Seoul City councilman Hong Kwang-sik is in hot water, rather inexplicably, for these innocuous comments:
Last year, he once said, “Gender equality has messed up this country. Women don’t give childbirth or obey their husband anymore, but just try to get away with things by getting divorced.”
[...]
Other remarks the women’s groups find fault with are: “I have recently learned that Vietnamese women are honest, have high sexual self-esteem and give birth to two or more children. We should import more of them and export some of Korean girls who threaten their husbands to divorce. This way we can have more children and Vietnamese people can have economic benefit because they can become the mother country for many Koreans.”
[...]
What made him infamous was his comments made in 2006 when he said, “My wife was quite incapable of giving a son ― we have three daughters only. I gave her the right balls, but she did not manage to catch them.”
Women’s groups want Hong to apologize and the Democratic Party to discipline him.
{ 62 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the Koreans are overreacting as usual. He made a perfectly reasonable statement, and it’s being taken the wrong way by the mob.
However, what does this statement mean?
Is he referring to the fees to Vietnamese matchmaker services? Is he suggesting that Korean farmers will send money back to their Vietnamese in-laws? Does he believe that this is an economic windfall for Vietnam?
On the other hand, he does raise some interesting issues. Korean girls/women have become spoiled brats, demanding more of their men and manipulating them to get what they want. They no longer put up with the double standard of cheating Korean men and have retaliated by engaging in extramarital affairs to an extent that to my observations unparalleled worldwide. They are high maintanance, mercenary and self-obsessed. And the men, who looked to the women as the standard-bearers of Korean cultural values are now shit out of luck for not having upheld their share of the bargain.
I believe that the responsibility for having daughters lies genetically with the sperminator. If that’s correct, by his own standards, this moron should be taken out back and gelded.
I’m pretty sure the man isn’t “responsible”.
Sounds like a character. Who wants all those staid (yet hysterical) politicians? Better to have Mr loony bin here, who is more in touch with the common man.
Sad, yet funny.
Sounds like a typical 동내 아저씨 who sits at the local convenience store, sipping soju, yapping to anyone who’ll listen.
“They no longer put up with the double standard of cheating Korean men and have retaliated by engaging in extramarital affairs to an extent that to my observations unparalleled worldwide.”
What leads you to believe Korean women have not always engaged in extramarital affairs? It seems to me that what is has always been.
Yuna is wrong on this one – Hong is a douchebag.
DLB
Ah, this occasions to have us some brave and wise words from the great Fred Reed:
Sex and Radioactive Cholera: Whither the Gals of Yore?
If one more woman tells me what no-’count, wife-beating, insensitive, violent, date-raping slugs men are, and how we’re obsessed with the magnitude of our genitals, and fear commitment, and don’t have feelings, I’m gonna take a ball bat to her. Then I’ll get a Border Collie and a laptop, and go live in a log cabin in West Virginia, and put up signs that say, “Beware of Incurable Radioactive Cholera.” Ha.
What is with women these days? I used to think they were nice people that I couldn’t understand, but agreeable and mostly friendly and smiled a lot, and you could dance with them. Lots of them were bright and funny. Most were pretty which, given that men are dog-butt ugly, made the world a pleasanter place. A guy could talk to women in those days, and it was kind of fun to be nice to them. All in all, I thought they were a splendid idea.
What happened?
Now when I talk to beings of the lady variety, they can’t go five minutes without saying something hostile. They can’t control it. A man doesn’t have to provoke it. If a gal mentions her daughters, she has to let you know that she is raising them “not to need men,” and her voice sounds like she had just found an earthworm in her mouth. Gee, thanks for sharing. Then she works in the story of her girlfriend who was mistreated by her husband. Next we get that men objectify women, whatever that means, and personally pay them only 56 cents for every dollar a man makes, and victimize them, and only want sex.
Which just isn’t true. I also want a restored ’57 Chevy with a big-block engine and tuck-and-roll Naugahyde interior. Red.
