[theseanl]

As a South Korean, I'm glad that you've noticed this oddity of women depicted in South Korean media. It is indeed very controversial topic in South Korea. There are a group of people, heavily funded by government, who like to push a narative that Korea's gender equality is very low, and use it as a leverage for their political power. Such politics has affected Korean mass media a lot, and gender conflicts among South Korean men and women are the highest than ever. You can safely assume that such female characters as depiction of crooked gender-culture in South Korea.

As a simple proof, fertility rate of South Korea has dropped to 0.6. This is lower than countries in war; Korean men have to serve military for about 2 years in their 20s, and Korea is the least country pay respect to soldiers. I think may American would find astonishing how South Korean, especially female, like to make fun and deride them. During young mens serve military, female develop their own youth culture, and get used to a very twisted view on the society in terms of gender.

As a result, popular culture is largely divided in terms of the gender of the audiences. The OP's linked article mentions BTS as one of Korean pop music's success, but ironically, they are not that recognized among Koreans actually; It is a product of those media targetting female audiences.

I think this culture is not 'sustainable', if this is the right term to use. As a result of this political groups (which affects legislation) and weird, disgusting self-view and society-view of females, well, fertility rate is dropping at unprecedented rate.

[yongjik]

> This is lower than countries in war; Korean men have to serve military for about 2 years in their 20s, and Korea is the least country pay respect to soldiers.

As a male South Korean citizen in my 40s, I always find it funny and sad that those young men, being dragged to the army for two years by the government, decide "This proves that all those feminists are up to no good! Why shouldn't the girls suffer in the army as well?"

[creakingstairs]

I dunno, I agree somewhat that some of the arguments are funny but that take may be a bit too simplified and their outrage somewhat justified. My guess is that wealth inequality exacerbates it.

I find most of my Korean male friends who are now in late 20s to be very surprisingly anti-feminists. The degree seems to worsen the less well off they are and honestly and I can see why. Korea really defines what it means to be successful. For a normal non-elite guy who has had no family wealth, he would be treated the same or less than girls growing up. He would have to go through gruelling job market to get a job with shitty pay after his military service. Now that he is in late 20s, he realises that traditional success is nigh un achievable. His life has been really hard for him. He never felt girls around him were treated worse than him. They were able to study and prep for job market while he was toiling away in the army. But yet feminists are telling him that he should feel bad, and are advocating for policies that benefits girls. At that point he says, “If you want to get those benefits, you should work for it by going to the army as well.”

Don’t get me wrong, I genuinely believe that women’s right still need to improve. Whenever I suggest this, I just get brushed off that I just don’t know what it’s like as I don’t live there anymore. I just think those guys need to be heard properly, and I suspect the best way to resolve this conflict is to make Korea a better place to live for them: shorter or no army service, better culture around success and more distribution of wealth.

Maybe it’s already too late, looking at the birth rate though.

[theseanl]

Just wanna point out that South Korea is one of the countries where people values wealth the most than other life goals, such as family life, work success, and other spiritual values. Regarding this South Korean problem as a problem of wealth inequalty is exactly how South Korean likes to think about. I think the opposite is true: rather than being wealthier, helping people noticing and fulfilling other life goals would be the right way.

[creakingstairs]

That is a very good point. I guess I am a South Korean through and through :p But I think it's just really hard to have those values when you either swim or drown (or at least you feel like you will drown). What I mean by reducing wealth inequality is to have more safety nets in place and increase the value of labour compared to capital gains so that people feel like they can breathe and look at other things in life that are valuable.

[neuronic]

As a German I want to announce my contention to the position for "country who respects soldiers the least".

[UncleOxidant]

As an American I think we could learn something from Germans and Koreans. Not saying that we should totally dis our soldiers, but I'd like to find a happy medium between dissing and worshiping.

[kwillets]

In Korea it's more the pay for conscripted soldiers and general living conditions, including bullying, incompetent leadership, suicide, etc.

And of course there's a K-drama about that -- D.P.