have too many responsibilities when they marry)
Korea could be considered a misogynist society sometimes. Here are some examples.
Edit: recently a Twitch online streamer took her own life as a result of bullying by misogynists. RIP
^ “The police later refuted his claims and said the incident was not a hate crime against women, as claimed, but one driven by mental illness”
This is complete BS. This is literally misogynism. Not the fake misogynism that Western women like to tweet about everywhere about playboys and stuff, but real actual hatred towards women and he gets a pass for it?
That’s most of the answers you see here ^ condemn extreme feminism in Korea, and the only reason why it exists is because of the extreme misogynism in Korea, which makes people hate the feminism in Korea and sets back women even more:
^ Korea has the highest gender pay gap in the OECD.
I hope that Korea feminism can be less extreme so that it can be taken more seriously, because Korea is sorely in need of actual feminism.
Edit: for an example of what I’m talking about it’s obvious that Korean men have very little sympathy for the women and actually say its the men that are discriminated against which is laughable.
^ This guy is clearly one of those men who believe women are inferior and should be subservient to men, they don’t deserve to have CEO jobs, they don’t believe in gender pay gap etc these are the types of guys who are common in Korea and a symptom of that patriarchal society. “Women tend to value their social life than men do” – what does this mean? Is there any formal study done on how much women enjoy their social life compared to men? Saying men are rejected from traditional female dominated occupations like teaching, or nursing or being airline attendant is hardly proof that men are being discriminated in Korea. It’s actually furthering my point that occupations in Korea are very gender divided. I can say the same thing for women who apply to STEM fields in Korea or try to manage or start up their own companies right?
Korean men ignore that they make more money than Korean women on average by far and go with the ‘but we have to serve in the military!’ route. Jesus. And let’s not forget the vast majority of the victims in crimes are women, that women get way harsher sentences by the court and that the vast majority of perpetrators of crimes are men.
As many people on the internet know, a few days ago a Google employee’s internal memo was leaked out.. and there has been a big fuss about it.
Not only was there so much hate on that guy, claiming that he was ‘misogynist’ and ‘male chauvinist’ but his name and picture were actually leaked by the press as well! If this wasn’t character assassination and defamation I don’t know what is.
So, I’ve actually read the memo, and while I disagree with portions of it, for the most part I agree with him. My opinion is not a popular one in the liberal majority Silicon Valley. But I can assure you there is nothing that sexist / misogynist about what he wrote. First off, people should stop using that term so frequently because it literally means someone who hates women. This memo does not come off to me as someone who hates women. The main point he was getting across is that 1. conservatives are discriminated against in the tech industry and 2. Women’s biological differences with men are the reason why there aren’t as many women in the tech industry
His first point is actually true, since Google promptly fired him after that memo leaked. As a private company they have all the right to do that, but it goes to show what happens when you have an unpopular conservative opinion in a sea of liberal opinions. Yes he had freedom of speech, but in the end if he violated Google’s code of conduct they had every right to fire him. I just don’t think it was fair since his opinion was actually quite valid.
Secondly, as an Engineer I am usually very skeptical of claims unless they are backed by science. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories like area 51 / aliens or chemtrails or 9/11 theories or moon landing hoax theories or stuff like that. I don’t believe in superstitions like Feng Shui or chinese medicine (pseudoscience) or go to tarot readers or astrologists since I don’t believe in the supernatural. I don’t believe in ghosts or monsters. I DO believe in global warming, because that’s backed up by science.
Now, while this is very hard to prove by science, it is actually common sense to everyone that men and women are not the same. Our bodies are built very differently. Our brains are wired very differently. There is a gender difference in humans just like there is in every other animal. That is quite easy to accept. So I don’t understand what is so misogynist or hard to understand that differences in the way each gender thinks is the reason why certain genders perform certain roles?? Being different is good. There’s nothing wrong with being different. If people really want a society where men and women are treated exactly the same, I would recommend those people to move to a communist society. Perfect gender equality there.
Men usually perform roles with physical labor like construction or mining, or roles that involve analytical thinking like mathematics, science or engineering. That is not to say women can’t do those roles, but definitely men have a dominant advantage in those roles. Women on the other hand, are much better at serving and caring for people. That’s why women tend to be clerks, cashiers, customer service reps, broadcasters, receptionists, nurses, etc. They are better suited for those positions than men. There is nothing misogynist or women-hating about this train of thought, this is the way that I feel after looking at other animal species and interacting with humans. Male lions don’t ask female lions to do the same task, they each have their own responsibilities. So why is it so unacceptable for humans to be the same? Even in engineer crazy India and China, there are more males than females in engineering. They have no reason to discriminate against women there (Asians are notorious for pushing that field onto all their children), yet there are still more males. Why? because men and women’s brains are different, that’s why. Its not hard to understand why. Anyone who’s been in a relationship before can tell you that women’s minds are way more emotionally complex than a man’s mind.
