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What are men doing?
Korean men usually posit, if a man goes to cinema, that's because he has a girlfriend. Books, traveling, movies, food industry - at every avenue of consumption in
He was pensive for a while and said, “<Sil-mi-do> was it.” In response to my friend’s question asking what was his last choice of movie to go to cinema hall he answered like that, she told. His reason was, since he had gone to cinema to watch <Sil-mi-do>, he was alone and that made him feel no need to go to cinema. My friend cast a question so expected to be wasted, “Why? Don’t you go to cinema by yourself?” That guy shook his head adamantly like a patriot who confronted a treacherous conspiracy to subvert the national security, and told her he was going to take his own life rather than to go to theater by himself, or in case of going there with other guy, it were better to come out to declare his, unseemingly, disoriented sexual tendency.
Of course, the movie he had lastly seen at a cinema hall was not that attractive theme for us sitting a table at a coffee house. “OK. That’s it. So what for the next?”, asked I. But actually this guy's <Shil-mi-do> confession was not an ordinary that’s-it-so-what stuff. His last movie was 'the' <Shil-mi-do>, which was popular even among elderly people like my father and mother. And she told me he was not with any experience abroad, even better he didn’t have just a drop of intention to go outside where Kim-chi-cchi-gae is not casually served, and his preference of food like Kim-chi-cchi-gae urged him to be away from trendy brunch restaurants, getting popular more recently, or fabulous French restaurants. Experiences of plays or performances were rare in his life; I don't mean acting, of course. When it comes to reading, he chose a book, <Leaders attracting people has a different way to talk 사람이 모이는 리더는 말하는 법이 다르다>, lately. Eventually, following that guy’s lead, they had a talk about the chemical structure of Shampoo in deeper level, and said good bye, and finally departed to each of thier own course of life. In the old days, her age was proper for a married woman with 3 kids, she wailed. And she asked, “Why so rare are the guys whom I can have a good talk with? What the hell are all the guys doing?”
“Perhaps it was really easy to live in the past because they came to bed when the light went out.”, I told her, but I got on the verge of querying a thing, something really curious. We were at a brunch restaurant located at Ban-po-dong, getting in style nowadays, but it was horrendous when I looked around and found all the patrons were females. There were only two people of opposite gender, a waiter and a older guy looking like the master of that restaurant. Where are the guys spending with what they earned? What are they doing with so much of leisure they have found recently? They don’t buy wears, or are not interested with performances, good restaurants, or cafes, but then what are they doing with money in their hands? In favor of Alain de Botton, shopping in Hong-Kong, and dressing up to hang out to eat brunch with friends, girls are ignominious of the subtlety of off-side rules or need to take plenty of effort to get whether the right spelling of Indonesian president’s name is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or Susilo Bangbam Yudhoyono. If you like to blame it, Ok, you got your own right to do it. Surely, there are lots of guys who will say, “I’m not what you are talking about.” But sadly it is a generally accepted fact that females are trailing the consumption of culture in the Korean society.
But… Why? Why are they so marginalized from the cultural consumption? Probably, not every man is craving for drinking, Starcraft or billiard. Uhm, it’s time to change the question. Is it really the matter of fact that women are dominating the cultural consumption of the Korean society? So I went to people working in the cultural industry.
At every interview I had with the people of motion picture industry, “As the research of the Korean Film council says, most of the consumers in the movie market are females in 20~30s…”, they said again and again like a repeat of the lyric in a song. I called the Korean Film council to check it was the fact confirm!!ed matter-of-factly. But the policy research team of this organization replied, “In fact, there is no statistical data in avail at the moment. In 2005, 85.5% of male and 84.4% of female responders said ‘yes’ to a question about the experience to go to cinema hall in that year. But, generally, women are known as die-hard movie-goers rather than men. Perhaps, the experiences of people in show business have more favorable odds to be right than any other statistical data if they say like that.” Ms. Kwon, Ji-yeon, deputy manager of Showbox, a motion picture company, was sure that the main customers of cinema houses were women. “The advance purchase rate of movie, stories from cinema halls and my personal judgment from watching over situations when I went out to movie theaters; all of them are pointing at the same direction; collecting all the experiences leads to the conclusion that women are the main body of movie-goers.”
