Don’t get me wrong — it’s a tragedy when a seriously disturbed Korean guy beats to death his two daughters and hospitalizes his Filipino wife. But is that headline really necessary?
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10 Comments
Is the headline quoting her as saying “all” Korean husbands are scary? Sure it’s a generalization, but it’s just a quote from a traumatized woman, not a sociological observation. A little sensationalized, but the story is really horrific anyway.
Just to clarify a bit, I don’t care for racializing (think I just coined a new word) but the woman is not Korean, and the quote reflects her experience. Korean media has a bad tendency to note someone’s race/ethnicity when it’s not relevant.
If this were a story in a Korean paper/site about a Korean woman married to a Filipino or a Japanese or an American, saying “My Filipino/Japanese/American husband is scary” or “Filipino/Japanese/American husbands are scary,” I think it would be far more problematic that a Filipina/Japanese/American, etc. saying this about her Korean husband.
The first instance raises the possibility of someone in the press smearing people who “steal our women,” while the second one raises awareness about how some foreign spouses are treated by abusive Korean husbands, which I believe is an under-reported phenomenon.
If this is a quote from the wife and not a faux quotation that is actually a reporter’s summary, I don’t have much of a problem with it.
“If this is a quote from the wife and not a faux quotation that is actually a reporter’s summary, I don’t have much of a problem with it.” Exactly, and you have to consider the intended readers–the editor may be underscoring it as a social issue in Korea with that choice of quote.
Yes.
I think Michael is right. The headline is intended to draw attention to a national problem. Foreign wives seem more vulnerable than their Korean counterparts as their husbands are able to deny them Korean citizenship.
What I didnt care for about it is that it stereotyped all unions of more than one nationality as being prone to some sort of major problem usually being violence. I agree that it is a hugely underreported problem. It would be nice if first of all non-Korean spouses that live here gain some official support and even nicer if Koreans came to the conclusion that many of them live in dysfunctional families that are seriously flawed by issues such as infidelity, alcohol abuse and violence and tried to do something about it.
Who cares what provocative comments the papers print? That’s their stock in trade. The question is, will Korean national consciousness ever change? What fundamental cultural issues cause such attrocities to occur with such regularity? And whe will people face up to it and make a change?
So… for those of us Hangugguo-impaired readers, the headline says…. what?
“Woman says: ‘Husband had a bad morning’”?
Headline: “Korean Husbands Are Scary”