davidsmeaton.com

note: i’d like to start this post by stating that i’ve changed the title. out of anger, i included the nons de plume of a korean netizen with whom i was angry about a post on her site. while i will leave this discussion on my blog for the sake of public record, i have removed her name from the title as a consiliatory action, designed to show my attitude is not directed at this one person, but rather at the attitude of ‘netizens’ in general. the permalink, however, cannot be changed … and i apologise for that.

i’m really quite tired of hearing about korean netizens. during the 2006 world cup, koreans were banned from fifa’s website as a result of the netizen complaints. not only did the national soccer team play very poorly, but koreans complained because they believe they have a right to win. this blind patriotism is really quite astounding sometimes.

so, imagine my surprise when i found a korean netizen has blogged about me and my site. this netizen’s name is mannoya. of course, that’s not her real name. she hides her real name and identity because she’s a coward.

her blog has an article (full article in korean is below, so she can’t delete and deny it) which states that my nude photographs are pornographic. she states that it’s offensive and unethical. there are numerous assumptions on her blog that she doesn’t support with evidence.

i’ll deal with her comments one by one, for the point of simplicity.

first. mannoya is a coward. my identity is open and true. i’m not hiding behind some website. i’m an honest person and i have nothing to fear. korean netizens hide their identity and then make accusations about everyone else. mannoya would never have the courage to contact me. she would never have the courage to speak to me face to face the same way she speaks in her blog. she is very much a coward.

mannoya states that my nudes are not art, they’re porn. she provides two links to prove her point. one link is to a blurry photo which looks like it was taken by a 10 year old child. in my opinion it’s a terrible photo. art is very much subjective. my nude photographs have no sexual intercourse. all of my photos are a tasteful and not too revealing. i don’t have much experience in nude photography. but it’s not reasonable to say my photos are porn simply because they’re not blurry.

mannoya states that i don’t have the right to publish the girls’ photos on the internet. however, in fact, i do have the right. those were professional models. each girl was paid 300,000 won (about $300 US) per hour for the shoot. the models also signed release forms. both models were over 20 years of age. therefore those photos belong to me. the girls were paid very, very well for the photos.

mannoya continues by saying that i’ve made rude comments and insulting comments about women (probably korean women) on other websites. however, mannoya provides no evidence to support this accusation. i’ve never offended or insulted women. why would i do such a thing?? there is no evidence and she cannot support this statement. it’s a lie.

mannoya admits that she’s offended because the models are korean and i’m a foreigner. this is an admission that mannoya is racist. if the models were white, she wouldn’t care. if i was korean, she wouldn’t care. mannoya is a racist, pure-blood korean because she doesn’t want foreigners ruining the “perfect reputation” of korean women.

mannoya stated that sexual issues are each person’s private business. yet, she’s on the internet complaining about my photos … which are my private business. this is an extremely hypocritical point of view. also, mannoya never contacted me or attempted to communicate with me in any way (via email, which would have been more appropriate) … instead, she jumps on her secret identity and proudly admits that she’s a racist coward.

well, i would like to retort with a few points of my own:

my website has nearly 400 photographs. of those, 20 phoographs were part of my nude gallery. the other 380 photographs were all taken in korea. 380 photographs that showed the wonder and beauty of korean life. 380 photographs that highlighted how much foreigners love to live in korea and immerse ourselves in korean culture. but, obviously, those 380 photographs are not important.

my website has 30 articles regarding photographic tips and tutorials. the articles are designed to help photographers improve their skills (mannoya uses a photo logo on her site, suggesting she has an interest in photography). but, obviously, those 30 articles are not important.

my site has a guide for buying cameras, in depth reviews of photo equipment and discussion about my life in korea. but, obviously, all that information is not important either.

the only important part of my site is 20 nude photos. wow. that’s just amazing … ignorant, but amazing.

i’d also like to point out that mannoya’s anger towards me is very much misguided. you see, i live in one of the most sexually perverse countries in the world. the korean government has evidence that over a million people work in korea’s sex industry. korea’s sex industry is larger than thailand. every neighborhood has 안마 rooms (sex and massage), room salons (sex and karaoke) and love hotels (sex hotels, paid by the hour). during my 6 years in korea i’ve had countless experiences where korean men (married korean men) tell me that they get drunk and have sex with prostitutes. this is not random at all, this is a common occurence. it’s a part of korean male life. very few husbands can claim to be faithful to their wives, because office ‘bonding’ involves drinking and sex.

in fact, 4 days ago two old korean men (in their 50s) were on the subway looking at porn DVDs that they’d bought. they were looking at the DVD cases on the crowded subway. women and children were nearby, and the DVD covers were very graphic. these men didn’t seem to care at all.

none of those problems are important. what’s more important is a foreigner who has 20 nude photos of korean women on his website. 20 photos of perfect, pure-blood, korean women.

the opinions of people like mannoya are simple biggotry … and what makes it worse is that she lies about me degrading women on other websites … and doesn’t even have the courage to reveal her identity.

