Do people remember the episode from SATC where Samantha had fake nipples to follow the trend of the “no bra” look?
여러분 혹시 “노브라” 트렌드를 따라가려고 가짜 유두를 이용했던 Sex and the City의 Samantha를 기억하나요?
Yesterday I had quite an experience roaming the streets of Seoul donning the “no bra” look. It was not an intentional move–I simply do not own an adhesive bra, or as my friend would call it, “cutlets“. If you think bare shoulders are taboo in Korea, you should have seen the looks from the ahjuhssis when I went around bra-less. One ahjuhssi had the nerve to stare my chest blatantly with his mouth agape. As much as I wanted to snap at him, I realized the attention, whether positive or negative, was self-induced, so I shrugged it off.
어제 노브라를 하고 서울 거리를 나섰다. 그러나 Samantha 처럼 고의적으로 한 것이 아니라 나시를 입고 있었지만 누브라가 없었던 탓이다. 만약 국내에서 민소매를 꺼린다고 생각하면 노브라는 거의 금기시킨다고 해도 될 것 같다. 아예 노골적으로 입을 딱 벌리며 가슴만 뻔뻔스럽게 쳐다본 아저씨도 있었다. 아저씨한테 한 마디하고 싶은 마음은 굴뚝 같았지만 사람들의 시선이 자초한 결과라는 것을 깨닫고 나서는 그냥 그려러니 했다.
Still, at the back of my mind, I could not understand why older ahjoomahs could go around bra-less wearing tops made out of paper-thin fabrics, yet a younger woman could not, or should I say, should not. Ahjoomahs are so desexualized in Korea, since they are only viewed as mothers. Which reverberates with my previous post of many Korean ahjoomahs who are infamous for their low-maintenance nature. I believe that they are low-maintenance partially due to the fact that Korean men no longer see them as desirable as women.
하지만 노브라를 하고 다니는 사람은 나뿐만이 아니다. 노브라를 하고 다니는 아줌마들을 흔히 볼 수 있지만 왜 아가씨가 노브라를 하면 안되는 건가? 어머니로만, 다른 말로 하자면, 더 이상은 여자가 아닌 아줌마들에 대한 편견 때문이 아닐까? 그렇다면 아줌마들이 꾸미지 않는 큰 이유 중 하나는 남자들이 그녀들은 더 이상 여자로, 즉, 성적 매력이 시든 존재로 보기 때문이다.
All the unwanted lingering glances made me regret with a passion that I stepped out the door without a bra in broad daylight. Now I am going to buy an adhesive bra and only go bra-less at night.
하루 종일 낯뜨거운 시선을 받은 나는 대낮에 노브라를 한 내 자신이 원망스러웠다. 이젠 누브라를 꼭 살 것이며 노브라는 밤에만 해야 될 듯 싶다.
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new trend?
But yeah. Another “Oh, Korea” moment. ><
By coincidence, the blog Sociological Images recently had a post about how going bra-less came to be (more) popular in America in the 1990s which you might find interesting. Here it is:
http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/06/17/nipples-and-the-presentation-of-femininity/
Your concept on Multimagazine is quite similiar to what I’ve been doing. I’m the metteur en scene of 2002 worldcup in Seoul and you saw, I guess, the 600thousand reddevil crows at City Hall Plaza, at that time, I was the creative Planner of that event, june 10,2002. I say ‘Jazz your life’ to my friends! Je parle aussi en fransais la meme chose!
You do good job. Keep in touch with me, I’m sure I ( Art Director of MGM Korea, ex Producer of MBC TV,that I can help you!
Hm… what about a shirt that disguises the fact that you’re not wearing a bra? You should be fine then.
When I was there last time, the thought of not wearing a bra would’ve never crossed my mind, but I guess I’ve changed or something because I just don’t care anymore, and will be wiilling to go braless when I go back this fall. But only with looser shirts.
It’s funny. When I was in New York, going around braless in Manhattan was not taboo at all and in fact, it was pretty much overlooked and seen as the norm. I felt so free and comfortable. So I figured I could go about roaming the streets of Seoul and Daegu the same way.
But I’ve tried, once, to go out braless in Korea and I couldn’t even make it out my front door. I knew that I would be getting myself into a shitstorm. And now, I’m stuck wearing thick ass Korean bras which are unnecessarily padded in this hot, disgusting weather. I would buy those pasties but they cost 34,000 won ㅠㅠ and I’m afraid they might just come off.
I had some of those sticky pasties, but once the sticky stuff wears off, they don’t work anymore.
[...] Infidelik at FeetManSeoul reports on the perils of not wearing a bra on the streets of Korea . If you’re interested in that, [...]
[...] Focusing on the nipple first though (as one does), let me provide some context. With the important exception of ubiquitous single-sex bathhouses, Koreans are generally more conservative than Anglophones when it comes to public nudity: topless males are extremely rare away from beaches, swimming pools, and concert stages for instance, and topless females unheard of, let alone full nudists of either sex (recall also that just 5-10 years ago, women even covered their swimsuits with t-shirts too). In addition, while female celebrities have been showing a lot of cleavage in recent years, this trend has yet to be adopted by ordinary women, whom can expect just as much unwanted attention if they accidentally leave home bra-less. [...]