But why all the Korean movies are about detectives or gangsters that appeal only to men? She put it in this way, “That’s why they went badly. In this year, <Being a beauty is troublesome. 미녀는 괴로워> was the only movie which hit a homerun. Movies that target women are expected to do average. But movies for men need some wrapping up and marketing to promote it to women like emphasizing the image of man actors in previews or posters.” They exaggerate human love or tear code in stories for men to gather more women up. Occasional hit by comedies like <The glory of family 가문의 영광> can be analyzed like that the age range could be widened in holyday seasons or vacation according to Ms. Kwon. Not like women, men usually come to movie theaters to date, because the right to choose what to do is on women’s side in that kind of case. Ms. Kwon said, “To see two guys going to movies is almost the same as to see two guys seating at a table of a restaurant or a coffee shop. Women see art movies more than men and seem to be better situated in terms of cultural level.”
Mr. Yi, Dong-soo, who has been working as an observer to watch over the process of finding total number of audiences at movie theaters for last 8 years, shared his experiences, “I have been doing this job for years, but it is seldom that men come here by themselves. The gender ratio between women and men among audiences in a cinema hall goes with
Last year’s issue in the book market was ‘chick-lit’. This new genre targeting young women was a hope for publishers to open female consumers’ purses to compensate the loss incurred by last year’s stagnant business. Ms. Yim, Soo-jeong, deputy manager of Yes24, an internet book distributing company, said, “The percentage of female readers bested male readers 30% more and, especially, among all age groups, the biggest gap between women and men was found in 20s. Female readers purchased 50% more than male readers in 20s.” The situation is not that different in off-line book stores. Mr.
Last year, when the frenzy of ‘chick-lit’ hit the book market, it struck my brain, ‘What are men doing? Why is cultural market prevailed by women?’ Just at the time, Cho-sun-il-bo published an timely article, ‘Kim Hoon’s novel grapping men’, with the release of <Nam-han-san-seong> to report the return of male readers.
An editor from a book publisher, who wanted to be remained in anonymity, said, “Except economics, marketing, and books for practical use, female readers have large portion in every area. Especially fiction is where women leave men far behind. Recent trend to make book covers with pinky and pretty looking materials reflects this kind of tendency among readers.” He analyzed the trend as, “Seemingly books with men-oriented covers are bought by both genders but women-oriented covers limit book companies' selling to dwell only in the boundary of women.” Best selling fictions like <My wife got married 아내가 결혼했다.> of Park, Hyeon-wook, or fictions of Paulo Coehlo or Paul Austere could be understood to make great hits because they moved men beside women. Mr. Hwang, Jin, deputy manager of Chang-Bi company, said, “Generally female readers look like faster responders to the release of new books. But in case books make complete boom such as Coehlos and Davinch code, they seem to be easily exposed to people regardless of age groups or genders. If books firstly appeal to young female readers like university students or young salary women and make best selling stuffs, it is prerequisite for them to get attention from female readers and they are naturally diffused to male readers in most cases.”
Women are generally accepted as the main consumers of Traveling and food industries. Current trends like short trip abroad, or eating brunch are led by women. Most of credit cards targeting young women offer discounting benefits focused on traveling, restaurants, coffee shops, and movie houses, etc. and it makes sense. One of my female seniors of university, who has been married for a year, said a little bit discontentedly, “My husband went to theater to watch movies or musical performances to date when we were not married but nowadays it’s a scarce event like once a year.” She added that it was a general habbit of Korean men living current days and it was because they seemed to be exposed to reality earlier than women.