It verges on hysteria. The other day a high-school girl told me solemnly that five out of seven college girls she met in a dorm room had been raped. Sure. And six of them were space aliens on a package tour from Andromeda.
Dear god and little catfish.
Where does all this loathing for men come from? Yeah, lady, I’m just real terrible. In the morning I get up, throw a few coffee cups against the wall in reflexive rage before killing the neighbor’s dog, and then assault a lady accountant from Housing and Urban Development on the subway. The male riders cheer me on: patriarchal bonding. Then we stand around and compare genitals until I get off at the McPherson Square stop. Hey, it’s guy stuff.
A lot of this fantasy is just plain nuts. Take the business about men only-wanting-sex. (Incidentally, my stock response is to assume an expression of dispassionate curiosity and say, “Ah. What else have you got?” No, it’s not fair. Neither was the original comment. Besides, columnists regard fairness as a sign of weakness.)
Women don’t want sex? The second fastest way to lose a woman is to treat her as a sex object. The first fastest is not to. How do you win?
Besides, women look at us as commitment-objects. (Help, I’ve been objectified.) A guy almost wonders whether he can wait until the second date to get married.
The spooky thing is just how mad most women really seem to be. The dislike is real and profound. And it’s one-way. Men don’t hate women. They just want to hide.
Best I can tell, women think they’re mad because they think they think that men are oppressors and gangsters and thugs. Men think women are blaming everything they don’t like in their lives on men. (Actually, men didn’t design the world, or anatomy. We came with it.)
The eerie enmity, the apparent belief that everything men do is some technique of oppression to be resisted, seems to pervade everything. You can’t see it, but you know it’s there, like God and corruption. It begins to have social consequences. Guys ask themselves, “How smart would it be to tie myself to a touchy woman who dislikes my entire species? Why don’t I just buy her a house now and skip the intervening agony?”
This sort of thing could almost produce fear of commitment.
I swear it was different in high school and college. Girls were great. Sure, they giggled at some forms of masculine behavior. You know, like bonding with overpowered, under-lubed rustbuckets with glass-pack mufflers and rod knock. The boys wondered why the girls were never on time and didn’t want to talk about cam shafts. But there was no venom in it. Now there is.
West Virginia, I tell you. Incurable cholera and all. Radioactive.
pass the pipe netizenkim
“I believe that the responsibility for having daughters lies genetically with the sperminator. If that’s correct, by his own standards, this moron should be taken out back and gelded.”
Too late, Sperwer. Hong Kwang-sik gave up his testicles to his wife long ago:
“I gave her the right balls, but she did not manage to catch them.”
Or is he bragging about his many testicles? Perhaps he still has the left ones?
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Netizen Kim,
Thanks for that! After reading it, however, I am not sure whether I should laugh or cry.
Wow. Great reading. As one who lived through the whole Women’s Lib era, I can tell you, women are angry. In my opinion, pretty justifiably so. To give the devil his due, however, it must be difficult for the holders of power to lose said power. Ah dang…..
You know, I get the feeling that maybe, just maybe, a Wise Latina Woman could be a better judge than this guy Hong.
Very nice yuna, I see you’re getting the hang of this.
I didn’t know my wife was supposed to obey me, I thought a marriage was a partnership between 2 people… must have missed that memo stating my wife was my slave. And anybody who’s met my wife would know how ridiculous it would be to get her to obey me. I may as well try to take down a brick wall with my fists. It doesn’t mean she controls me either though, that’s as much as a joke as me trying to control her. Sounds like it time for all those mama’s boys to drop the whole metro-sexual, flower boys shit and man up a bit. Maybe grow a pair instead of only giving her the right ones.
And the sex of the fetus is determined by the male’s genetic contribution.
@DLBarch, sorry to disappoint you.. I guess I’m just a lying cheating Korean spawn begotten from a whoring Korean male in a loveless marriage.
