Teenage Sexuality in Local Pop Culture Pervasive

So brief that if you blinked you'd miss most of it, at first viewing there is nothing untoward about Yakult's most recent commercial for the milk drink ``O'yu,'' currently playing on Korean television.

James Turnbull

By James Turnbull
Contributing Writer

So brief that if you blinked you'd miss most of it, at first viewing there is nothing untoward about Yakult's most recent commercial for the milk drink ``O'yu,'' currently playing on Korean television.

Indeed, with four middle school girls singing and dancing to its jingle based on the name of the product and repeating English vowels, many viewers would simply find it cute and endearing.

Take a second look however, and several eye-raising elements emerge.

First, it begins with three of the girls lying on the ground, their short gym skirts hitched up and their legs repeatedly spreading open and closing.

Ostensibly they are pretending to swim.

A little later, their normal school skirts are revealed to be unusually short, highlighted by the exaggerated jiggling of their hips as they dance; and in the final scene, one girl prepares to be splashed by an unusually large O'yu bottle being tipped toward her waiting mouth, a trick of perspective produced by having the bottle close to the camera but her in the background.

The last scene in particular leaves little to the imagination. Let's not mince words here. This is sex in the form of a beverage.

Is it cause for concern? Naturally, sexual symbolism is pervasive in advertising, and with the phallic shapes of their bottles and cans, drinks are particularly suited to this.

Moreover, while the girls are undoubtedly on the young side for such a commercial, sexuality does not turn on like a light upon reaching the age of consent either, and so ― albeit with many qualifications ― there is nothing wrong with teenagers expressing that through such things as revealing clothing and sexy dance moves, nor making money from doing so.

What makes this ad problematic, however, is that if past experience of public reaction to similar teenage commercials and dance performances is anything to go by, most Koreans will maintain that what the girls are doing is completely pure and innocent, despite their blatant sexualization.

Indeed, to point that out at all is to invite criticism and even charges of a ``perverted mind'' from one's Korean peers.

Curious Blind Spot?

Broadly speaking, one big difference between Western and Korean popular culture is that the latter provides many childish, ``cutesy'' role models for women that the former generally doesn't.

Just turn on the television here in the evening for instance, and it's not hard to find images of grown women dressing and acting like schoolgirls.

In moderation, there seems nothing wrong with this in itself, although more mature role models would be welcome.

And while such images are the exception rather than the rule on Western television screens, they do exist, most notoriously portrayed by singer Britney Spears.

Westerners generally acknowledge the risque ``Lolita'' aspects to her performances though, as, indeed, has Spears herself.

That Koreans can't seem to do the same of, say, the comedians in tight schoolgirl outfits on the now defunct Yeo-girl Six show is because on the whole, they are uncomfortable with explicit sexual references and behavior, especially from unmarried women.

And if adult female sexuality is a taboo subject in the media, then you can imagine the reluctance to face teen sexuality.

Yet according to a study conducted in 2007 by A. Sohn and S.S. Chun of the Graduate School of Health Sciences and Social Welfare at Sahmyook University, 27 percent of men and 7.8 percent of women in their survey reported having had their first sexual experience before the age of 18, and 67.3 percent and 30 percent reported theirs before the age of 30.

Regardless of typical over- and under-reporting respectively then, unmarried Koreans are certainly much more sexually active than they are portrayed in the media.

But despite the obvious need, teens can find it near impossible to get access to contraception, either from pharmacists because many refuse it to anyone under marriageable age, or online because of age restrictions on sex-oriented sites.

Meanwhile, sex education at school can consist of little more then an outdated and anatomically-focused video played by a non-specialist teacher.

Consequently, pornography and hearsay are the primary means through which Korean children learn about sex.

Thus, how much of a surprise are regular reports of rapes committed by school students? The lack of understanding is underlined by the number of perpetrators who claim that, like in pornography, the victim actually ``wanted it.''

That may seem a world apart from the O'yu ad, but denying teen's sexuality does place a premium on women's virginal reputations especially.

Consequently, the 2007 study also found that in order to avoid appearing too experienced, most Korean women will acquiesce with their sexual partners not using condoms, and are generally ill-informed about the reproductive health problems that can arise from multiple abortions.

For the sake of the health of Korean women especially, it is high time Koreans stopped sticking their heads in the sand over this issue.

James Turnbull is a writer on Korean gender issues and pop culture. He can be reached via his blog at http://thegrandnarrative.wordpress.com.