[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] We Like Short Skirts!

The surge of K-culture that has rushed across the world's stage recently probably doesn't have much to do with the South now putting rulers to skirts. In fact, the two are so far apart that a good laugh can be had at imagining a law official measuring the skirts of, say, anyone of Korea's 'idol' groups, and attempting to fine them W50,000 each for their crimes. I envision some snappy music video with leggy idols sprinkling yellow bank notes over a suited lawman as he fumbles his measuring stick-they're that far removed.

It's actually all rather paradoxical. I mean, is the issue not really the amount of thigh (I think we've past 'legs' already here somewhere) being revealed, rather than the skirt itself? Not to suggest we should start measuring legs, that would take too much tape; which does raise the fair question of is Korea perhaps treating the effect, rather than the cause? If their issue is with the actual skirts, surely a quick memo to Korea's textile industry heads would help clear up the misunderstanding. How were consumers to know that the clothes they were buying were sculpted without the proper consideration for their dimensions? Why impose on the innocent consumer?

Skirts lengths and social politics come around every so often-as many who remember Korea in the 1970s will be quick to recall-but the comparison ends there. Over the past year Korea has enjoyed the pleasure of riding its own wave all around the world and back. Their K-culture has been pumped into the music mainstream, shattering records and starting a viral outbreak that has manifested itself through and in all sorts of post-modern pastiches and puns. Before PSY though, Korea's top 'Idol' groups were trying to break the Perspex ceiling and into the Western markets. Appearances were made, interviews given, and promotional tours planned, all of which yielded mild results and questions continued to loom. Then, as if on cue, came Psy. Blindly surfing his way to sweet success and stamps.

It's dangerously ironic that PSY's satirical undermining of K-culture ended up (I hope) being the unintentional flagship for Korea's cultural branding; the unofficial mascot on which Korea can ride  away suggestively into the West. As far as I recall PSY never actually wore a skirt, at least not in public. So you might be wondering why mention him at all? Well, strange as it may seem, I think that recent measures may perhaps allow us to find clues in the horse that bolted out of turn.

I believe the skirts on Girl's Generation, and the like, are worthy of a fine-or at least some form of punishment. And their not alone here, Korea prides itself on its 'idols', it labels and treats them so. If they are to be idols then, must not the Korean public feel secure in their imitations of these stars, these icons of success and sexiness? I mean how else is Korea going to capture the gaze of the West, if not with some form of leggy enticement and teasing? Again, we are back to PSY as he awkwardly answers my own question by prancing around on an imaginary black stallion.

"Gangnam Style" may not be the cause for some poor respectable woman's lighter wallet in the weeks to come; but it's symptomatic of a loss of control for the country over its own image. In fact I would go as far as to say that this new 'decree' speaks, and is in service to, that very fear-the absence of control. This is because I don't see the Korean economy suddenly rivalling that of China's as the cheques come streaming in from abashed, yet fashionable conscious, young women from the streets of Gangnum (and if they are going to start anywhere its going to be there). Or though farmers would no longer have to worry about their daughters' thigh line as they ventured into the magical soul-city, where old-fashioned 'wisdom' is upheld. I think farmers will continue to have sleepless nights, and those ladies in Korea's more affluent districts will march as boldly as nudist protestors-capturing gazes an making points as they go.

Would it perhaps be different, if only so slightly, if Korea still had a male president to pass such laws? Surely that would give the feminist argument here more ground from which to spread its legs and make a stand. Or is the message not somehow more...direct and shaming when it is a woman who oversees such laws? Of course the argument can be made that Korea's patriarchal structures are still alive and well; still ready to rise to the occasion even if that means a empty, yet face-saving, gesture of societal regulation and perceived order. Issues of powerlessness pervade this line of questioning, which suggests that the move to pass such a law is itself an acknowledgement of a lack of power and the nation's desire to enact it.

To illustrate this point, consider the skirt lengths in Korea as a product of simple fashion. The skirts in question are, in all likelihood, not the result of an army of underground factory workers slaving away to fuel the revolution one skirt at a time. Few would testify, although even this is debatable, to the practicality of mini-skirts: they not good for running as they serious restrict leg movement; they have an inescapable ability to hinder the wearer when they try to pick things up; they make sitting a spectacle if you come early and get the good seats; and they have a nasty habit of becoming even shorter as the day goes on.

My point is that they are in service of fashion, not the wartime effort. If living and working in Korea for years has shown me anything, it's that image matters. Even when it is at the expensive of depth, the surface counts and is counted. Korea's idols are, well, idolised. This should come as no real surprise. I remember walking around Song-nae station in the satellite city of Bucheon a year or two ago. A small stage always stood outside the "Toona" Fashion factory outlet mall. On a number of occasions I witnessed young, very young girls strutting around acting out the latest K-Pop fad. Cute, some might say and their parents might agree, but this copying, this mimicry of style, theme, and pose is wildly blazing in Korea. Sexy dips and bends, twists and taunts, followed by provocative pouting and teasing. Which is all well and good, if that is your taste in music, but the problem comes when a culture emerges around it that is so encompassing and influential that almost every corner of society is saturate by it, the Water has to go someone I guess. It's on the streets of Seoul as you walk past cell phone stores and markets, on the trains and subways, it's on everyone's lips and players as they walk down the streets, you would have to be a farmer yourself in Korea to perhaps not have ability to at least recognise the prevalence and power of backwash the Wave has brought in and needs to release.

Idols are wearing them, stores are playing and selling them, and people are buying them. It's a simple thread that shows that those in power are not happy with Korea's image to the world. It would be tricky to get a ban passed aimed at the K-Pop brand and its inhabitants. That effort would result in a laughable backlash from the very populace they would be trying to 'protect' in the first place. Attempting to regulate the market of such items would be even more ludicrous and even less fruitful. The consumer then, the apparent signified that roams not the world stage with a microphone in her hand and a shine on her thigh, but the very streets of Seoul. It will not target the 'idols' and interfere with their idling and their performances, but instead its own women, real women and the fantasies of a generation.

I find it hard to believe, given many other pressing matters facing the country right now, that this law will be 'enforced' to the extent that warrants any chance of noticeable change or alarm. Any serious effort to uphold it would most likely be met with hostility, which is far worse that what is actually likely to happening. By stating that skirts that 'expose' too much will be punished, is not to say that all who wear such skirts will be fined. The point is not who will be fined or not, but instead it could be seen as an attempt to re-sculpt social consciousness around the issue, in a way that is most socially acceptable. People will be aware that is it, technically, a break with the law if they continue wear short skirts. Perhaps a few will burn their skirts in a communal sign of acknowledgement of the law, but generally Korea's current socio-political climate will not allow the notion to be considered any further than its face-saving value-a gesture they will be received, and then returned for all to see.

The higher Korea reaches for the stars, the more its skirts climbs up to reveal more than it should. This is not something that can be isolated strictly within Korea; it is the result of the relationship between Korea and the rest of the world. Even in a country as tight-lipped as the North has shown itself to be influenced, in not at a slower rate, by the spectacle that is the international arena. Skirts across the border are actually getting shorter, and there is an uncanny rise in 'K-poppy' girl groups getting their leader's stamp of approval. And if skirts are getting shorter over there, then the must get longer over here?

The new law took effect on Friday March 22nd and (in completely unrelated news) a new "boyish looking" girl group name "GI" (Global Icon, if you can believe it) is set to make their debut next month. In order to, according to Simtong Entertainment, combat the current style of Korea's "monotonous entertainment scene"-Touché madam president, touché.

-C.J Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.com)

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