@Carlton, shush.
Yuna,
Sorry to hear that. But Hong is still a douchebag.
Cheers,
DLB
#17
And anybody who’s met my wife would know how ridiculous it would be to get her to obey…blah blah
If I had a dime for every expat who feels the need to chip in his two pennies about how his Korean wife is a no shit-taking dragon lady I wouldn’t have to play the Mega Millions lotto.
Sounds like it time for all those mama’s boys to drop the whole metro-sexual, flower boys shit and man up a bit.
Of course. Totally relevant in a post about an old school ajussi politician who is complaining about the fact that wives don’t obey their husbands no more.
And the sex of the fetus is determined by the male’s genetic contribution.
Thank you sir for the mini biology lesson.
And folks wonder why I find waeguk-noms irritating.
Netizen Kims, yes, I often wondered the reason the expats are so angry on the Korean blogs about Korea might be because their Korean wives are no shit-taking dragon ladies and there are no pubs in Korea for the poor sods to escape to. It’s like a online Cheers for expats, as I told you before.
Netizen Kim, you find most everything irritating, it is inconsequential. And why do you assume that tz247 is married to a Korean woman? Is it his username? That was a funny story you posted earlier though.
This Hong guy sounds like real, quality entertainment. Sounds like this Mr. Han I work with. Sit him down and soon you find out lots of truths of life, like how women are really supposed to behave, how many girlfriends he has, and how many country’s women he has sampled. Its always an entertaining listen.
NK is the gyopo, younger, engineering-background version of Sprewer.
I don’t know if that comparison is offensive to NK, Sprewer or both.
@Netizen Kim
What ever gave you idea I was married to a Korean? Not once did I mention the ethnicity of my wife. It isn’t relevant if she’s Korean or not, this is about the relationship between man and wife and Korean men complaining because their Korean wives aren’t compliant enough to suit their insulting, disrespecting ways. It always amazes me that a culture so adamant about respect, has no respect for anyone. I’m pretty sure most Koreans don’t even really know the meaning of the word, yourself included, since you rarely show any respect for the people or their opinions expressed on this blog.
Could you please quit reinforcing negative stereotypes about expat commenters at the Hole?
ROFLMAO. I don’t either. It just seems to me to be of a piece with your general incapacity for making discriminating judgments and taking the low(est) road when someone threatens your “precious”, dear Golub.
Sperwer, do you not have a sense of humor? Lighten up man.
PS Sonagi; re your request a few days ago, stay tuned. Just got finished with my annual physical and the pre-event food (2 day) and water (1 day) fast and will do a little phone cam photo shoot @ the gym on next visit after I’m rehydrated. The only other pics I have are over a year old.
See, I knew something was up with this guy.
I’ll look for ‘em on the next open thread.
@netizen retard
Did you happen to check the link to tz247′s webpage and see the pictures of his BLONDE-haired daughter before you lashed out at him for being an expat with a dragonlady korean wife? Either you proved yourself to be a presumptuous ass , or his Korean wife has pulled off a feat that many have expressed to me that they’d like to do: have a blonde baby. I’m guessing the former, since proving yourself an ass is your MO.
I did like the essay you pasted above though, you bitter man.
#31
http://tz247.blogspot.com/2005/09/meet-in-laws.html
Looks like you’re the retard.
#23
NK is the gyopo, younger, engineering-background version of Sprewer.
I don’t know if that comparison is offensive to NK, Sprewer or both.
I like to think of Sperwer as a rather bland and pedantic version of IHBB.
IHBB? I forgot all about that guy. Where has he been btw?
#31
cmm: Did you happen to check the link to tz247’s webpage and see the pictures of his BLONDE-haired daughter before you lashed out at him for being an expat with a dragonlady korean wife…
BTW, retard, I didn’t bother checking his blog until after you and the others starting fussing about this. So it turns out my hunches were correct after all. JAFW….Just Another Fucking Waeguk-nom with the same predictable talking points.
