Picked up a piece from another blog that pointed to a "miniskirt war" on college campuses. Took people long enough to notice – but now I feel someone vindicated. Some folks out there on the 'Net have called me a pervert for even pointing it out, and Koreans think I'm crazy. But now that it's become a mini-"issue", I'll just take pleasure in saying, "See!? I told you it's not just me!"
I've taught a university class for the past few years here while not doing my dissertation research and have been pointing this out myself – the skirtlines 'round Seoul have been pretty crazy for a while now, and they're just getting all the more crazy.
In my lecture last semester, one of the more risqué freshmen – who seemed really, really happy to get out of the school uniform she had been wearing for many years prior – used to come into class late all the time. That's not in itself problematic; the problem was with the clothes she was – or rather, wasn't – wearing. Her skirts we so short that I was kinda embarrassed to look, but then again, kinda tempted to look, but then I was I technically the "professor" giving a lecture, but damn, that skirt's unbelievable, dammit, I shouldn't look, don't look, don't look, oh my God, I've lost my train of thought, what was I saying again? I think I covered the fact that my mental train had temporarily left the tracks because of the nearly-naked and her 5-inch heels – but the students didn't notice, anyway; they were too busy being as distracted by her entrance as I had been. Boys were looking while not trying to look, while some girls rolled their eyes or snickered.
But the war is indeed on, people. I talk about female competition for the male gaze in some of my photo posts, but I think it's just getting worse. 
When I mention this to Koreans, they always dismiss my comments by reiterating the "fact" that Americans are the most risqué dressers in the world and that America is much, much worse than Korea because Koreans are conservative Confucians.
But, but, I say – I don't remember being constantly distracted by this even on the "wild" Berkeley campus. We get people of all types, and I know it's "worse" in SoCal, but isn't there something different about someone wearing casual summer clothes – even a Britney top and short sport shorts usually comes with flip-flops – that's just a little different? I mean, even in America – land-of-sex-on-the-first-date-at-wild-parties- and-living-together-in-sin-before-marriage-with-no-morals -unlike-us-pure-and-virtuous-Koreans – more revealing clothes tends to come with warm climes. In Korea, even in the dead of winter, you'll see nearly as many miniskirts being sported as you would on a warm sunny day on an American campus.
But why has this become an "issue," you ask? Well, from a quick read of that article linked above, there are boys on college campuses right now complaining that the practice of wearing extreme skirts is getting downright distracting enough to interfere with the basic task that students are supposed to be – um – tasked with – that being the one of studying. So we are introduced to the case of a male student at Korea University who, according to his interview in the article, wrestled with the fact that he felt really embarrassed to even ask but finally mustered up the courage to go ask a female student wearing an extremely revealing skirt – I think the article was implying that you could basically see all – who was sitting in full view of everyone and had caused a mini-ruckus, if she might be able to adjust herself so that she wasn't revealing so much; she reported him to the women's center on campus and hit him with a sexual harassment charge. Ouch.
Now, I'm sensitive to the fact that men in Korea have an inflated sense of being slighted now that women are gaining more power and visibility in greater society. I also realize that many
complaints about the "fear" of being hit with the "oppressive" power of sexual harassment charges are pretty baseless. I'm not advocating making a fashion police, measuring skirtlines on the streets, like in the Korean 1970's, or any of that stuff. I understand enough of feminist theories and its different waves to know that women should not have men police the limits of their sexual identity. But I also gotta ask the common-sensical question of, "Damn, girl! You gonna walk into class like that?!"
After seeing how the limits are being pushed lately, I really think the best analogy to make would be that of having a new trend in America of having women wear bikini tops to class. That's the best way I can think to describe the relative impact of this extreme wear in Korea. No matter what Americans think of minis – and I still tend to think Americans are, overall, pretty conservative about hemlines – Koreans were until recently shocked by showing the bellybutton and still think tattoos are for gangstas only. Wearing what's called a "똥코치마" ("ass-crack skirt") around a Korean campus has about the same impact as I'd expect from an American co-ed walking in with shorts and a bikini.
Now, what would we do in the face of such a trend? Whatever official or social sanctions there might be, I just think that certain clothes belong in the classroom, while certain ones belong in the dance club.
Am I so wrong? Am I the only person who thinks so? I mean, I don't want to see clothes in class that I swear I have only seen on girls who work the Deja Vu strip club in Vegas. To put a point on it, I don't know whether to give that student her quiz back or a dollar bill to stick in her skirt top. I'm caught, man! I'm stuck! Seriously, though – this stuff is a bit distracting.
The article goes on to mention the fact that this is actually kind of unusual in America. One female student interviewed from Seogang University pointed out that wearing such skirts to school is something American students don't generally do; in Korea, young girls wear everything from formal business suits to go on "meetings" and other blind dates, to faux Britney Spears schoolgirl outfits with thigh-high stockings with tassels on them atop seriously sassy stilettos.
I'm not going to try and play the morality card and say that I don't enjoy the sights, or that my imagination sometimes doesn't run away with itself. But I am going to say that I don't think it normal to see, staring me in the face, what is considered fetish or naughty wear in most other nations. The thing that's hard to convey through mere text is the fact that the fabuloso freshman I mentioned above really seemed to like the fact that she disturbs everything around her. When she walks in the class, she has the most impish smile on her face and loves to CLICK-CLACK as she sashays into her chair. I know – the "girl power" boosters out there are going to say "let her get her thang on," that she's dressed to kill, she's working it, you go girl, whatever. Fine – it's her choice.
But all I'm saying is – can we get a little self-respect? Stop obviously trying so hard? Leave something – anything – to the imagination?