Because people like to be social justice warriors. They like to think that taking the stance that women are the victims of social constructs, that women can do anything men can do, and somehow that will make others think of them as better people and supporting gender equality more. Its total nonsense, just like third-wave feminism. I support equal pay for equal work and gender equality, but I do so while acknowledging that men and women have different roles in society. People are just fooling themselves, they are denying science and biology because ironically, they are the victims of the liberal social construct, the very social constructs that they fight against. Do they also believe that social constructs are the reason why men can run faster and jump higher than women can? The liberal echo chamber of the Bay Area puts pressure on people to care or think about minorities, disabled, women, etc to help anyone who’s “oppressed” historically, even if it goes against science or what they actually believe. This is unfortunate, and the firing of this man for his memo (which is personal btw it wasn’t meant to be leaked), just goes to show that if you do not reflect this liberal echo chamber, then you will be punished for it in America. Those are just my 2 cents on this issue.
tldr; I’m not a misogynist, I’m for gender equality, but I also believe men and women are biologically different and that makes them better at certain positions for each gender. This is backed by science and I support it.
As much as I like living in both Korea and America, I have some complaints about both countries. Yes, I know no country is perfect, so here’s my biggest gripes about each.
5 things I don’t like about living in South Korea
1. Racism
I wish Koreans would stop worshipping white people and treating white people different than other foreigners. Black people, Hispanics, and other non-Korean Asians all get treated differently, or “lower” than white people get treated and this is an issue common to most Asian countries I think. Because of Hollywood and history, white people get looked up upon and Koreans think of themselves as “better” than other Asians.
2. Citizenship
Its very difficult for a foreigner to become a Korean citizen. There’s really only a few ways, either marry a Korean national, have Korean heritage but live abroad, invest $5m into the Korean economy, or become a Korean cultural ambassador. So for the majority of us foreigners the only reliable option is to marry a Korean, which I’m not opposed to, but its difficult meeting a girl to marry when you can’t live here permanently. And you have to marry to live here permanently. Working here for any amount of time doesn’t cut it.
3. Online security
Doing anything online, buying tickets for a movie, getting internet, going to naver cafes, online shopping, transferring money to a bank account, getting a cellphone contract etc all requires a Korean resident number (only Korean citizens have that), or requires an Foreigner ID card (only foreigners with a work permit have that). So if you are living in Korea short term like me, good luck getting those things online. Its a major headache and hassle.
4. Work culture
The work culture in Korea is very strict. You have to follow what your boss tells you do and can’t talk back. You can’t leave work until your boss does. You have to go drinking with your boss if he tells you do. Overtime and Weekend work is normal. That’s why I don’t to work for a Korean company. But they have to get with the times and change these rules. Its way too strict and hinders intellectual and career development. Also, you’re encouraged to stay with the same company to show your loyalty. These rules are pretty different than Chinese work culture where there is more freedom of movement.
5. Gender equality the recent murder of a girl in Gangnam by a guy who hated women prompted some people to talk about gender equality and misogynists in Korea. But unlike in America, where girls complain about sexism in every single thing imaginable, in Korea its very real.
There is a 30% work pay gap between Korean women and men, and that is the highest gap in the OECD. Korean women are pressured to look pretty all the time, and some have to get plastic surgery to find a job. They are discriminated against if they get pregnant while on the job and can be dismissed. In America, people can sue for this, but in Korea women are too afraid of retaliation to even try. In fact, online Korean bloggers even trying to talk about women’s rights get attacked viciously online by Korean males who don’t want women to have more rights.
In the US, there is the benefit of American males who have sympathy for feminists, but the reason why you don’t see many feminists in Korea is because its a patriarchal society, and people are afraid of retaliation and backlash, where Korean men don’t have that much sympathy for the women.
5 things I don’t like about living in USA
1. People love guns too much
I have to talk about this yet again, because recently a popular Youtube singer was murdered out in the open right in front of all her fans. Nowhere else in the world would this happen but in the US.
America has a gun problem. They think more guns is the solution, not the cause. They have 310 million of them and its impossible to take them away. Pro-guns people usually say banning guns won’t keep criminals from killing people, they will find ways to get guns or other weapons.
I don’t disagree with that, but I think the reason how they can get other guns in a city like Chicago for instance, which has a lot of murders but strict gun laws, is because they can always get it from states or cities with more loose gun restrictions. Because in America every state is different, people can just buy guns without a background check from a private gun dealer or gun show in a state with loose gun laws and take them to a state with strong gun laws and shoot people.
The solution is ban guns everywhere like in Canada/Europe/Australia/Korea/Japan/most of the developed world.
As for criminals finding other weapons, well a knife is quite less lethal than a gun. A knife is a short range weapon and multiple stabbings are required, whereas for a gun its long range, and multiple shots can kill multiple people at once. A gun is far more deadly than a knife is, so if a criminal uses a knife, a lot less deaths will happen. The time it takes for a person to stab someone fatally versus a fatal gunshot. You can’t say that stabbing someone is faster. A bullet travels way faster than a hand does. In a mass shooting situation, that happens a lot faster than a mass stabbing situation.