Women seemed like that they needed to be consoled emotionally with cultural activities, but men were skewed to guess time and money for cultural life was squandered or cultural experience was dispensable. Their way to kick away stress from work is, of course, limited in trivial and sensuous things like drinking, sports or doing trendy video games, etc. The most biggest consumption in expenditure list was not a fashionable bag, clothes or spa trip to South Asia, but money for ‘eating out’ to eat meat, drink or date, responded my men friends generally. They sang in unison, “Cultural activity is ruled out by drinking or gaming from priority list.” These are the standard for average Korean man: Favorite movie - <Friend 친구>, car of choice – Hyundai, book of life - <Romance of three kingdoms 삼국지>; and one of my male friend, who could be taken as an living incarnation of average Korean man's life, cut shortly, “Men are far away from cultural affairs because they don’t have a ‘girl’ to come with.” Definitely whether having girl friend or not makes big difference in a Korean man’s life in terms of frequency at least. “Naturally you, guys, have your own tastes. Perhaps you are afraid of showing your taste or in a way you were not educated to show what you like.”, I asked to him. He replied with somewhat bitter tone, “Maybe it’s because of military service. Taking Japanese guys who are not required to serve in the army, for an example, they are more positive in consumption, but Korean men, particularly who went through military experience, are not good at showing what they prefer. They know it is best to acclimate themselves, at any rate, to their seniors at work and they intuitively understand their opinion will not be accepted by seniors. You know women are blunt to higher rankers rather than timorous like men at work place.
Korean men are clumsy at individualizing their tastes and familiar with acting in bands. They take showing their taste as not manly and are ashamed to stand off from the band to enjoy his favorite thing, which could be found as a abominably opposite to the collective interest. One of my male senior from university made a good case for this. One day, he got an urge to go to a concert of classical music out of the blue and he bought a ticket. But later he gave that ticket to me because, ‘he didn’t like to be misconstrued as a queer.’ One of my girl friend interestingly interpreted the genaral situation of Korean men like this, “Of course men are doing something to relieve their nerve and spend money on things that are far from making profits. Maybe they are not attracted to spending money or consumption but concentrating on one thing to internalize what they like.” And she said, as a joke which had some truth unwittingly, “Look. Most of Strange guys who went on air with <What a surprise on earth 세상에 이런 일이> are men.”
A male friend made a fuss at a branch of TGI Friday in his undergraduate days. He went there first because of a blind date and ordered a chicken salad which was accidentally same with the order of the girl who met him on that blind date. He changed his order only because his order was the same of the girl’s order! Anyway he said, “I don’t know why I lived so hard like that. Maybe I wanted everything neatly done. Sometimes it happens to lose the top place or to idle not earning even a dime. What about you, girls? Maybe, aren’t you not like this?” His question was sad but the answer was 'Yes.' Women are not like that, at least, not to the extent as men do.
Conceivably, the unbearable responsibility as ‘the head of a family’ drives the men of
Men will be able to be the main body of consumption when they disclose their secretive desire for what they like. It is a pity to look at men grudging on the deluge of pinkishly covered books, mentioning the draught of books worth reading, or eating brunch unwillingly led by the hands of their girl friends. You know what? There will not be any trouble even if men show their own taste in pursuit of happiness. When they are frank, cultural industry will conjure up some means to meet their needs to open their wallet. For each person, life is not a responsibility to survive or endure but a right to enjoy. Nobody would stop you buying a white shirt because you have one already. Food? It is also a enjoyable culture rather than necessity to survive. Your choice of book doesn’t turn you back to the past or put you in a less fortunate situation even if it is not a practical book which might show an immediate effect like ‘Being a good team leader’ or ‘Writing a good resume’ You can go to coffee shop even when you are not with a girlfriend. You know women are inclined to welcome good talks about favorite music or movie rather than looking at your stooped shoulder from the last night’s endeavor in a virtual world of your own fantasies or bloodied eyes from spending all night with drinking.
Editor/ Na, Ji-eon, Transltion/ PSH
Illustration/ Lee, Eun-Ho
Questions
1) Singles, what do you usually do during weekends? (men vs. women)
2) Compare men's pattern of enjoying free time to that of women.
3) What would be the "mechanism" that makes the aforesaid pattern be differentiated one another? Pls analyze.
