I'm usually not able to articulate a response to it with any kind of rationality because it just honestly makes me want to blow shit up. Like, machete chop people in the face. Not joking. And I've been trying to find the words to write about it for a very, very long time. I'm not capable of being rational about it. So I just wanted to climb through the monitor and offer The Korean my firstborn in response to him making this post. He's obviously been in a situation where he's been keenly aware of this issue for much longer than I have, and has calmed the fuck down about it. I'm still in my eye-opening, shaky-legged newborn, "I CAN'T BELIEVE PEOPLE ARE LIKE THIS!" phase with it.
So go there and read it. And here's the most pertinent excerpt to me, as a teaser:
TF's preferred choice of companionship is not a fully grown adult woman, but a doll representing an abstract concept who -- which -- speaks in broken, infantile English that does not allow the full expression of her true intelligence and emotions. And to keep her happy, all it takes is to feed her with occasional chagiya ("honey") and "cute presents."
Needless to say, this is creepy as shit. Having a blow-up doll as a girlfriend would be less creepy. At least boyfriend of a blow-up doll cannot hide from the world the fact that his girlfriend is no more than a latex shell filled with ambient air and wishful projections. But boyfriend of an objectified Asian woman can go around pretending (or worse, like TF seems to be, actually believing,) that he is a champion of racial harmony and cross-cultural understanding.
Needless to say, this is creepy as shit. Having a blow-up doll as a girlfriend would be less creepy. At least boyfriend of a blow-up doll cannot hide from the world the fact that his girlfriend is no more than a latex shell filled with ambient air and wishful projections. But boyfriend of an objectified Asian woman can go around pretending (or worse, like TF seems to be, actually believing,) that he is a champion of racial harmony and cross-cultural understanding.
3 comments:
is it silly to say i felt proud at the way he described you? i think it was because that's the reason i like reading your blog/tumblr so much. you don't ever do the 'koreans do this/korean men are like this/korean women blah blah' and i love it. it's so refreshing and i just get excited when i see you've written something new. i feel like i, personally, can never criticize these people who objectify anyone as whatever country they are from because i am dating a korean man and (somehow) that makes my opinion invalid. does that even make sense? like they will scoff and just disregard what i say because of that. so i stay quite.
(that, and i'm too young to be telling people what to do!)
sorry, i've had some wine tonight and just want to pour my heart out to you or something, hah. INP I LOVE YOU <3
i am dating a Korean woman, so therefore, in the eyes of some, makes my opinion invalid. Each to their own, if both parties are getting what they want/need from the relationship i see no problem. Easier to pick apart others than to take a good look within yourself.
Sidney -- I respect TK a lot, so it meant a lot for him to recommend me. But I don't think you should be so quick to sell yourself short. As I've said many times before. Haha. After all, we all have our personal investments in this stuff. That's why we write about it. TK is Korean. I am a foreigner in Korea. Those things color both our experiences, just as you having a Korean boyfriend may color yours. But you don't have a Korean boyfriend because of or in spite of the fact that he's Korean -- you just have a boyfriend, and he's Korean. *I* hesitate sometimes to answer questions or make comments, because I *don't* have a Korean boyfriend, and never have. I don't know what it's like to be in a relationship with a Korean.
Anyway, I'm always up for some Sidney love. It's some of the best kind.^^
Post a Comment