Plus, a lot of these mass shootings happen not from criminals, but from ordinary citizens with mental health problems. They aren’t criminals until they commit the act. Which means, banning guns 100% from every state is the right choice so that common citizens can’t get access to them easily.
Another argument people make for guns is that they need them for self defense (against intruders or the government) or for hunting purposes. My response is, in 2016 why do you need to hunt, since fresh meat is widely available, and why is a gun necessary for self defense when a knife will do? The same people who say that knives are just as deadly as guns (foolishly arguing against my point above) will defend this point in pure contradiction and say that no, knives are not as deadly as guns are. And what chance do you stand against a military that has access to choppers, tanks, bazookas, stealth jets etc. This ain’t the 18th century anymore.
2. People think socialism is evil
We all know that there is a lot of uneducated people in the US, which is how Trump became the Republican nominee for President. 70% of them don’t have a university degree. So unfortunately a lot of them don’t understand exactly what democratic socialism is. They hear socialism, and they equate that to communism which equals Soviet Union/Red China/Cuba/Vietnam for them, and they hate it. They think that Obama or Bernie Sanders are communists. Which is blatantly ridiculous.
Canada/Europe/Korea/Japan/Taiwan/Australia/Scandinavia/etc a great majority of developed countries in the world practice democratic socialism, basically its the idea that the people pay more taxes and in return the government provides more welfare. The US is already like this in some sense because of Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security. The problem is Americans are selfish and don’t want to pay more taxes to help their kids get better education, or themselves to get easier access to healthcare. When they are already paying taxes to help the US military invade other countries. So very ironic.
3. People care more about fetuses / animals than other human beings
the shooting of a gorilla because a family’s 4 year old son went into the cage prompts people to care more about the gorilla than the child. In Hollywood movies, you are more likely to see an adult get killed than a dog or a cat.
Conservatives are fine with lax gun laws that facilitate mass shootings of fully developed human beings but are against abortion, which is a pre-developed human being.
I don’t get it.
4. Politically correct bullshit
When I go to IGN or PC Gamer I don’t expect to see article about body shaming or fat shaming. I expect to see articles about gaming. I don’t want to see 50% of the news coming from formerly respected magazines like Economist and BBC and TIME and websites like Verge or Techcrunch or Engadget constantly post crap about feminist / gender / equality bullshit. I want to see actual news about what they are supposed to talk about! World events! Tech news!
People care too much about being politically correct. calling someone fat will likely result in your getting ostracized for it “body shaming”. Complimenting a girl too much is “sexual harassement” and “objectifying”. You can’t make any comment that can me misconstrued as racist, sexist, stereotyping, etc if you don’t have enough diversity in your company or game or movie, then you get criticized “not enough girls”, “not enough gays”, “not enough blacks”, “not enough transgenders” etc. Everyone is offended by everything. In short, I hate the politically correct “progressive” society that we live in today.
Here’s an example of how much ridiculous politically correct shit get into my newsfeed, this is just in the last 15 days from my Facebook wall:
Now lets look at these sources… CNET, Economist, Eurogamer, BBC, TIME, etc. Wow thats a lot of feminist/diversity agenda being pushed down our throats every day. Now you know why I’m annoyed by this.
ridiculous political BS
5. Gender Equality
I think Gender Equality is BS, and I’m probably the first to go ahead and openly say this. Go ahead mock me and hate on me all you want. I have my reasons. Feminists complain about small trivial things that they think are owed to them and hate on men without thinking about how much opportunity they have in the world compared to other women in the world.
They don’t think about the fact that men and women were born unequal, are biologically unequal, mentally unequal, have done different roles in society for millennia, and should continue to do so because they are good at different tasks. Women are better at taking care of kids, dealing with people etc thats why a lot of women are receptionists, service people, etc Men are better at dealing with physical labor, being scientists/engineers, fighting in battles etc and thats what they have traditionally done. One of the points I love about Korea is that the gender roles are very divided and separated and the guys do what the guys do best and the girls do what the girls do best. And there’s no complaining from either side. And look how much faster Korean life operates as a result! Its more optimal, more efficient that way.
I hate that everything a guy says in western society can be misconstrued as sexist or misogynist by today’s feminists and its just insane to think that. And not only that its a double standard against men. For example, you can have a movie that promotes feminist values and in the same movie you have girls ogling over a buff guy with his shirt off for half the movie. What kind of double standard is that? So girls can say sexist things and objectify men but guys can’t? That’s the definition of gender inequality. The same thing with that X-men article I linked earlier. So feminists want a strong woman to be a superhero and fight the bad guy but cry misogyny when the main villain chokes her? You can’t pick and choose which things are equal for you!
That’s why gender equality is complete BS, at least the way I’ve seen it played out online.
