Right now is not a good time to be a foreigner in Korea. For those of you who have no knowledge of local news stories in Korea, there has been quite the brew-ha-ha as of late regarding some drunken shenanigans between some foreigners and Korean women at a night club. Check out The Marmot’s Hole if you have no idea what I’m speaking of.
Anyhow from this tiny shit flame a shit firestorm of sorts has erupted, engulfing the entire foreign community in this shit inferno. Since this story broke I vowed I would not be bothered mentioning it unless I was someone caught up in this shit blaze. Last night, that very thing occurred, when 유림’s mom called her and warned her to watch out about me.
All because some foreigners had a party with Korean girls, drunken (albeit consentual) debaucery took place, photos were taken, and later posted on website along with some fairly derogatory comments. Some Koreans found out about this and got all up in arms. This whole scene is one of those things were no one is in the right, there are only varying degrees of being assholes.
First let’s start with the party people. My understanding is that everything that went down was consentual, and all parties involved we of age. Though the frat party atmosphere isn’t really my scene, I see nothing wrong with what happened at the party. That being said, what the party people did online before and after the party leaves something to be desired.
First off, the posting of wet t-shirt contest pictures is kind of greasy, and some of the comments posted about Korean women were extremely greasy. The number of times Korean women were refered to as “pussy” was sickening. Again, making stupid derogatory posts annomously via the internet is little more than stupid middle school moronics.
Once the Korean media took note of this nonsense is when the shit firestorm really errupted. First off, this story exists purely due to xenophobia. If it was a bunch of foreigners gropping each other (with no locals), there would be no story. If there only Koreans involved, there would be no story. The fact that the whole premise of the story is that it was Korean women being taken adventage of by “foreign devils” is complete bullshit.
What happened was no different from your typical frat party. A frat party with strippers in America would not be newsworthy ever…well at least as long as no one died or was raped, neither of which happened at this particular party.
So because some guys decided to act like assholes with women who agreed to it, and these guys decided to exagerate about and post pictures of their exploits online, a new wave of anti-foreignism has errupted, and this time we can’t hide behind a Canadian flag, because unlike previous GI based offenses, this one was a bunch of English teachers. So party people, internet junkies, and Korean media, thanks a lot!
It is said that every cloud has a silver lining, and so does this story. While 유림’s mother was warning her daughter to watch out for my nonsense, her mother refered to me as “니 남자친구 (your boyfriend)” which is an improvement from my previous title of, “그양놈 (that occidental bastard).”
I’ll be glad when in two weeks time this whole sorted affair is forgotten about…like that GI who stabbed some dude, and I just hope there’s no remake of “Fucking USA” because of this incident.
