Who are these women and why are they on my TV screen?
I have been putting off writing this piece for almost six months now. Wow has it really been six months since I landed here in Korea? Almost.
I have struggled with observing the way Korean TV portrays women in commercials. They remind me of the stuff that was on TV in the states in the fifties and early sixties when women were dressed in expensive, perfect clothes to vacuum their living rooms with the hair perfectly set in a bun, make-up that most models would drool over and smiling from ear to ear like they are being romanced by Antonio Banderas AND Sean Connery on a solo vacation in Madrid. They all have that glazed over I love being a dutiful housewife look. It just grosses me out sometimes. I kept thinking at some point I would find some kind of acceptance or something but I have become even more intolerant as time has gone by. I didn’t want to write this from such a judgmental, insensitive perspective but tonight it ached to see a woman smiling in her perfectly clean soft white cotton dress, skin without a blemish, hair that does not move, smiling orgasmically at the exterminator killing the cockroaches behind the fridgerator while her two angelic children stand on each side of her with arms around each either. Eeeeeeww! Somehow I found the cockroaches more acceptable than the woman herself. Who would want to marry such a woman?
This is the standard portrayal of the Korean woman on TV commercials; The Stepford Wives meet Kim Eun Cheong (not a real name). They have other life or aspirations but a clean house, cute children, happy husband and a perfect smile that has no color or expression of Self. They live a martyr’s life in their kitchen and laundry room dressed in their white cotton and silk dresses that appear to have never been breathed on precious to that moment. Men are rarely present in TV commercials, it is strange their lack of visibility. Was June Cleaver even this perfect? At least Carol Brady had a housekeeper when looking like she had never touched a dish, mud stain or a child’s vomit. We could count on Olivia Walton to be dirty, you know live up there on Blue Ridge Mountain with all that survival stuff going on before they went to bed at night with their absurd goodnight ritual:
“Ben: Goodnight Mama.
Olivia: Goodnight Ben. Goodnight Jim Bob.
Jim Bob: 'Night Mama, 'night Erin.
Erin: 'Night Jim Bob, 'night Grandpa.
Grandpa: 'Night Erin, goodnight Jason.
Jason: Goodnight Grandpa, goodnight Daddy.
John: Goodnight Jason, goodnight Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Goodnight Daddy. Goodnight John-Boy.
John-Boy is standing outside listening to the voices. He answers quietly: Goodnight everybody, - I love you.”
The thing that irks me the most about these commercials is the fact that for the most part, Korean moms are simple, grounded and wonderfully imperfect people. It is what I like most about them; they are regular folks who do their best dressed in clothes that make sense for the tasks of their day. They bare no resemblance to these women who have a post-sex contentment over their Hauzen washer’s tiny bubbles filling their home to the ceiling with bubbles. It would make more sense in the states where moms often wear make-up, fix their hair and change their clothes five times a day to look good for the other mother's who live down the street and pick up their children after soccer practice but this is Korea and moms really are not like that here.
Why does this still exist in 2009?
Who buys into this crap?
I only have thing left to say:
“Good night Jim Bob.”
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