Edit: 6. Stereotypes/Racism
I don’t like how Americans have these stereotypes about non-whites, especially when it comes to mass shootings and mass killings. The recent Orlando shooting was a great example. That guy never said he was a Muslim and automatically all the media outlets reported that he was a Mulism and terrorist and pledged to ISIS because of his name! Despite all his family and friends saying its a hate crime. Just a few weeks later, a Texas mom shoots two of her daughters. I’m going to let you guess, do you think she was labeled a terrorist? Oh of course not, because she was white, so she had mental issues. A week after that, a Palestinian boy killed an American girl in her sleep in Israel. I’m going to let you guess again, do you think he was labeled a terrorist even though the situation is not that different than the other one? Of course! he was labeled a terrorist. Because he was of middle eastern background.
There you go people, now we know how the media reports things. White = mental issues. Middle east background/Muslim = terrorist. Black = gang related violence. This just feeds into peoples stereotypes and hate which is also exactly where Trump is getting his supporters.
On a side note, how about these ISIS attacks eh? There’s been ISIS attacks everywhere, in Istanbul, in Brussels, in Paris, in Tunisia, in Syria, in Iraq, in India, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Lebanon, etc but just take a wild guess which attacks got the most media coverage? That’s right! The attacks that happened in Western countries! I know some people might be saying, well of course Western media will report on Western attacks the most, but thats simply not true. In fact, media outlets around the world devoted much more attention to the Brussels/Paris attacks than to any other ISIS related attack. In fact did you know that a tornado happened in Jiangsu, China just a few days ago? No? Well I guess you wouldn’t, because Western media outlets never reported it. On the other hand, Chinese and Korean media outlets very widely reported the Paris attacks and Orlando shootings. In fact, I believe the Paris and Orlando attacks got more coverage in China than their own tornado disaster which killed 99 Chinese! How messed up is that.
Facebook made their famous profile generator tool in support of Paris victims. I’m sure you’ve seen it, since almost everyone on Facebook and social media started changing their profile pictures to support Paris victims. But the Beirut attack that happened around the same time? The Istanbul attack that happened a few days ago? Nope. No Facebook profile generator tool. Not many people on social media even said much about it. On Kakaotalk, a Korean application, I saw many “pray for Paris” messages on there but not a single “pray for Istanbul”, “pray for Baghdad”. Nope. This just reinforces the issue that Western societies seem to get the most coverage out of any society in the world. The world is Western centric, and has been throughout history. In fact, who are the most famous people in history? The most famous scientists, conquerors, discoverers, kings etc? All Westerners right? Newton, Einstein, Shakespeare, Lincoln, Washington, Columbus, we all know these people. Do we know their Asian equivalents? Do we know their Persian equivalents? No, of course not! The great navigator Zheng He is far less known than Columbus. Shen Kuo, a famous Chinese polymath who made many important discoveries long before Europeans did, is far less known than Leonard da Vinci is.
So yes there’s another issue I have with the world, is that its based around Western society.
Ok so first off, I’m back in SF, so I finally got a chance to review some really cool gadgets (videos below). I finally got to sell alot of my excess gadgets (though not all of them). Including my beloved Honda PCX which I had to sell because I wasn’t staying in SF long term, and it was taking up money parking it and keeping it in storage. Just before I sold it though, I took a few nice videos with it.
My beloved Honda PCX
At Twin Peaks with my scooter
Now, onto some controversial topics I want to talk about. Ghost In the Shell, one of the most renowned Japanese Animes, has been adapted into a movie, and surprise surprise, Hollywood decides to cast a white actor. This is not the first time Hollywood has done this of course, they’ve done it with countless movies from Dragonball Evo to Avatar the Last Airbender to 21 to Aloha (with Emma stone playing an Asian), and now with Scarlett Johansson playing the character in a Japanese adapted film. Now, I realize people make excuses such as oh the character wasn’t written as an Asian person etc but why couldn’t they have cast an Asian still?
Hollywood seems to be getting more and more criticism for not casting women, blacks, etc why is Asian any different? It seems not casting Asians, or whitewashing Asian roles doesn’t seem to be criticized as much. Why? If Asian actors never get experience playing a lead, how can Asians ever get a lead role? It seems Hollywood just has something against Asians and lead roles, period. Its a vicious cycle.
Now, no one seems to care that Nick Fury is played by a black person in the movies, even though the original character was white in the comics. Imagine if an Asian person played Nick Fury in the movies. Shouldn’t make a difference since they both diverge from the comics, but I’m willing to bet people will have more issue with an Asian actor than a black actor playing the role.
For proof of this I’ve found this popular comment on Facebook that was a comment on John Cho’s article showing why Asians can definitely be romantic leads. This one got over 50 upvotes when I saw it:
Complaining about the lack of Asian lead characters in North American films is like going to India, China or Korea and complaining that they should be starring white people in their films.
This is the reason why Americans still can’t accept Asians in movies. They think we are perpetual foreigners. They think we can’t play romantic leads. They always make excuses to justify the discrimination whenever it happens like this comment. The reason why there’s no white characters in Korean dramas or Bollywood films is simple: how many white people are living in Korea or India compared to how many Asians are living in the US (hint its over 15 million).
