Both: Why does rejection of femininity in South Korea differ so much from how it is rejected in the West?

submitted by worried19 from self.GCdebatesQT

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[–]Penultimate_Penance 15 insightful - 5 fun15 insightful - 4 fun16 insightful - 5 fun -  (3 children)

In South Korea the sexism is more blatant and extreme. In the U.S. it is more under the surface, but still there in liberal circles. I have a strong suspicion that women who grew up with more blatant sexist cultures (quite often religious) in the U.S. have similar gender nonconformity to women in the take off the corset movement in Korea. There are a lot of people in the U.S. who deny sexism is even still a thing and women are gaslighted en masse to believe it isn't that bad. It really is that bad for women no matter where you live in the world. Some places it's more likely to happen out in the open in others behind closed doors. Either way women are still suffering.

I'm rooting for them. I don't shave my legs and I don't wear makeup. I like braids too much to keep my hair short all the time. Left my religion, because if god is a sexist asshole he isn't worth worshipping. So I totally get where they are coming from. I wish more women all over the world took off the corset. That would really get the ball rolling on women's liberation if we collectively said fuck this. Fuck all of this and embraced our goddamn humanity together. Femininity is a gilded cage. The misogynist men who claim to be women can have it.

[–]worried19[S] 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

There are a lot of people in the U.S. who deny sexism is even still a thing and women are gaslighted en masse to believe it isn't that bad.

Good point. As a teenager, I knew nothing about feminism beyond the fact that it wasn't thought of in a good light. I also thought that sexism had been "solved" and was no longer a major problem in the USA. I can see how girls who are being told by liberal feminism that femininity is feminist would be more likely to believe that rejecting femininity also means rejecting womanhood. It's crazy to me how things have gotten so turned around.

[–]Penultimate_Penance 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah it's nuts. I grew up religious, so I felt very strongly about sexism from a very young age since it was blatant in my little subset of American culture. Curious did you grow up with less blatant sexism in your local community?

[–]worried19[S] 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It was there, just less blatant. Like my grandparents' evangelical church didn't allow women to be pastors, but I wasn't even aware of that until I was in my late teens. It wasn't on my radar. Somehow that never came up in Sunday school or VBS or Bible camp when I was a kid.

I feel like I missed a lot of female socialization because by the age of 5, I was pretty much "living as" and passing as a boy. I spent all my time with boys, played on their sports' teams, and didn't socialize with girls at all. I knew I was a girl, but I didn't think of myself as a "real" one. When I got into high school I did realize that a lot of heterosexual dating seemed sexist, and I wanted no part of that, but otherwise, it didn't appear to me like there was overt sexism. However, since I wasn't talking to women or girls much, I'm sure I overlooked a lot.