그는 한참을 생각하더니 이렇게 말했다. “<실미도>인가봐요.” 마지막으로 극장에서 본 영화가 무엇이냐는 내 친구의 질문에 ‘소개팅’이라는 이유로 맞은편에 앉아있던 남자는 그렇게 답했다는 것이다. 이유인즉슨, <실미도> 이후 쭉 여자친구가 없었고, 그런 이유로 극장에 갈 일도 없었다는 것이다. 내 친구는 하나마나한 질문을 던졌다. “혼자 영화 보러 가시면 되잖아요.” 그 남자는 국가 전복을 꾀하는 불손한 음모를 들은 보수주의자처럼 고개를 절레절레 흔들었고, 혼자 가느니 차라리 혀 깨물고 죽을 거고, 남자 둘이 가느니 게이 선언을 하고 말겠다고 했다. 커피숍에 둘러앉은 우리가 정작 궁금한 건 그가 마지막으로 본 영화가 아니었다. “그래서, 그건 그렇다 치고, 어떻게 됐는데?” 친구에게 <실미도>는 ‘그건 그렇다 치고’의 문제가 아니었다. 그 남자가 마지막으로 본 영화는 우리의 어머니 아버지도 모두 다 본 <실미도>였고, 해외에 나가 본 적은 없으며, 심지어 나갈 기회가 있다 해도 김치찌개 없는 곳에는 별로 가고 싶지 않으며, 김치찌개를 좋아하니 요즘 유행하는 브런치 레스토랑이나 뜨고 있는 프렌치 레스토랑도 가본 적이 없었다. 그가 생애 경험한 공연이나 뮤지컬 관람은 손에 꼽을 정도며, 최근에 그가 읽은 책은 <사람이 모이는 리더는 말하는 법이 다르다>였다. 결국 공통적으로 주고받을 말이 없던 둘은 화학회사에 근무하는 남자의 기호대로 샴푸의 화학식에 관한 심도 깊은 얘기를 하다가 헤어졌다고 한다. 옛날 같으면 결혼해서 애 셋은 낳았어야 할 나이라며 친구는 울부짖었다. “도대체 대화가 통하는 남자가 왜 이리 드물까? 도대체 남자들은 어디서 다 뭘 하는 거야?”
여행 산업, 음식 산업도 여성이 주 소비층이라고 일반적으로 알려져 있다. 요즘 불고 있는 주말을 이용한 짧은 해외 여행, 브런치 열풍도 여자들이 주도한 거다. 주로 미혼 여성을 타깃으로 하는 카드 회사들의 할인 서비스가 여행과 레스토랑, 커피숍, 영화관 등에 집중되어 있는 게 그 반증이다. 결혼 2년 차에 접어드는 한 선배 언니는 “옆에서 남편을 지켜본 결과, 결혼 전에는 데이트를 위해 영화도 보고 뮤지컬도 같이 봐줬는데 지금은 1년에 영화 한 편 볼까 말까야”라고 다소 아쉬운 듯 말했다. 아마도 현대를 살아가는 한국 남성의 보편적인 특징이 아닐까 싶다며 생활의 위협에 좀 더 일찍 노출되는 게 한국 남자들의 현실 같다고 덧붙였다. 여자들은 감정적으로 위로 받을 수 있는 문화 생활이 삶에 꼭 필요하다고 생각하는 반면, 남자들은 그 시간과 돈이 낭비라고 생각한다거나 혹은 인생에서 그다지 중요한 게 아니라고 생각하는 것처럼 보였다. 그들이 스트레스를 해소하는 방식 역시 술을 마신다거나 운동을 하거나 게임을 하는 등의 말초적이고 감각적인 방식에 의존해 있다. 월급 중 가장 많이 지출되는 항목이 최근 유행하는 몇 십만원짜리 가방이나 옷이나 동남아 스파 여행이 아니라 고기 먹고 데이트하고 술 마시는 데 쓰는 ‘외식비’라는 게 남자 친구들의 공통적인 반응이었다. 그들은 합창하듯 말했다. “우선 순위에서 그런 게 술 먹고 게임하는 것에 비해 밀리는 거지.” 좋아하는 영화는 <친구>, 타고 다니는 차는 현대, 인생의 책은 <삼국지>인 대한민국 표준 남성이라 할 만한 친구 녀석 하나는 딱 잘라 말했다. “남자들이 문화 생활을 하지 않는 건, 같이 갈 ‘여자’가 없어서야.” 확실히 여자친구가 있고 없고에 따라 그의 문화생활은 현격한 수준으로 그 빈도수에 있어서 큰 차이가 난다. “너희들도 취향이 있을 거 아냐, 혹시 취향을 드러내길 두려워한다거나 그런 식으로 취향을 드러내는 방법 자체를 배우지 못한 건 아닐까?”라는 나의 물음에 내 친구는 씁쓸하게 말했다. “아마도 군대 때문이겠지. 일본 남자만 보더라도 소비를 하는 데 있어 여자보다 더 적극적일 정도잖아. 하지만 한국 남자, 특히 군대를 경험한 한국 남자들은 취향을 드러내질 못해. 어차피 윗사람에게 맞춰야 한다는 걸 아니까. 그리고 설사 내가 얘기하더라도 받아들여지지 않는다는 걸 직감적으로 느낀다고 해야 하나? 직장에서도 보면 여자가 오히려 남자보다 상사에게 더 직설적인 의사 표현을 많이 하잖아.”