Somewhat related to discrimination, another topic that I want to talk about (again) is feminism, in particular in the USA.
I’ve already talked about this alot, but I want to re-address this because it comes up more and more frequently these days.
I’d be following my news feed and my favorite channels IGN, Wired, Verge, TIME, Economist, etc and these feminist articles would be polluting my feed, like what the heck, what does TechCrunch or PC Gamer have to do with feminism? Well it all started 2 years ago in 2014 because of this controversy called Gamergate and along with the whole Reddit Ellen Pao fiasco that happened, “feminist” issues have suddenly started permeating everything from gaming articles to politics. So its everywhere now.
Why do I want to talk about this? Because I’m bothered and frustrated by it. Now, I am in full support of women’s rights, and I am not a misogynist, I don’t hate women or anything. Its just that I think the “modern day” feminists take issues with so many small trivial nonsensical things that have never really been an issue before and then complain about it to get recognition. What am I talking about here? this article that TIME published and I commented on perfectly sums it up. The word feminist is becoming corrupted these days because it is used by women who aren’t really feminists, but rather just women who like to whine and complain about under-representation and other things and delight in hating on men and calling all guys sexists and misogynists (this is a good example). Emma Watson has become the poster child for going a bit too far, that under-representation of women and womens rights are two separate issues.
Don’t believe me? One such women called me out on Facebook with this message:
Quite equal? Really? How many members of the US government are female as opposed to male? How many times has there been actual legislature proposed by women to regulate what men do with their bodies? How many women CEOS are out there floating around in the world today as opposed to men and are you really trying to suggest that the ” glass ceiling” in that corporate world doesn’t exist? Equal…just like equal pay for equal work right?
Is that why young girls all over the world are murdered simply for going to school and are subject to arranged marriages? Spoken like a true chauvanist…things are ” quite equal,” simply because in I get to vote and can drive a car just like men folk do
This is exactly what I was talking about. And let me explain my reasoning here more in depth:
So called “feminists” these days like to complain that they are under-represented or over-sexualized or treated in a different manner in everything from movies to video games. These feminists like to think of themselves as exactly equal to men in every way, including wanting to serve in the military forces, even though being exactly the same as men would ruin the fabric of what makes men and women different.
Historically men and women have played different roles in society, and now that gap is closing, but to think that men and women must be exactly the same is nonsense. What makes men and women attracted to each other is the fact that they are biologically and behaviorally different. If they were the same, there would be less and less attraction between each gender.
So, I live in South Korea, where women are actually treated much differently than men are. They are told to put on makeup all the time, because its “manners”. They have the highest gender wage gap inequality in the OECD. They often have to be housewives, to cook and clean, and look pretty for the men on all occasions. They have to get plastic surgery to get a better chance of finding a job. This is a country where feminism is actually needed. There are not many feminists in Korea, due to it being a patriarchal society, but it is definitely more needed here than in the USA. Women in the USA are already equal to men, rights wise, in pretty much every way. In fact, I implore you to name a profession or position where women are not allowed to do. This is a good example of something that would never happen in South Korea. Women don’t complain about wearing high heels all day, and even if they do the company would probably fire them. Thats a huge difference.
Women in the USA are empowered enough to do anything they want, from serving in the military (not possible in a lot of other countries like Korea), to playing football/hockey (again in other countries, not possible), to becoming the front runner to be President of the United States (Hillary Clinton obviously). The USA is an equal opportunity country and anyone can be anything they want.
The supposed “lack of representation” in certain industries which is what modern day feminists complain about, is because men are traditionally trained to do those fields, like being an engineer for example, or being a soldier, or movie director, etc. Traditionally men were trained in those fields. If more women were trained in those fields, if they have enough experience, of course they could do those things.
And this is also the reason why women are potentially underpaid in those fields is because of lack of experience. Since men are traditionally dominant in those fields, it makes sense that they are more experienced, and are thus paid more. Once more women go into those fields, get more experience, then they will be compensated as much. This is true even in Silicon Valley with female CEOs of Oracle, AMD, Yahoo just to name a few. They are paid more than other employees, as you would expect.
Women are overly sexualized? Well how about guys needing to look buff and muscular? Its the exact same thing. Cherry picking positions where men were traditionally dominant? How about I pick a position like nurse or customer service where traditionally women were preferred over men. Is that being sexist to men? The “wage gap” between men and women in America is because of the same reason – guys generally have more experience in those fields, and thus are paid accordingly. Again, if women (like Marissa Meyer for example) have experience in those fields then they are paid accordingly as well.
So my point is, modern day feminists who complain about these issues aren’t really “feminists”. Because under-representation in a field has nothing to do with women’s rights. If women weren’t allowed to work in those fields, then thats a women’s right issue. However, thats not the case. Its just a matter of breaking tradition and getting more women trained in those fields, thats it.
And I also like how that girl called me out as a “chauvinist” like a true modern day feminist who just assumes that every guy who doesn’t agree with their views must hate women. Indeed.
