Korean men sure are different.
In america, men are generally bound by a pretty strict attitude of machismo. Some of them, like myself, simply ignore it, but for most, you’ve got to be a beer swilling, football watching, swearing, drunken, fighting asshole if you’re going to be considered a “real” man, and a real american (no arguments on the second part, really.)
In Korea, they didn’t get the memo. At first, I noticed them acting different, hugging, holding hands, complimenting eachothers clothes/looks, and just chalked it up to slight cultural differences. Then I kept going out, and seeing it more and more. One of my schools PE teachers was a gold medal winner in the Sydney Olympics for Judo. He is about 195cm at his shoulders, 6′6, and his arms are about as thick as my waist. He took a picture of me with his cell phone, for which I actually smiled, which I don’t do. I only smiled because just before it took the picture, his phone called out, in an adorable voice, “Smile!” It was really out of character for a guy so badass, he was exempted from mandatory military service.
I was in Seoul just yesterday, headed to the world TaeKwonDo headquarters. A group of tough looking bikers passed me in the street, wearing hoodies with little panda bear ears sticking up at the top. The girls wear this all the time, and it never struck me as anything but cute, because hey, girls are cute, but it was weird seeing it on full grown men.
To be blunt, they way most korean men seem to look and dress, most westerners would immediately label gay. Mostly because its how gay men act and dress in america. In korea though, they are just emulating the very popular male celebrities. The girls want them and the men want to be them, so it gets weird sometimes. I come across as extremely manly as a result of all this, when back in the US, I was considered somewhat less, especially considering my music and movie preferences (although this was usually peppered with a few more negative groups and lots of martial arts).
I’m just curious as to what caused western men to have to eschew anything cute or “girly”, and why asian men have no problem looking and acting like their women. Although, from what I’ve seen and heard here, the western style man is more preferred by most girls. Works for me, in any case.