*as an after thought, i believe mannoya may have lived abroad (in LA) and it’s possible that she knows me or has met me. this makes her opinions even more ignorant and racist. you’d think that someone who lived abroad would have a better understanding of reality … and you’d think that she’d have the courage to contact me directly.

… obviously not.

mannoya … your country has many, many problems. why don’t you try fixing your own country’s corruption, economic failure and sexual perversions. once your country is perfect, then criticise me and my photographs.

the following is her blog entry. recorded here for prosperity so that she cannot delete her post and deny what she wrote. i would expect a person who is a coward to delete their own blog so that they can pretend nothing happened.

어느 교수님의 사진.

Semilla님의 포스팅을 읽다가 예전에 쓰다 잊어먹은 토픽도 생각이 났고 누군가를 가르치는 사람으로서 과연 그 자질은 어떻게 평가되어야 하는가에 대한 생각 해 본다.
개인의 사생활이 어떤일을 하는데 있어 적합하다 혹은 적합하지 않다라고 말할 때에는 여러가지 기준이 있을 것이다.

Semilla 님이 언급하신 교수님을 말하자면 게이라서라거나 가르치는 방식이 독특한 것에 대해서의 내가 교수로서 자격이 있다 없다 할 수는 없다고 생각한다. 학점을 빌미로 학생들과 성관계를 맺는 교수들이 수두룩한 마당에 개인의 성 정체성은 충분히 존중되어져야 한다는게 내 생각이다. 불법적인 행동이야 당연히 처벌받아야 하는거고 이러한 ethical issue에 국한에서 하는 말이다.
교수라는 직업을 지키면서 한쪽에서 포르노를 찍는다는 건 그런면에서 (내 생각으로는) 한국에서도 크게 이슈가 된적이 있었던 교사의 누드사진 문제와는 다른 문제인 것이다.

내가 여기서 말 하고자 하는 사람은 한국에서 영어강사로 일을 하고 있는데 블로그에 따르면 호주와 영국에서 고등학생들을 가르치기도 했고 한국에서도 초중교를 거쳐 현재는 기업체 영어강사로 일을 하고 있는 모양이다.
짧 게 설명하자면 남친이 웹서핑을 하다가 어느 비디오 클립 밑에 난데없이 벌어진 동양여성 비하+성적 코멘트 사태를 보다가 그중 상당히 저질의 글을 남긴 사람이 버젓이 자기 블로그를 이름에 링크해 놨기에 방문을 했고, 한국거주중이라는 걸 보고 나한테 알려주게 된 거였다.

문제는 이 사람이 이 블로그에 올려놓은 누드들인데, 본인을 teacher이며 photographer로 자칭하는 그 태도에 비해 사진 상태들이 상당히 논란스럽다는 거다. 내가 예술적인 감각이 없어서 그런다고 할지도 모르겠지만 개인적으로 이 사람의 사진들 과 예술성이 있는 누드라고 생각되는 사진1과 사진2를 비교해보면 그 차이가 확실히 있다. 미안하지만 내가 볼때 이 사람의 사진은 porn이지 art가 아니다. 궁금한 사람들은 직접 비교해 보고 얘기해 주길.