Netizen Retard, I guess you got me on this one, huh. I guess I was the presumptuous ass. Zing. Good job tracking down the truth and saving your reputation there, maestro. But, isn’t it ironic (in #35) that you are making a deal about someone else and predictable talking points?
Netizen Retard, I supposed we have now resorted to name calling and that would make you JAFKWHE. Once again, ethnicity had nothing to do with my opinion, but everything to do with how my wife and I treat each other.
You don’t know anything about me, my wife or my family, so who are you to say if my wife is no shit-taking dragon lady? Perhaps she is or isn’t, but you have never met her, so how could you make a judgment call like that? I’d like to see you say that to her face. I’d be curious to her reaction. She may agree with you and buy you a drink (which would prove you wrong) or she might just kick the crap out you instead (which would prove you right).
I know for a fact that there are quite a few readers on this blog who know who I am and who my wife is and they can assure you that I’m no angel and neither is my wife– she puts up with a lot of shit from me as I do from her– that’s part of being in a relationship (ever had one before?). However ‘obey’ never has been a part of our relationship and while we’re here comparing things, I also know that the relationship I have with my wife is totally unlike any other friends I have who are married– Korean wife or not.
Whether or not this has to do with the fact I’m not Korean and my wife is, never occurred to me, nor has it ever really been an issue (except around major holidays) but to elicit such a racist attack and focus from you, it must really get your goat that yet another expat is stealing your women.
@songni
you’re right, uncalled for, but Netizen Retard makes it so hard to resist.
I go from NetizenKim’s hatemongering, following his link to a blog. There I find a long and heart-warming tale of the beginnings of racial and cultural understanding told by a guy who is baring almost intimate moments of his married life with the world. The contrast was overwhelming, and now I am full of emotion.
NetizenKim, you’re a shitstain for using something so heartfelt in your eternal rage against the waegookin. I wish you had a heart.
so, are Korean men supposed to look up to and act like such great US born American husbands such as,
Ike Turner.
Joe Jackson.
???
they treat women real good in civilized America.
Maybe Ike Turner and Joe Jackson should come teach Korean men. Is Ike even alive?
i know that secretly you guys fear that your children will become another Maria Ozawa.
I can only imagine what her Daddy was jibbering about in the 80s, regarding how he can better take care of the Japanese woman versus the Japanese man, who is too preoccupied with porn and porn and porn.
wjk – that is you that repeatedly says that the Japanese are obsessed with porn. Epecially of the perverse kind. Please refrain from putting your words into our mouths. They don’t taste quite right.
On the other charge I know neither enough about american or korean parenting.
But this is what we get almost every month about Japan
I wouldn’t say that they are obsessed with porn *only.* Their obsession helps create ichiban products. It’s just that their superior imagination and creativity and good aesthetic taste shine in all areas *including* porn.
WJK just doesn’t like that part because he is a man with some moral standards, and doesn’t find the perversion or twisted manifestation of humans’ bestial desires to his personal taste.
My my…how the waeguks circle their wagons. It’s what Sperwer would call a “knee-jerk Han-addled defensiveness”. But since it’s waeguks doing it, it’s all good.
tz, let’s get something straight here. You are not a liar but you certainly are a disingenuous fellow. You (and the other usual suspects) keep insisting that ethnicity has nothing to do with anything as far as your wife is concerned. Yet, in the very same breath, you hardly hesitate to say Korean men are this and that. Who’s the retard now? Racist, hate-mongering? That’s you guys. I don’t really give a crap about you and your wife. Do me a favor and don’t talk shit about Korean men. If Koreans and Korean men give you such a hard time then maybe you shouldn’t be in Korea or married to a Korean, ever think about that? No one ever said life was fair or adversity-free. If you can’t handle it like a man with being a whiney bitch then get the fuck out.
Did I mention that a wise Latina woman…. oh, never mind.