What’s really ironic about these men-hating feminists is that, men were originally the reason why women got rights in the first place. Indeed, I know about the suffragists and the women pioneers, and not to take anything away from them, but it was true that men were in charge of everything back in the day. For most of history, men have been in charge, so in order for a woman to petition for and receive rights, that woman must have, at some point, convinced some men in a position of power to give them those rights. Which means that, at some point, men must have sympathized with those women pioneers and helped them get those rights, the rights to vote, the right to have abortion, etc all those rights were achieved with the help of men. I mean, how could they have not? Women didn’t have any power back then like people said. So its ironic that us men are now being hated on and called misogynists so readily these days.
I would also like to add this additional comment by a feminist here
The reason why women are stuck with uncomfortable, inconvenient and dysfunctional wardrobe/makeup/hair elements is because in our patriarchal society women’s value is a lot closer tied to her looks rather than her intelligence. Girls and women spend millions of hours more in their lifetime on maintaining their appearance instead of developing their careers, inventing things or earning money. Trust me, if it was found acceptable by society every woman would love to wake up with short hair, skip makeup and heels, put comfortable flat shoes on and non-tight pants with functional pockets and still be considered attractive and/or professional.
This is really revealing of the personality of American feminists – they think they can speak for every girl in the world and they think their opinion is always the best and right one. First of all, Western countries are no longer “patriarchal” and I would love to see evidence that it still is. Secondly, perhaps girls and women like to care about their appearance and wear skirts and heels because it makes them feel more like a woman? And since when are they forced to wear those outfits anyways? This isn’t the 1950s anymore. In the US these days, women can wear whatever they want and they won’t be ostracized for it. Again, I feel like there’s a cultural difference here because in Korea, almost every girl is wearing skirts/heels/makeup, whether they really like to or not. But they’re not complaining.
I feel like this idea that every girl wants to dress like a guy, or be “comfortable” like men, and do things men can do like serve in the army etc is being shoved down our throats when really, its only a small (and vocal) part of the female population that actually wants that. Most women that I know, wants to feel like a woman, dress like a woman, and behave like a woman because you know… they’re a woman. They’re not being forced to, they’re not being oppressed, thats just the opinion of a small group of women who like to complain about pretty much everything.
Anyways I hope I’ve made my point. American feminists complaining about these issues really need to take a step back and do some research on whether their complaining is justified, at least in comparison to other countries in the world.
Not every country in the world has to be politically correct like the US, people just can’t seem to accept that and just blatantly think the “progressive society” in the US, where people can get sued for complimenting a woman in the wrong way, and getting offended at every little thing is the “right” way / best way, and that other countries should follow the US. I for one, hope that Korea never gets the feminist bug and political correct BS like the US does. Its one of the things I love about Korea the most, the fact that women here are totally fine with being complimented, looking beautiful, being housewives, etc and not worrying about gender equality or something.
Look, I realize that across the world women doesn’t have equal rights as men, but do we really need to raise the feminist flag everywhere and anywhere these days? There have been lots of female characters in video games and movies, and tv shows, and cartoons and basically everywhere since the 70s when the second feminist movement occured, yet people are still finding something to complain about. I don’t get it. I realize that Asians are not treated as fairly as whites in the majority of the world, that Asians aren’t well represented in Hollywood or video games or in other media, but I don’t go around complaining about it all the time. Just enjoy the movies and enjoy the games! Its not about some social political issue, cmon.
I think people online vastly overuse the term ‘misogynist’. It means someone who strongly hates women and do hate crimes, sexually assault, stalk, slander, etc targeting specifically women. If your manager mistreats you and he happens to be a guy and you happen to be a girl, that is not misogyny, but many people are just overusing this word now because of the feminist movement going on these days. Its come to mean that whenever a guy disgrees with a girl about what she thinks women should be like, then that’s misogyny. A show without any females? Misogyny! A movie that has the guy speak more lines than the girl? Misogyny! Facebook friend icon shows the guy in front of the girl? Misogyny! How dare superheroes be mostly men? Misogyny! How about no female Transformers and no female Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mario saving the helpless princess? That all must be changed in the name of female equality! Nintendo must be misogynists! Seriously though, this is how ridiculous it is when you misuse this term.
And the reddit CEO (Ellen Pao) that got fired – cmon, could the firing be because she was banning subreddits and freezing employees salaries due to her own personal social-political motivations? I doubt that all the hate that she got was because she was a woman. Sure, they called her mean names. So what, there are lots of trolls on the internet. People troll others all the time on the internet, man or woman. It wouldn’t have been different if it was a guy. Sure, girls out there feel that she was treated worse than that of a guy, but where’s your proof of that? Do we think women are more sensitive so they have to be treated more ‘nicely’? I don’t understand. We have seen proof of men CEOs resigning in similar situations, such as Brenden Eich as former Mozilla chief. Similar protests have happened against men as well. Feminists also like to complain that the tech industry is dominated by males, but currently (as of Aug 2015) huge tech companies like Yahoo, HP and AMD are headed by female CEOs. No one ever seems to mention this fact.
