By Sounds like the Hollywood Bar in Itaewon isn’t so bad if you can get in that is:
And if you are coming to Korea next week and are wondering where to meet Korean women amenable to westerners “charms”…well that takes us full circle. Yes, Itaewon is the place to go. And for the English teachers that live in Seoul, Itaewon means only one place…Hollywoods.
Unlike the majority of other bars in the area, Hollywoods features a female clientele that aren’t working, in the strictest sense anyway. And this is the main reason that Hollywoods attracts as many women as it does men. Yes, every weekend hordes of goggle eyed expats stand around Hollywoods’ dance floor ogling the nymph-like Korean waifs that dance on seductively. The number of ageing western men that have beautiful young Koreans draped all over them is staggering, and a real indicator of why so many English teachers stay in Korea for years at a time. If you can’t get a girl in your local town, don’t worry! Come to Korea and find a beautiful Korean girl who will be with you simply because you are western, loaded, or both. While this might seem like an overly cynical attitude, one trip to Hollywoods on a Saturday night will turn you into a believer. There is a stigma about Asian girls in the west that has them penned as pliant, cooing submissives, frigid until marriage and even that is dependent on father’s blessing. Well, Hollywoods and Itaewon in general puts that myth to bed.
Anybody willing to confirm this?
(Hat Tip: Japundit)
10:31 am on February 18th, 2007 1
I dislike notes like this. It too is a black pearl – taking a grain of truth and making a mess of it.
It was either here or at Lost Nomads or maybe Marmot's where some expat in Korea wrote about the GIs behaving badly and mentioned bumping and grinding on the dance floor as if simulating anal sex and about GIs hooting and hollering in the street, and said what a travesty it was and that they wouldn't think of doing that in the US and it is a disgrace in Korean society to have to put up with it….yada yada yada….
You hear this kind of convincing line a good bit.
But, this was before the item broke about the strip contests in a mainly Korean only club where men and women out on the town tried to win a dancing sexy contest….
You read a report like this one on Hollywood bar, and it sounds good to the ear and ego and echos our education, but if you step back a second, what can you think of?
Well, another stereotypical image of the Asian female is the "sucky sucky long time" version. I guess what matters is which one I want to parade out at the moment…
And then think back to clubs you have been to in the US — at any good sized college town…..you might not find a good bit of middle aged people there, but meat markets are not hard to find, and if you are middle aged and have money, like drive a sporty car, there are places for you to go as well.
And there are places for Korean men of such an age to go — plenty of them…..
My point?
So…….there is a place for guys who don't look like Tom Cruise to go to get laid in Korea.
Having some kind of moral (better say ethical….because morality is a taboo these days — at least unless you are talking about a limited number of subculture groups that need attacking enough to forget about the "morality" taboo) outrage at what is described at Hollywood in the above post is fine with me….really….
If it didn't come attached all too often with the NIMBY effect ……
a….."Oh my (God) Goodness!! How could they do such a thing!! We'd never do that!! Not in our society!! Not in our group!!!"
What I mean is that this is just life. It is society.
If you have an Italian accent in the US, or can fake one, and you look foreign, you have a good shot in a college bar or pick up place…..
…………..This kind of stuff seems ingrained in human social culture.
I do recognize it varies in degree.
And it would be interesting to talk about those variation…
…but after having listened to too many conversations generated by something like this Hollywood bar review…..it just annoys somewhat…..
10:32 am on February 18th, 2007 2
This article is dated. That's how it use to be maybe 3-4 years ago. On any given night, it is either been one big sausage fest or slim pickins. Either way, the place isn't the meat market that it used to be. (FYI, the action has moved to Hongdae.)
10:42 am on February 18th, 2007 3
I was thinking more about the typical reaction to it than the article itself —–
—– well, it isn't really an article — and its language is exactly the kind of thing you get in the typical reactions…
so what I mean is that it just brought to mind this same old conversation you can hear all the time…….
10:43 am on February 18th, 2007 4
It may quite possibly be a stereotypical article but I have never been to this bar and hardly ever go to Itaewon anyway and apparently according to H. Kim this bar is not as popular as the article points out.
10:51 am on February 18th, 2007 5
The bald, chubby owner is anti-USFK. A couple of years ago, I went in and he immediately said that the place was off-limits and that I should leave before MPs or CPs find me there. I told him that I was quite familiar with the off-limits list and that Hollywoods was not on it. He seemed upset that a USFK member was going to drink at his bar.
My friend's wife was in a pool league with a bunch of other Korean women…he never had a problem going in there.
You see sugar-daddies like the owner all the time hanging out with Korean hoes in Seoul…they want them all to themselves, and they are worried that GI's will infringe on their easy women monopoly.
10:53 am on February 18th, 2007 6
Usinkorea, you're missing the boat. Quit worrying about double standards, and focus more on what you and your crew are doing wrong. Korean people can do whatever they want in Korea. What's important is that the foreigners, GIs and hagwon f**ks alike, don't ruin the country for the indigineous crowd. Itaewan and the other GI bar zones are pretty empty whenever the GIs get restricted.
By the way, I'm the cat who posted a comment a few weeks ago about black GIs grinding ass. It's dirty and I don't want to see it.
And furthermore, the Korean "girls gone wild" stuff isn't new. It happens all over the country, and it's been going on for a long time. Again, this is Korea. They can do what they want. The problems arises when foreigners are the influencing drive in the scene, like the ESL orgies that were on the internet a few months back.
10:53 am on February 18th, 2007 7
I'd like to second Shingles' observation: most of the Korean girls that foreigners get aren't desirable by Korean standards. Westerners are attracted to girls who, by western stabdards, are exotic, non-western looking. Westerners desire girls with "Asian" eyes, while Koreans look more for girl with big, round, "anime" eyes. Westerners pursue girls with colored skin, while Koreans are after pale, white-skinned girls. Indeed, the short, colored, slant-eyed girls that the guys in Itaewan are chasing do have more of a monkey appearance than the upper-tiered girls down in Kangnam, Apgujeong, or Jeonggak. All of this is what leads to Nigerians finding themselves banned throughout most of Itaewan, as club owners hope to keep the monkeys out of the arms of the apes.