This really is the expat’s online Cheers bar. yuna–you are brilliant and I am only ashamed I didn’t think of that first. I’ll let the others determine which character you would be though.
But it’s very interesting to see how anti-intellectual a lot of these “foreign hot shots” (of if you’re crz, you simply say–and this is from his blog: “I’m a giant, both intellectually and physically”) while taking shots with (or is it at?) each other, to keep the Cheers metaphor drumming along.
For crz, his foreignness — and thusly growing up in a feminist-friendly environment — is ABSOLUTELY relevant, because his wife is Korean–where according to this ajosshi, any gender equality should be thwarted. You seem clung to this word: obey.
That you can claim exercising some type of ethnic/cultural agnosticism is a farce. The link NK put up from your blog highlights how “different” you feel, especially your stereotypical “bad guy” portraits of the father-in-law and your wive’s brothers. You seem, for narcissistic purposes, to be quite aware of your foreignness.
If you, given your intellectual grandiose, can consider for a moment the status of American marriages, post-feminist movement, you might concede that NK has a point. Over drinks last weekend, I discussed with friends a very similar topic that we have here.
The Human Endangered Species List: The American Alpha Male.
The recession has resulted in 90% of the job losses falling at the heads…of men. You’d think the influx of men staying at home would be a net-gain for Moms–but it’s not. The Mr. Mom concept, the dishwashing, the lunch bag packing, the laundry folding is mostly looked down upon…by Mrs. Mom. Women say they want a man who is sensitive, domestic…yet, in the classical sense, financially superior.
To swing things back, I respect that you are a unique individual, as is your wife, as is your relationship, as is your family. That said, and this is very cold, but it must be said:
You are a cliché.
Even down to the conquest-winning statement most foreigners (those married to Koreans) use more than all the illegal drugs and swine flu they’re allegedly swilling:
Thinking one’s Korean significant other has somehow escaped the throngs of typical Korean-ness to land in the arms of a Westerner? Check.
Declaring victory over all Korean men by marrying one Korean woman? Check.
Trying too hard to gain acceptance as a Korean, even though you’re White, and not understanding the disparity? Check.
Right – there are too few drinking establishments in Korea!
Silly yuna, wives are maddening regardless of nationality. The expats are mad because Korean people/culture are maddening. It’s really that simple.
I think NetKim and WJK should hold hands and make sweet, sweet love.
#48. I’m pretty sure that Yuna would not like that very much.
The resonance I have with wjk is of the mind, therefore I wouldn’t mind.
Wives are maddening, yes, but making a gross generalization of the wives from the three East Asian nations – the Japanese wives, they don’t yank their husbands balls off and puts them in their purse but the Korean women, yes.
The Chinese women, well, they just have their own balls.
New York Tom. Based on what I observe, when you have a friend who dicks around, your wife is highly suspect to be sleeping with that same friend. Have a good time.
Netizen Kim may talk alot of sh!t, but he does a fine job backing it up. Can’t say the same thing for the Korean-bashing, whiny, “holier-than-thou” engrish teachers on this blog.
#46 (t_song):
Good points, but the guy you are talking about is Canadian. I find that the most bitter, b!tchy expats on this blog are Canadian. And I too couldn’t help but laugh at the “physical and intellectual giant” comment! LOL!
One more post where nk’s eternal bitterness and insecurity is blaring.
I have a good Korean American friend back home. He dates hot blondes, hot hispanic women, and basically doesn’t let the fact that he’s genetically Korean (whatever that actually means) affect him. Doesn’t cling to his fatherland, which he cares very little about, and is always excited to hear my latest booty story from the hanguk. No hangups on race and very well adjusted. Plays well with others. He would be a good role model for you, netizen retard.
tsong, the American Alpha Male is far from an endangered species. Seems you had already had too much to drink by the time that topic came up.
that post was written in 2005 and even I laugh at the audacity I displayed back then. Some pretty bold statements there that I would never write about these days… ah, to be young, idealistic and foolish again… the only thing that hasn’t changed is the foolishness.