Let’s Face it – if anything, men are perceived by society to be ‘stronger’ so they can ‘handle’ more tougher attacks. I don’t think anyone would go around crying about it if it was a guy and he got torched on reddit, because hey its a guy! he can handle the tough attacks! if it’s a girl – oh no, it must be misogynist. Sorry, but I don’t have much pity for a woman who was arguably unqualified to be Reddit CEO in the first place, who makes a lot more money than most people on earth, who has an education and great rights compared to most women on earth, I don’t count her as an example of ‘human misery’.
“The take-home seems to be that, just like bullies, the men most likely to have their position in a hierarchy usurped by a woman turned out to be meaner.”
That makes sense to me, but I don’t think they are ‘bullies’ rather than they are just acting like how males have always acted. Traditionally Males are more dominant, bread winners, etc and we want to be the alpha male. Females are traditionally in a supportive role. Our brains are hard wired this way, thats why so called ‘sexism’ exists in video games. Males and females are treated differently because, well, we are very different. Males and females are *supposed* to be different, thats how our evolution has evolved. So it sucks that so many feminists want us all to be equal when we arent *meant* to be equal. Evolution/God created 2 genders for a reason.
A ‘friend’ of mine argued about this on Facebook and called her ‘suffering’. Please. This ain’t North Korea. Its nowhere close. and ‘fatppl’ hate – I just learned this term recently and although I don’t agree with cyberbullying, I do agree that people shouldn’t be ‘fat and proud’. Yeah – I realize that gays can marry now and this is the era of self expression but cmon! Obesity is a disease, people. That’s like saying, ‘I have Schizophrenia and I’m proud’ or ‘I have AIDS and I’m proud’. It’s not just a matter of appearance – Obesity’s side effects will eventually kill you. So yeah you can be ‘proud’ of being fat – until you suffer a heart attack and die, that is.
Another thing I want to say is that, wow most of the foreigners I met in Korea go into two groups – guys who are here because they want to pick up girls – and girls who are here because they expected some handsome sweet Korean guy from their fantasies. Can we say people are kind of delusional? Korea has great marketing for its stars – other Asian countries just can’t compete.
They are so good at it that a large amount of women across the world falsely believe that since guys on Korean dramas and Korean pop are portrayed as sweet and handsome (cause you know, they were hand picked by people and trained to read scripts), that all Korean guys must be like that as well!
Is there any co-relation at all? That’s like saying every guy in America looks like Brad Pitt and every girl looks like Jessica Alba. Oh, if only that were the case. I live in Korea so I can say, if you are coming to Korea because you expect some Prince Korean Charming – prepare to be disappointed.
There are even cases where a Korean pop star abused his girlfriend and fans are still defending him because oh he can’t possibly be flawed since he is a kpop star and therefore perfect? am I right? Oh you mean kpop stars all had plastic surgery and are normal, regular emotional people, yeah. Ridiculous.
These kind of posts are what I’m talking about. Apparently kpop fans are so obsessed that they routinely stalk, make up rumors, spread lies, and hate on other ‘rival’ kpop stars just for liking a kpop star they want to keep for ‘themselves’! isn’t that ridiculous? Apparently there are certain stars that certain other stars can and cannot date, according to kpop fans. Nevermind that they are you know, actual humans that can make their own dating decisions for themselves. This doesn’t happen to american pop fans trust me.. Taylor Swift can date John Mayer and she’s not gonna receive ‘hate’ or blog comments for it…
That’s all I wanted to rant about today. In other news, I made playlists for my Youtube since I am at 1000+ subscribers, 500+ videos, and almost 5 millions views now.
I am a very well-read person, and I often read Wikipedia articles in my spare time, because I like reading about various things. Everything peaks my interest. I’ve read articles ranging from history (Opium Wars, Battle of Stalingrad, Huaihai campaign, etc), politics (communism, socialism, dictatorships, etc), technology (Acorn Archimedes, Intel 8080 microprocessor, Lisp programming language, etc), food (history of ketchup, mustard, black pepper, etc), amongst various other things.
The last 20 Articles I’ve read highlight my range of interests (you can google these):
1. Maddox (writer) – internet blogger
2. Ungulate – a group of mammals
3. Camera Obscura – an early type of camera
4. Hypercard – an old standard for web app development
5. St Elmo’s Fire – a natural weather phenomenon
6. Designworks USA – a design company now owned by BMW
7. SteamOS – an operating system for PC games
8. Longines – a swiss watch company
9. Hatoful Boyfriend – a dating simulation game
10. Beringia – an old land bridge between Siberia and Alaska
11. Fight of the Century – a fight between Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier
12. Jim Morrison – former lead singer of The Doors
13. Corset – a piece of clothing females used to wear
14. Bird’s eye figure – a type of wood decoration
15. Leeroy Jenkins – an circa 2006 internet meme
16. String theory – an alternate theory of the universe
17. Duane Allman – a former guitarist who founded the Allman Brothers and died at only 24
18. Atari Jaguar – a failed video game console from the early 90s
19. Smartbook – a device that is a laptop form factor with an ARM processor (not x86)
20. Sean Plott – an former pro gamer and active youtube streamer
So yes, I know a lot about a variety of things in the world.
