The scandal that rocked the website englishspectrum.com all
began when some provocative party photos showed up one of their
forums. The offending photos caused an uproar in the Korean
internet community because it featured Korean women exhibiting
wild behavior in the vicinity of Western men. Before the infamous
photos were posted, englishspectrum.com was just a tame informational
portal for english teachers looking to live and work in Korea,
but after the inappropriate images aired, Korean netizens were
crying bloody murder and demanding that the helpful site be
shut down.
How
It Happened:
Every useful
website has a place where viewers can interact. These forums,
or messageboards are places where people can post their opinions
and recommendations about anything and everything. Less than
a year ago, a few forums were introduced to the English Spectrum
site. These forums were meant to give relevant first-hand
information about life in Korea. One of those forums was the
male-oriented messageboard called `Ask the Playboy`.
This
particular forum was littered with postings by guys wondering
how they could get lucky in the Land of the Morning Calm.
`Ask the Playboy` was entertaining in the same way that men's
magazines are entertaining. The forum featured the kind of
crass talk that you could overhear in a men's locker room,
and many found it hilarious.
The overseer
of this forum eventually decided that it would be fun to throw
a sexy costume party. Girls who wore sexy gear for the party
gained free admission. This was what was posted on the website
`DC Inside` regarding the parties:
Party
humpers,
Just
so there's no confusion...English Spectrum and I will be hosting
two parties at Mary Jane's in Hongdae on BOTH the 14th (Friday
night) and the 15th (Saturday night).
Each party will be slightly different. On the 14th, it will
be much the same as the last two; meaning some sex in the
female bathroom, some late night dance floor grinding and
partial nudity, mixed in with the addition of some clothes-allergic
professionals who should be making a guest appearance that
night.
On the 15th, we will be holding an MC'ed Sexy Game Night.
We will be selling drinks at an exceptionally low price from
9-12 to get everyone hammered prior to the games. From 12
to about 4 am, we'll play a bunch of team-oriented, guy-girl-guy-girl
games, each for small prizes. This will be mixed in with a
fair amount of dancing (hip hop and otherwise) intermissions.
Both nights will be fun, but a little bit different. If you
can make one or the other or both, please come and join the
fun. The 15th will be a good time to meet new people and develop
some interesting relationships. The Playboy
After
a bit of booze, the guys were hoping that some girls would
be inspired to let go of their inhibitions, and maybe let
go of some of their clothes while they were at it. It may
sound like fun to some, right? Well, usually whatever debauchery
which takes place in a drunken state at 3 in the morning is
nobody's business but your own. But things began to spin out
of control when some scandalous snapshots were taken at the
party and consequently displayed on the `Ask the Playboy`
forum.
The photos
are too spicy to post on seoulstyle, so I'll describe some
of them for you. There was a series of photos of a wet t-shirt
contest where western guy was pouring water onto a group of
Korean girls who were wearing English spectrum t-shirts. There
was one photo where a shirtless western guy with a big nose
and a big beer belly was sandwiched in between two young Korean
girls. The girls were dressed normally. The sexiest photos
featured a Korean girl dressed in a school girl outfit. Her
see-through white shirt was wet and unbuttoned and her black
leather skirt was so short that you could see all of the white
granny panty that she was wearing underneath. There was one
photo of her on dancing on top of the bar and, right at crotch
level was (you guessed it) a western man!
Normally
Koreans are too worried about what other people think about
them to allow themselves act with such abandon and these girls
appeared to be letting it all hang out with the encouragement
of the wicked `big nosed yankees`. You can imagine how naughty
these photos must have looked to the typically conservative
Korean even though perhaps by western standards there may
not have been that racy.
Before
the photos were even published, there was already a site which
was started by a Korean man called anti-english spectrum.
The anti-englishspectrum group was quite concerned about the
corrupting influences that westerners seem to have on their
chaste culture. Some Korean men were outraged that western
men seemed to be degrading `the future mothers of Korea`.
The flames
of fury were fanned as more and more netizens started to put
their two cents in regarding this particular forum and it`s
politically incorrect contents. After angered netizens got
wind of the troublesome photos, a petition was started on
Daum.net which demanded that low-grade English teachers be
expelled from the country. Thus far over 10,000 signatures
have been collected. Things continued to burn out of control
and people started to believe that offline violence towards
foreigners (particularly males) was a real possibility as
a result of the forum postings.
The girls
who were featured in the photos were embarrassed and infuriated.
Some of them couldn`t even go to work because they were afraid
their co-workers might have seen the defamatory photos. They
complained that the photos were taken out of context and the
party was nowhere near as wild as the pictures would make
it seem. Also, the Hongik Bar where the parties took place
is threatening to sue anti-englishspectrum and some other
bloggers for slandering their establishment. They claim that
the parties were not sex parties and behavior like that is
typical of a night out in Hongdae.
The whole
situation became a virtual mud-slinging fest with insults
being volleyed back and forth. Certain Koreans were accusing
foreign English teachers of being a depraved low-class lot
and some foreigners in turn were accusing Koreans of being
close minded, hypocritical and excessively nationalistic.
This
incident is interesting because it demonstrates the power
of the internet media in Korea. It`s amazing how a small minority
of insensitive foreign men could cause such a huge controversy
over some silly internet postings! Unfortunately, the whole
situation has had some negative repercussions for foreign
English teachers in Korea. Thankfully, the situation is starting
to die down, but even though most of the fires are out, the
smoke still smolders and people (especially English teachers)
can still feel the fallout.
