Street Runway: Skirts Up, School’s Out!

왜 이렇게 되는지 모르겠는데 어른만 짧게 입고 다니는 것아니고 학생까지도 그렇게 다니는 거네요. 특히 이번 시즌부터 학교에서 나오면 아주 타이트한 교복의 블러우스를 풀고 밑에 티셔츠를 노출하고 그리고 치마를 높이 올리고 그렇게 다니는 거예요. 역시 한국사회에서 애들이 점점 소비자들이 되면서 — 전자재품부터 화장과 파마까지 — 자기 자신을 어른으로 보게 되는 법이죠. 점점 고딩들이 빨리 ‘아가씨’가 되고 싶어하는 거죠.

I don’t know when it got like this, but it’s not just adult women walking around in short skirts anymore, but even uniformed schoolgirls. While this may not be news somewhere like Japan, Korean high school girls have been held to stricter dress codes, both in the school and on the streets. Nowadays, the power of kids as consumers and much more sophisticated adults than they used to be even 10 years ago has made them chomp at the bit in terms of not just consumption, but in terms of asserting a sexual identity as a “woman” as quickly as possible.

한국은 일본아니다. 그리고 교복치마는 교복치마잖아요. 무슨 ‘세일러문’처럼 나오는 치마아니니까 아무리 높이 올려도 결국은 촌스러운 것이잔하아요. 휴. 여고딩들이 유행을 다 타네요. 비싼 핸드폰, MP3기, 브랜드 운동화, 그리고 이번에 인기 많은 “Fashion Week Promotional Bag”까지 들고 다니는 거네요. 잘 살고 있네요, 요즘의 애들이. 휴. 근데 아직은 한국사회가 이 변함을 인정 안하려고 그래요. 나 지금 학생이었으면 진짜 헷갈렸겠다. 난 미성년인가? 어른인가? 사회가 둘다 기대하니까 진짜 힘드는 것같아요. “어른 소비자로 살며서도 소녀처럼 행동을 해라’고 그런 메세지 맏잖아요. 그런데 인간들이 그런 모순적인 명령을 잘 따라하지 않잖아요.

Korea certainly isn’t Japan, but now Korean girls are rolling up their skirts on the street, too, even though it doesn’t quite have the stylized effect it does in Japan. Yet it’s sending a similar statement: with the expensive cellphones, fancy MP3 players, brand-name sneakers, and even the trendy “Fashion Week Promotional Bag” that adult fashionistas are sporting these days, Korean high school girls are steady pushing the boundaries of “girl” into that of “woman,” even as Korean society refuses to recognize this change. If I were their age today, I’d be confused. “Am I a kid? Or an adult?” Society expects them to be both, even as it tells them to stick to their roles and scolds them for stepping out of it. Yet, kids aren’t blind, and they behave accordingly. “Buy like a woman, but act like a girl” seems to be the message. But people don’t follow such convenient and contradictory rules as exactly as they’re told.