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에디터/ 나지언 |
첫댓글 실은..다소 새로운 장르로, '솔로몬의 선택'처럼 사례를 던져주고 영어로 법정 토론을 해 볼 생각이었습니다. 법률영어도 상식으로 알아두면 꽤 도움이 되겠죠. BUT, 여태껏 참석해 보건데.. 올려진 topic에 대해서 사전에 공부를 해 오는 분들은 소수인 걸 감안할 때.. 법정 토론이 될만한 주제는 미리 공부를 해 오지 않으면 사실관계 및 issue spotting에서 완전히 해매게 되는 상황이 발생 할 수도 있기 때문에, 제 불타는 실험정신으로 말미암아 여론이 안 좋아질 경우를 우려하야- 일단 다소 가벼운 주제를 올렸습니다. ^^ 혹시 이에 대해서 관심있으신 분들이 많으면 다음에 한 번 올려볼까 합니다.
Anyway, 위 주제는 번역이 취미(?)인 제 친구가 GQ의 칼럼을 번역한 내용인데 전문 번역 수준은 아니더라도 꽤 academic한 글을 많이 읽은 친구라 읽으시는 데는 무리가 없을 걸로 봅니다. 난상토론 기대하겠습니당.ㅋㅋ
이 엄청난 분량ㄷㄷㄷ
이 엄청난 분당ㄷㄷㄷ
이 엄청난 분석ㄷㄷㄷ
이 엄청난 분식ㄷㄷㄷ
이 엄청난 회식ㄷㄷㄷ
위 험천만 회식ㄷㄷㄷ
위 험하는 회식ㄷㄷㄷ
위 집사는 회장ㄷㄷㄷ
이거 한글에 붙여넣기해보니까 영어만 7페이진데... 괜찮은건가...??
음.... 안 괜찮아 보인다에 한표.ㅋㅋ 이거 언제 다 읽지??ㅋ~
아놔, 이아저씨 괜히 시켰엄..ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
누군가 했네, 아저씨라고 부를 정도면 나이차가 좀 나는 걸로 봐서 그 때 그 아리따운 [초딩]녀군. ㅋㅋ 초딩한테는 그냥 한글본 강추~
초딩녀...... 쎄다.... ㅋㅋ
저번에도 "민족의 동질성"이라는 어마어마한 주제를 던져 놓으시고는 안나오셨었쪄!!! 이런 것을 "갑"의 횡포라고 하는건가요? ㅋ "을"은 던져놓은 주제 주워담을 수 밖에 없다는- ;; ㅋㅋㅋ
그나저나 '법정토론' 아무도 관심 없는겨? ;;
그나저나 '법정스님' 아무도 관심 없는겨? ;;
그나저나 '법버리맨' 아무도 관심 없는겨? ;;
끊어요 끊어
영어로 된 것은 도저히 몬 읽겠고, 한글로 된거 읽으니깐.. 마니 공감이 갑니다... 잼나요.... 믹휘는 지금 마이죤..
도저히 글자수 맞추기를 침범하기 싫어서 부연설명: 법버리맨=꾸레이 ㅋㅋㅋ
린지 이러면 폭로해 버리는 수가 있어 ㅡㅡ ㅋ
린지 이러면 폭식해 버리는 수가 있어 ㅡㅡ ㅋ
끊자 끊어
나도 해볼까? 글자수 맞추기 재미있겠는데? ㅋㅋㅋ
여기 아저씨들 노는곳 아니에요, 워이 워워워이
그럼 너 술먹고 행패부리는데냐? 시간이 모니 이게 ㅋㅋㅋ
김자,, 또 술먹고 들어와서 행패군하... 저걸 어쩔껴..