As I came to of independent, Republican, and scientific yet religious thinking age, this statement above simply means the following…
‘He likes white women.’
I mean, you can don a yellow wig on a black girl, a Hispanic girl, or a Korean girl, but what you want to convey is this RACIST theme that the white woman is the creme de la creme, and everyone should desire those who look like Barbie. Thus, you are conveying that if the Korean, who is not white, is dating the pedestal Barbie, then he must be some sort of alpha dog.
You sick racist bastard. Go to hell and shove your pontificating to the Korean males about right and wrong and manners.
I suppose Mr. Garrido agrees with you, but I believe he is Hispanic. A sick one.
You have a daughter who looks like Barbie? Make sure you provide her a taxi service. Lots of Mr. Garridos out there in the real world. Unfortunate but true.
Let me ask you, though, why ARE you guys so busy humping non Barbie types in Korea of all places, and falling in love with your stereotypical description of the “moon face, small tits, tight ass, nice legs?”
You couldn’t get your Barbie in the States? Just sayin’.
Unless you prove that your relationships don’t bust up in divorce any frequently than that of our records prior to your arrival, I don’t buy one bit that you are the Male Barbie in shining armor to rescue the Korean woman.
i like that one.
A stroke of genius.
White guy in Korea = “MALE BARBIE IN SHINING ARMOR”.
I will rescue you, Soonja, from the evil Korean man.
Don’t Hold Back – Tell Us What You Really Think of Interracial Dating.
Seriously, wjk, never stop doing what you do.
uhoh, wjk, you just pwnd yourself ㅠㅜ …here we go:
“As I came to of independent, Republican, and scientific yet religious thinking age, this statement above simply means the following…
‘He likes white women.’
I mean, you can don a yellow wig on a black girl, a Hispanic girl, or a Korean girl, but what you want to convey is this RACIST theme that the white woman is the creme de la creme, and everyone should desire those who look like Barbie. Thus, you are conveying that if the Korean, who is not white, is dating the pedestal Barbie, then he must be some sort of alpha dog.”
No dipshit, that’s neither what I said nor what I meant. I singled out blondes and hispanics simply because his last few girlfriends have been of that ilk, and because they are of a different “race” than him. I don’t see white women as the creme de la creme, and I personally don’t prefer the barbie look. Maybe you are projecting, I really don’t know. I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that your analysis my thoughts and my (obvious) and intended meaning is 100% wrong. I know this because they are my thoughts and meaning. Thanks for trying to misrepresent me. It’s almost as bad as when you tried lambasting NY Tom last week on assumed pretenses, which were almost all wrong. Do you have any hobbies other than looking an as on this website?
So, your failed analysis is wrong, and so are the conclusions you hastily drew as a result.
“You sick racist bastard.”
Like this one. Here’s how much of a retard you are… you just called me a “sick racist bastard” for a post where I simply spoke highly of my friend for not being hung up on the concept such of race, and recommended that one of the racist usuals here gain inspiration from my well-adjusted race-blind friend. For this you call me a “sick racist bastard.” Damn do you make yourself look stupid.
“Go to hell and shove your pontificating to the Korean males about right and wrong and manners.”
…[my] pontificating to the Korean males? I did nothing of the sort. I simply recommended that one single human being, Netizen Retard (who recently incredibly went so far as discrediting the basis/validity of all inter-racial marriages), take some inspiration from a Korean American friend of mine who doesn’t display such ugly racism or racial hangups. That seems pretty fair, no?
The only Korean male who I’d like to pontificate to about right and wrong whatever is you: Don’t be such a fucking angry retard.
Jesus you are an stupid asshat wjk.
looking an as –> looking an ass
the concept such of race –> the concept of race
stupid asshat –> stupid fucking asshat
sorry about the typos.
This is all because of foreigners in Korea banging Korean girls. jk
a small price to pay.
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