The Question of "MODERN"

I was sitting with a circle of guys. One of the lucky ones had nabbed a fresh, young Korean chick. They'd been going together for about two months now, good and strong.

One of the boys asked, "Well, is she modern or what?"

The other boys immediately nodded. They knocked back their drinks and confirmed again with 'yeses' over and over.

Let's start with what he meant by "modern" in this case: He obviously meant if she's the kind of girl that wouldn't mind spreading her legs.

There isn't a problem with that. But there's a problem with the employment of that term. In fact, people may argue that "modern" is even more conservative in the Korean context due to the Christianity that began to permeate the nation and spread like wildfire, parallel to the industrialization and love for capitalism. What's conservative about "modern" then?
It reemphasized where women "belonged" and heightened the obsession over a woman's chastity. This was, of course, just a PART of modernity in Korea.

Novels like TEARS OF BLOOD by Yi Injik and THE HEARTLESS by Yi Kwangsu emphasized chastity like crazy. In a society that once had a tradition of child marriages and kisaengs as a part of their cultural root, these writers promoted the curbing of sexual activity. And both writers are considered the first modernists in Korean literature.

But modernity in Korea was pretty complicated. Socialists and realists began to disassemble the work that Yi Injik and Yi Kwangsu developed; Kim Tongin's POTATOES illustrates how an "upright" and "proper" girl loses her sense of Confucian virtue through force of circumstance (poverty, oppression), and opens her eyes to the truth: Polyamorous behavior is not outside the human capability.

This story was written in the 20s. Outside of literature, however, both liberal reformers and conservative reformers did not allow change for women that would force men to change their habits (such as prohibiting male abuse towards women). This is Korea's modernity--a non-progression, an immobility of female reform, an inability to see the woman's sex as a free existence that is autonomous and independent from male influence.

My point is, be careful how you employ the term "modern" in the Korean context.