#no you can't be a part of 4B if you date/marry/have sex with/have children with men. so what?

[wewontbesleeping]

so weird to see women try to find loopholes for 4B instead of supporting the women who are interested in it or even just ignoring it. but what if i date THIS man?? like girl no one is forcing you to join. you can fuck/marry/kill all the men you want, no one cares. seriously. no one cares. it's your life, do what you want.

[nozunhinged]

Love In The Big City reviews are raging everywhere - now what?

Or: why I think a 8.7 rating on MDL won't help anyone

If you're less of a reading person and prefer watching/listening, I made a post with various videos that are easily digestable.

disclaimer: this post is mainly an expression of my frustration over this crushing feeling of helplessness and the general fucked up political climate all over the world but also about how I truly believe that the most important thing is to think critical and never stop learning. Also I'm not south korean, but spent the majority of my academic studies on the topic of the post-imperial developments of Japan and Korea. And because I'm fundamentally tired of academia I will not proofread this for grammatical errors sorry - this is mainly a stream of consciousness.

Let's get this party started.

Because this is such a deep rooted issue, we need to do a teeny tiny, very brief excurse into korean history to properly explain my thoughts.

South Korea is a very young country

Before the republic of south korea we know today, Korea (North included) was ruled by one of the longest standing empires, the Joseon dynasty. The South Korea we know today is one of the youngest developed countries in modern history, first (brutally) colonialized by Japan and then taken over by the US.

The official end of the Joseon dynasty was in 1910. Thats a little bit over a hundred years ago, which is nothing if you think about how the Industrial Revolution was only 250 years ago and Korea has already overtaken many, many benchmarks the west set in the beginning in only less than half the time. The official founding of South Korea was even later, in 1948.

But that's only one important part about Joseon - this dynasty was also one of the most peaceful and stable empires as well. And how was that achieved? Well, confucianism and its very rigid patriarchal structures.

Joseon lasted over 500 years.

South Korea is only about 80 years old.

Their economic rise only took about 50 years.

Please remember those numbers for the next chapter.

I like to call it "The Patriarchy on Steroids"

Why am I throwing all those numbers around? Well first of all I suck at keeping it short but most importantly, I want to highlight how a country was turned upside down within the mere timeline of a few generations.

The South Koreans who spent their childhood in the Joseon empire, were teens during Japans brutal annexation, were adults when Samsung Electronics was founded and grew old with the first financial cracks of the democratic reforms, they raised the generations we have today. Let that sink in for a moment.

Central part of Confucianism is "Samjongjido", the expected devotion of the woman to her father first, then her husband and later her son(s), which exists in various forms in every asian country that was influenced by Confucianism. Essentially, women were expected to be nothing more than caretakers while the men were left with the "big pants" stuff.

Those structures can't be erased overnight.

But the bigger problem is when capitalism and "western culture" comes into play. In my opinion, it's a very deadly mix and there are countless examples of this.

You see all those "funny" conflicts in K-Drama and wonder "why is she expected to stop working after marriage", "why do they care so much about the family status of their spouse", well, that's how it worked for many, many generations prior.

The 4B-Movement (not dating men, not getting married, not having sex with men, not have children) is not just a dumb little feminist movement happening online, it's a literal, very real threat to South Koreas entire economy. It's not just a protest, women have literally given up on fighting these steroid patriachy structures that were only reinforced even more by capitalism.

And do you know what South Koreas solution to that problem is? Backing a right wing-conservative president who wants to get rid of any progress of equality politicians made in the last decades.

I repeat: You cannot erase 500 years of Confucian Patriarchy overnight. There's a reason so many historic k-dramas exist (sorry).

Fun fact: South Koreas economic rise made child mortality decline by almost 60% in only 18 years only to now have the lowest birthrate in the whole world of 0,7 children per 100 women.

Well done men, well done.

So what the heck does that have to do with that one gay show?!

Well, the backlash about LITBC shouldn't have come as a surprise. This show - openly and unapologetically queer - is attacking everything the steroid patriarchy in Korea represents. It hits exactly where it hurts the most. It's authentic, it depicts men not fucking women but other multiple men without the goal of having kids but oh - without just any goal that contributes to The Prosperity Of The Republic Of Korea. /s

The BL shows we got from Korea so far were all pretty tame and probably "tolerated" like the filthy smut that is BL manwha. That's easy to ignore and hide behind dark curtains, but a show that is distributed internationally with a famous actor in it??? That's going too far! /s

The most important point I want to make is that we need to think about the big difference between a countries culture and the economic interests they export. We all heard of the word "soft power".

But we often forget that what we see as international audiences is what they want us to see. We can't read Hangul, we don't speak Korean, so every translated article will always be lost in translation and not transport important nuances that make a culture their own.

K-Pop was made palpable for international audiences, as well as K-Drama and also - ultimately - Korean BL. Of course all of them play a big role in Korea as well, but what we get to see is only exported because it is made suitable for international audiences.

And I don't mean to diminish the work all the companies, writers, producers and actors put into these shows - they are all part of an important change that is absolutely necessary. But that's not the point here.

Big platforms like Viki, IQIYI, Gaga - they're not Korean, they're platforms from various asian countries with the goal of exporting media to international audiences. Shows are produced with that goal in mind. If it wasn't, none of the shows you can watch would be available without a VPN. They want to cater to international markets, that is literally their business model.

And they all know their domestic markets as well, which is why IQIYI is regularly pulling chinese BL - they can live very comfortably without the numbers from other countries but they definitely cannot ignore their domestic political climate.

And the same goes for LITBC. And many, many countless other examples like the one k-pop boy who was forced to leave his group due to massive backlash inside south korea.

And now what, smartass?

Like I said in the beginning - never stop learning. Start by reading Korean history 101 (or watch all the videos I compiled here). Learn and tell others about the horrible things happening - especially to women - in south korea. Unfortunately it's not all just fun and comfort shows/music. The 4B-Movement is still standing firm thanks to more and more education on it. (sorry not sorry men, get your fucking shit together)

Try to understand where the protesters are coming from, that's the only way to find a middle ground. But as long as the political climate in korea is getting worse and not better, hyping the show with huge numbers and raving ratings will not only have positive effects. It even has the potential to make it worse for south korean women and queer people as its success will only result in even more hardened fronts.

But at the end of the day, we have nothing to do with South Korean politics. We should also all be a little more humble, respect differences and not put our views on opinions on issues that we have nothing to do with. All we can do to help - again - is to never stop learning and never getting rid of your critical lens.