But I don’t know how to get a girlfriend. It’s not something you can learn in school, its not something I can learn on Wikipedia, and I wasn’t born with the ability to make good conversation. My last post highlighted why so many girls were ignoring me for apparently no reason, and my best theory is that I am just not that interesting. I need to improve my conversation skills.
Because I have a lot of friends who *are* good talkers, I know the most important things is to have a good sense of humor, and being confident. Those are the most attractive attributes. I’m not a naturally outgoing guy. Although I am good at making public speeches (Toastmasters, presentations, performing), I am very quiet at making conversation in groups, and perhaps the most awkward situation you can put me in is to make conversation with a group of girls. Korean girls especially, are very quiet by nature so its very difficult to make that connection with them.
My shyness is deep rooted… I used to be so shy in high school that I would lock myself in the restrooms just to avoid talking to people in the hallway. That’s how shy I was. I opened up a little in university when I joined all the clubs and Toastmasters and AIESEC, but I am still not naturally charismatic. I know I need to be more confident, and I am not aggressive enough, and too “nice”, and too afraid to offend people with jokes or physical contact, which is why I think I fail so much at the relationship aspect of things. But I will try to improve on this.
Conservative
I realized one of the main reasons why I like Korea so much is because its so conformist. All the guys and girls dress and act similar. As some people may know, I’m a steadfast conservative, and have been since 2009. I’m all for lower taxes, smaller government, rights to freedom, etc but I also want to go back to the US 1950s culture, where everyone was conformist. Back then, all the men wore suits and hats, all the women stayed at home and wore dresses, and I think everyone was more polite and skinnier for sure (thanks childhood obesity) back then as well. So that was an ideal for me, despite the fact that back then people were more racist. But hey, its not so different than Korea is now. Everyone dresses well, people are racist against non-Koreans, and everyone is polite. But I’m not a progressive, and I feel like the more we ‘move forward’, the more chaotic it gets. San Francisco was a little too diverse for me.
Feminism
For all of history, the guy has always been more dominant than the woman. It’s just natural. Males have always hunted, women have always gathered. The history books are dominated by (mostly white) males. And yes, I am kind of conservative in the traditional sense, so I will admit that I don’t understand feminism too well. There are people who think the progress made by women especially western women is good for society and for all societies, but I beg to differ.
I want to talk about is how politically correct the climate in the US is right now. I’m in Korea right now, where the women aren’t exactly equal to men here. Korean women know that they are treated unequally from men, for example they have to wear makeup all the time and men don’t, but they don’t seem to be starting any protests or petitions for this to change. Some Korean girls that I talked to want to be housewives and stay at home and do cooking and housework and all that traditional stuff.
My point is, it depends on the culture. Not every woman in the world wants to be as strong or stronger than the man. Why? Because in those cultures the men have more responsibility and the woman might not want to take on those responsibilities. Yes, in many senses, Korea is what the US was like back in the 1950s when women mostly stayed at home. And last time I checked, the 1950s, as “unequal” as they were, was a pretty good decade economically in the US! Even though mostly the men were working! and how many women complained about it at that time? Certainly not as many as today.
I mean, I think men like girls who are feminine and do traditional women roles, and I think women like guys who are masculine and do traditional men roles. It’s the way animals have always been. You never see a female lion doing the work of a male lion do you? Or the male lion doing a female lion’s work? It’s the way humans have always been. It’s the way society always has been until the 1970s feminist movement. So, yeah, 50 years ago, ask any guy if the woman should be at home doing housework, and he will say yes. If you ask a guy now, they will probably say ‘No, because woman should be empowered, etc’. But I bet many guys are saying that because of the social climate now, and not because they actually like stronger, more independent women.
I think starting from 2013 or 2014 I started to notice more and more feminism going around, like the stuff about Gamergate, and withdrawing GTA 5 from shelves because you can assault women and Female Thor, and all these other things came up that were basically people complaining about things that had been around for a long time, like video games and movies and comic books and putting their feminist slant on it because they were not treated ‘equally’.
I think all of this is unnecessary.. I mean people didn’t have a problem with the other GTAs, and with online video games and comic books and movies back then, and now there’s a petition to put a woman on a $20 bill? that’s just overkill. I don’t know why these issues suddenly came up its not like all these things suddenly changed or something its just that feminists all of a sudden started complaining about them now.
So yeah, thats my traditional conservative view on feminism. I know many people will hate on me for having this traditional view, but hey, it’s my opinion. And it’s freedom of speech. I don’t think its “wrong” to have a view that has been commonplace for most of human history. This is why they have a conservative and liberal party in most republics.
