Missy USA shows 'ajumma' can set things straight

By Jane Han

NEW YORK ― It wasn’t the police, media or some high-ranking authority that broke the news of the latest sex scandal that instantly spiraled into an embarrassing saga for the new Park Geun-hye administration. It was a community of ``ajumma,’’ or middle-aged housewives, that first shed light on the incident.

Missy USA, a popular Internet site with nearly 320,000 members, is a super active, close-knit online community intended for married Korean women in the U.S.

Covering everything from celebrity gossip, politics and personal finance to parenting, cooking and fashion, the Web site is the go-to place for most Korean-American women who don’t want to miss out on the information loop.

And this hot spot is the very channel where the first news of former spokesman Yoon Chang-jung’s alleged sexual assault surfaced.

Early morning last Thursday, a brief entry was posted saying that Yoon sexually harassed a Korean embassy intern in Washington D.C. The person who wrote the posting asked readers to spread the word, especially to reporters and Korean news correspondents stationed in the U.S.

The thread quickly got more than a thousand views in no time and just hours later several media started reporting the incident.

Some may be surprised at how a site like Missy USA can have such influence, but this isn’t the first time for the members-only site to be in the lead.

Actress Park Han-byul and singer Se7en’s dating news started spreading on the Web site a few weeks before news reports started coming out.

Missy USA members living in California posted a series of threads saying that they saw the two holding hands and kissing at various places.

The shocking news of the marriage between Singer Seo Tae-ji and actress E Ji-ah was also considered ``old news’’ on Missy USA as the story was already revealed much early on by members living in Atlanta, where the two celebrities lived after marrying.

Besides celebrity news, members have also aggressively promoted the recent Korean presidential election, which gave voting rights to overseas Koreans for the first time, and numerous Dokdo awareness campaigns in the U.S.

``There is a constant flow of information coming in every minute of the day. I mean, think about it. We have several hundred thousand members who are mostly quick and keen ajumma. That’s a pretty impressive pool of citizen reporters,’’ says Lim Chae-yoon, a 42-year-old Missy USA member who lives in New York City.

Another member, Alice Chang, 27, who is new to the community, says, ``After joining, I was surprised at what I’ve been missing out on all along. It’s hard to believe that these women are housewives who live in the U.S. They are so in-the-know on all the happenings that occur even in Korea.’’

Even everyday updates on Korea’s fashion scene aren’t surprising on Missy USA with the help of dedicated members who are either traveling or have left to Korea for good. They post dozens of photos of Korean department stores and Dongdaemun Market shops, along with detailed analyses of the latest trends in Seoul.

``Korean moms are known to prize `intelligence power’ and it seems that this site is really symbolic of that belief,’’ wrote one anonymous Missy USA member on a thread discussing the site’s ``latest accomplishment’’ regarding Yoon.

``One ajumma may be powerless to do anything, but our collective influence can do so much,’’ she added.