• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.215-240
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• 2009

This paper focuses on how Younghill Kang internalizes whiteness ideology through interracial romance to build himself as an oriental Yankee and recover his masculinity in his autobiographical novel East Goes West. This paper also focuses on Kang's strategy of racial and cultural hybridity presented in this novel. The theoretical basis of my argument is a mixture of Fanon's psychoanalysis in his Black Skin, White Masks, Bhabha's notion of mimicry in The Location of Culture, and notions related to race and gender of some Asian critics such as Patricia Chu, Jinqi Ling, and Lisa Lowe. In East Goes West, white women appear as "ladder of success" of successful assimilation and serve as cultural mediators and instructors and sometimes adversaries who Korean male immigrants have to win to establish identities in which Americanness, ethnicity, and masculinity are integrated. However, three Korean men, Chungpa Han, To Wan Kim, George Jum, who fall in love with white women fail to win their beloveds in marriage. George Jum fails to sustain a white dancer, Jun' interest. Kim wins the affection of Helen Hancock, a New England lady, but Kim commits suicide when he knows Helen killed herself because her family doesn't approve their relationship. Han's love for Trip remains vague, but Kang implies Han will continue his quest for "the spiritual home" as the name of "Trip." In East Goes West, Kang also attempts to challenge the imagining of a pure, monolithic, and naturalized white dominant U.S. Culture by exploring the cultural and racial hybridity shown by June and the various scenes of Halem in the 1920s. June who works for a Harlem cabaret is a white woman but she wears dark makeup. Kang questions the white face of America's self-understanding and racial constitution of a unified white American culture through June's racial masquerade. Kang shows that like Asian and black Americans, the white American also has an ambivalent racial identity through June's black mimicry and there is no natural and unchanging essence behind one's gender and race identity constitution.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.59-81
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• 2021

This study examines representations of children and youths in TV commercials both quantitatively (May 2019-April 2020) and qualitatively (thirteen relevant cases). The study's case analyses explore the representation of the 'sexual objectification' of girls, the 'sexual spectacle' of female adolescents, representations that reinforce stereotypes of femininity/masculinity, and the objectification of girls to elicit sympathy for the purposes of raising donations. This study reveals that TV commercials and existing advertisements adhere to representations of established gender roles. This dichotomous representation of gender is problematic since it functions as the starting point of various sexual crimes and gender inequality. For example, most of the victims of the sexual exploitation incident called 'Room Number, N', which shocked Korean society, were female adolescents. These adolescents were seen as men's sexual objects because of this kind of dichotomous thinking. TV commercials are part of the binary representation of deep-rooted stereotypes regarding femininity and masculinity. This study problematizes this representation in order to surpass its limitations. Moreover, an alternative mode of thinking is suggested through the theory of Deleuze and Guattari.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.187-217
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• 2010

By reading the main character, Rene Gallimard, in M. Butterfly as a spatial metaphor of America, this article examines how homogeneous American national identity of heterosexuality and white masculinity has been reinforced since the cold war and has constituted a crisis of hegemony with the decline of imperialism and how its pathological symptom is shown through the melancholic suicide of Gallimard. This article also argues how the feminine attributes implied in race, gender and sexuality in M. Butterfly are designated and allegorized as an impure, contaminated and ahistorical marker of national integrity in pthe social and material status of the heterosexual American white male. To develop my argument, I read M. Butterfly from a psychoanalytic point of view. Therefore I depend on Freud, Lacan, and Bhabha's psychoanalysis as the theoretical basis. In this paper, I also argue that the homogenized and fixed national identity is splitted and collapsed from within as shown in the Gallimard's melancholy and in the process of splitting the "Third Space" of hybrid subjects for the marginal and the emergent like Song Liling, a homosexual Asian man, can be built "from a space in-between." Therefore Hwang calls into questions conventions of fixed, essentialist identities through the shifting gender identities between Song and Gallimard in M. Butterfly and how identities in the plural are constructed variously in throughly historicized, politicized situations, and these constructions can be complicated by relations of power.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.167-195
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• 2012