개 인적으로 내가 학부모이고 내 아이의 미술선생님이 사진1이나 2을 찍었다면 내 아이들을 벗겨놓고 찍은것도 아니고 딱 봤을때 외설스럽다기 보다는 조각이나 옛 그림을 보는 듯한 느낌을 주는 이러한 사진들을 가지고 문제 삼을 생각은 없다.
(물론 아직까지도, 그런면에서 많이 개방적이라고 우리가 알고 있는 서구사회에서도 누드모델을 하거나 모델의 사진을 찍는 행위는 예술성을 떠나 항상 논란거리이긴 하다.)
하지만 그 사진들이 David Smeaton의 사진과 같은 거라면, 난 화가 날거다.
저 런 사진을 찍는 취미를 혼자 간직하는 정도라면 몰라도 버젓히 같은 블로그에 교복을 입은 학생들과 함께한 사진을 올리고 그 바로 밑에 누드모델들을 감독(?)하는 본인의 모습을 올리며 포토그라퍼라고 소개하는 뻔뻔함은 정도가 좀 지나치다.
누드사진들은 정말 딱할정도이고 그나마 나쁘지 않은건 평범한 사진들인데 기술적인 면에서의 나쁘지 않음이지 사진으로서 교감할 수 있는 그런 수준은 못 된다.
애석한건 영어를 가르치는 사람으로서도 그의 포스팅을 읽다보면 캐쥬얼함을 벗어나 약간 수준이 낮다는 인상을 받게 된다는 거다.

개인적으로 기분이 상당히 나쁜건 누드 사진들은 하나같이 동양여인들 (굳이 말하자면 한국인) 뿐이라는 거다.
이 사진을 찍은 아가씨들은 자신들의 사진이 Flickr등을 비롯해 외국유저들을 상대하는 온라인에 공개되어 있다는걸 알고는 있을까.

예 술을 하는 사람들의 누드에 대한 사랑은 잘 안다. 그림을 하는 사람들에게도 누드란 하나의 어려운 과제이며 이건 사진, 조각등에도 해당한다. 무용을 볼 때도 사람들은 사람의 몸이 어떻게 동작하고 감정을 표현하는지를 보지 몸에 딱 달라붙는 무용복에만 시선을 두지 않는다. 물론, 익숙치 않아 남사스럽다는 사람들도 있지만 저런 옷을 입고 무용을 하기 때문에 내 아이들을 가르칠 수 없다, 라고 하는 사람은 본적이 없다. 예술은 확실히 외설과는 다르다.

한국헤럴드 영자판에서 사진관련 섹션도 가지고 있고 내노라 하는 공기업과 사기업에서 일을 하는 이 사람, 내가 수업을 받아보지 않았으니 실력이 어떤지는 모른다.
어쩌면 본인은 정말로 자신이 예술을 하는거라고 믿기 때문에, 미성년자를 대상으로 사진을 찍은것도 아니기 때문에, 혹은 정말로 그정도 취미생활은 열린관점에서 인정해줘야 하는걸지도 모르겠다.

과연 그를 채용한 사람들이 이 사람의 블로그를 방문해 본적이 있었을까?
그는 과연 지인들이 아닌 영어강사쪽이든 신문사쪽이든 일관련 인물들에게 자신의 블로그를 소개하고 사진들을 보여줄 자부심이 있을까? 한국인 친구(혹시 있다면)들에게는?
만약 이미 그런것들이 다 알려졌고 받아들여진거라면 또 다른 질문이 여기서 생겨난다.
과연 같은 한국사람이 같은 상황에 있었다면 어땠을까.
만약 취미생활과 일에 대한 실력이 별개로 취급되어야 한다는 것이 이 사람에게 적용된다면 그건 그러함이 당연하기 때문인걸까 아니면 이 사람이 외국인이기 때문인걸까?

racism in korea is a common tale amongst foreigners … as a teacher, i often hear from my students - adult students - of how racist they think foreigners are towards koreans. yet, every foreigner living in korea has stories to tell about racism and xenophobic hostility.

i’ve pretty much got over or given up on this issue. however, a friend of mine sent a link to an interesting article on the issue. the racism problem is heating up again as a result of korea’s increasing nationalistic views. beef, dokdo, sports, china, japan, and numerous other sentiments are coming into it. the article is from the asian times. i couldn’t find the original article, so i’ll reproduce it here:

Small talk, especially between enemies, is meant to break the ice. But sometimes it can have the opposite effect - and also prove unintentionally revealing.

Last Wednesday, major-generals from North and South Korea were chatting before a second day of tough talks on border security. The North’s Major-General Kim Yong-chul noted that farmers must be hard at work. Indeed, replied South Korea’s Major-General Han Min-gu. But since the rural population is falling, many are marrying women from Mongolia, the Philippines, Vietnam and elsewhere.

That did not go down well. According to the Seoul daily Chosun Ilbo, Kim grimaced and snapped that “our nation has always considered its pure lineage to be of great importance.”

Far from challenging him, Han replied that this is “but a drop of ink in the Han River.”

Kim was unmollified: “Not even one drop of ink must be allowed to fall into the Han river.”

