#40, Easy their pardner, I hope English ain’t your first language ’cause that’s some terrible reading comprehension, and it’s quite awful if I have to point that out. I’m guessing you too have got a melon head eh, though considering your hostility, I’m guessing you consider that a bad thing. Odd, since Koreans consider it a sign of intelligence, too bad you haven’t shown it. You’ve made some assumptions on my accomplishments without even knowing me, I’ve neither questioned hers or yours. It’s amusing and interesting that among the comments you’d spaz out over as negating her accomplishments, from space tourist and what not, you’d choose a comment from me about her head (which can also be a compliment) to make your assumptions…I’d say between you and me, you’d be the more superficial.

I was simply saying that I don’t see why she should be a role model, I don’t doubt that she’s worked hard at all (never have or alluded to this either), but I’ve actually witnessed the times when many ajumma’s (and ajossi’s) worked tooth and nail for scraps of food and education in a wasteland, and so simply working hard (in nice sanitary conditions no less!) does not place her over as a role model. Though, between some movie character that robo mentioned and Soyeon, the latter would be a better choice, but c’mon, those aren’t the only people that females these days know of :/

“I’m a girl and do well in school and have a big ass melon head, so I, too, have a possibility of going to space one day!”

is better than

“The movie ‘200 Pound Beauty’ and Korean pop music videos taught me that because I’m a little overweight and less than perfectly gorgeous, I can never be happy or get anything I want out of life, despite my talent, and intelligence and diligence, unless I get plastic surgery to ‘correct’ my physical shortcomings”

Korean girls need more heroes than Shin Saimdang 신사임당 (whose role as a good mother is emphasized, as if that’s the highest attainment a woman can reach) and Yu Gwan-Sun 유관순 (who kicks ass, but whose story also taps that ugly vein of ugly anti-Japanese nationalism that makes me uncomfortable), so if SoYeon cracks the list for being smart and hard-working, without falling into either that “be a good dutiful mother” box OR the “define Korea’s national identity by sticking it to the outsiders” box, I’m all for it.

Uhm…Maddlew, who said I was bitter about the tax money? Besides I don’t pay ROK taxes. I was simply needling WK about his “25 mil is theirs to spend” remark.

And oh if you want to meet a “bitter Korean taxpayer”, I’m sure you can find lots of them in the streets of Seoul or any other region in Korea.

At the same time, it’s not like she proved some million dollar math formula or introduced some revolutionary idea, so I don’t really get why girls would look up to her. I mean, is it really that appealing to go to space such that girls would think, “I’m a girl and also well in school and have a big ass melon head, so I, too, have a possibility of going to space one day!”?

No, I’m not a democrat… However, republicans also like to waste money, it’s just in different parts of the budget.

roboseyo,

That’s an interesting point. I do think that the young Korean girls out there do get bombarded with images of women that inspire a more, how shall we say, a more “superficial” assessment of what it means to be Korean and female.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Sharman

She’s only slightly more famous in the UK than I am and I certainly wouldn’t recognise her walking down the street (actually, she’s infinitely more famous in the UK than I am).

I don’t expect everybody to read my comments, but it would be nice if someone did…(and by the way, I agree with your comments about inspiring the kids).

If people want to talk about a giant waste of money for nothing but national pride, anyone want to guess how much the Gemini and Apollo programs cost in total?