As this unsavory little exchange shows, in one respect a divided Korea is already unified. Overt and unabashed racist attitudes and assumptions are deep-rooted on the peninsula.

North Korea makes no bones about this. “The theory of ‘multiracial society’ is a poison,” thundered the party daily Rodong Sinmun on April 27. Pyongyang media does not pull its punches. The paper lambasted those behind this “strange farce to hamstring the essential characters of the Korean nation” as “riff-raffs who have not an iota of national soul.”

Was not communism meant to be internationalist? Not so North Korea, whose emphasis on not merely nationalism but racial purity calls to mind Hitler and Nazism more than Stalin.

Nor is this just theory. A recent Time cover story reported the horrific experience of Kim Myong-suk - one of thousands of North Korean women who seek a better life in China or, more sinisterly, are trafficked there. Either way, their lives are furtive and precarious. Caught and repatriated in 1998 at age 20, five months pregnant, she was repeatedly kicked in the stomach by a prison guard until “the *****,” as he kept yelling, was aborted.

In South Korea, things are changing. The “strange farce” which so bothered the North was actually a welcome and worthy, if overdue, outburst of soul-searching in Seoul about race.

In Seoul the inspiration was Hines Ward, the Pittsburgh Steelers receiver named in February as the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player. For the uninitiated, we are talking about American football.

Ward’s South Korean mother raised him after his father, a black GI, deserted them. Facing huge prejudice in Korea, they moved to the United States.

The MVP award prompted a media blizzard, not least in Seoul. Cynics suggest that Koreans might be racist, but they sure do like a winner.

A visit by Ward spotlighted those less fortunate who grow up biracial in Korea rather than the United States. They face not only popular prejudice but official discrimination.

As the astonished footballer noted: “You can’t even get into the military if you’re biracial. That is their rule, 100 per cent pure.”

The thousands of biracial Koreans hope the Hines Ward effect will not be just a nine-day wonder. On May 10, South Korea’s police authority said it will hire biracial officers from next year. Yet it justified this by citing their putative language skills - dubious, as 80 percent are raised by Korean single mothers, a further source of stigma - rather than rights and equity.

If entrenched racism is to change at all, the new marital trends referred to by Maj-Gen Han may do the trick. In a now highly industrialized and urbanized country, the farm sector has long been in decline. (The militancy by South Korean farmers which shocked Hong Kong at December’s World Trade Organisation meeting is a desperate rearguard action by a violent minority.)

For many of South Korea’s dwindling band of farmers, finding a wife is no less a challenge than resisting rice market opening. But just as workers from poorer Asian countries flock to Seoul (legally or not) to do the 3D jobs - dirty, difficult, dangerous - that Koreans shun, the living standards of the world’s 10th-largest economy may hold out a hope of a better life to foreign women with few good options at home.

This trend is still new, but already its impact is striking. A survey by the JoongAng Ilbo, a leading Seoul daily, found that the proportion of marriages to foreigners grew from 8.4 percent in 2003 to 13.6 percent last year. In Seoul and two mainly rural provinces, the figure was over 17 percent. At a local level, in at least four counties over 37 percent of marriages involved a foreign spouse.

Soon an education system whose textbooks reinforce ideas of national and racial purity will have to adapt. In one primary school in North Jeolla Province, which had its first mixed-race pupil (half Filipino) in 2003, 20 out of 357 pupils are now biracial.

Though statistics are not kept, over half the foreign brides are thought to be ethnic Koreans from China. They do not face the same cultural and linguistic challenges as women from elsewhere - but by the same token, they can more easily vanish into Korea’s anonymous cities. Hence, according to the brokers who serve this new market, Southeast Asian women are increasingly preferred despite their darker skin, previously a turn-off in racist terms.

South Korea has wider policy reasons to encourage this trend. Last year its birth rate fell to 1.08, one of the lowest in the world. If not checked, then, as in Japan, population will start to fall. In a rapidly ageing society, care of the elderly is also a growing burden.

Demographics aside, it is high time South Korea ditched racism. For a country which sells to the world and aspires to be East Asia’s business hub, South Korea is far too self-obsessed and culturally inbred. An era of globalization demands a more open mindset.

Next time some benighted North Korean general starts a racist rant, his Southern partner should tell him sharply that, in the civilized world, that sort of thing went out with Auschwitz.

Aidan Foster-Carter is an honorary senior research fellow in sociology and modern Korea at Britain’s Leeds University. - Ed.

By Aidan Foster-Carter