This study focuses on the characteristic of socio-psychological gender of a consumer except a biological gender. Socio-psychological gender is the self-image of a consumer which is related to the gender role. The goal of this study is, first, to examine if socio-psychological gender has more effect on the purchase intention than biological gender. Second, by classifying a group with femininity among socio-psychological gender, it is to examine what kinds of shopping value it aims at. Finally, it is to examine the difference between men and women from the purchase intention according to the circumstances. The result of this study is summarized as follows. First, a consumer can have both characteristics of biological gender and socio-psychological gender. There are masculinity, femininity, bisexuality, and undifferentiated type for the classification of socio-psychological gender. This study shows that there is relatively much bisexuality which has masculinity and femininity at the same time. The outcome showed that the purchase intention was higher for the product which corresponds to socio-psychological gender of a consumer than biological gender. Second, it indicated that a group with femininity pursued pleasurable shopping as compared to a group with masculinity. By contrast, it showed that a group with masculinity aimed at practical shopping more greatly. Finally, it showed that while women are less sensitive to the purchase intention at the male-dominated circumstances, men's purchase intention get lower at the female-dominated circumstances.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.131-148
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• 2011

Our work empirically investigates the cultural differences of Social Networking Service (SNS) users in China, Korea and U.S. We construct a survey questionnaire from existing literature and test it for reliability, validity, and model fit. Then we collect data and validate the cultural differences of SNS users in three nations. Our results show different rankings from existing literature in cultural dimensions about three nations. In terms of masculinity, we find China > U.S. > Korea, similar to Hofstede. In individualism, we find U.S. > Korea > China, different from Hofstede (U.S. > China > Korea). In power distance, it is shown that Korea > China > U.S., different from Hofstede (China > Korea > U.S.). Uncertainty avoidance is found that U.S. > Korea > China, lowered ranking of Korea from the top among three nations in Hofstede. We find that these outcomes would be useful in updating national culture of the three nations and for future research about cultural impacts on SNS adoption.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.226-250
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to explore whether the perceptions of materialistic realities of South Korean university students can be explained by individual experience and media use. We examined: 1) relative consequences of awareness of discrimination experience and amounts of time spent on genre-specific media on perceptions of materialistic realities, 2) whether cultural orientation (allocentrism, self-monitoring, and masculinity) influences explanatory factors of awareness of discrimination experience, 3) conditions of countervailing responses to materialistic reality. As a result of analyzing the online survey data of 330 university students in Seoul, the amount of time spent on the beauty or fashion genre and awareness of discrimination experience explained the perceptions of materialist reality in Korean society. Although the perceptions that affected the accommodative response did not affect countervailing response, innovativeness had an interaction effect with perceptions of materialist reality in only countervailing response. Finally, the implications of these findings were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.626-638
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• 2018

Recent perspectives on masculinity have changed and are expressed as a genderless style in fashion. Male models wearing womenswear are frequently presented in menswear collections. This study analyzes the genderless men's styles from the Heterotopia concept viewpoint. Heterotopia, coined by the post-modern philosopher Michel Foucault, is a space that deviates from normality and a space of alternative. The research methodology is combined with a literature study and case study. Contemporary men's genderless styles examined through the Heterotopia concept are categorized as transition, deviation, contradiction, crisis, and coexistence. Genderless phenomenon are also accelerated by the development of the media as well as the younger generation who express personality and social messages through a genderless style.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.755-765
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• 2006

This study is on the esthetic characteristics in the haute couture work of Chanel. It first reviews the lives and the fashion philosophy of Chanel, a senior designer and Lagerfeld as representatives of the maison, from the haute couture collection since 2000. The results of the study are the following. First, reinterpreting the tradition, Chanel reproduced historical dress items or silhouette with modern sense, or she created a new modern Chanel image through her original restructuring and dismantling. Second, Chanel expressed balanced beauty of compounded eclecticism by accord between simplicity and ornamentation, which meant her design showed impartial beauty with simple silhouette, decoration with colors, accessories, and ornaments. Third, Chanel did not divide the value between men and women, and instead expressed androgyny through dismantling each gender's characteristics by borrowing or mixing. As a result, she emphasized the female image or created a new style through expressing symbolic image embracing masculinity.

• 한국경영정보학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.565-570
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• 2007

With e-commerce becoming international, understanding the effects of national culture in consumer acceptance of e-commerce is required. This study examines consumer e-commerce acceptance in Korea and China. The research model consisting of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust and perceived risk was proposed, and the hypotheses based on Hofstede's cultural dimensions of power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation, were established. The results show that perceived usefulness contributes less to consumer acceptance of e-commerce in China than it does in Korea. In addition, perceived ease of use contributes more to consumer acceptance of e-commerce in China. Trust contributes significantly to consumer acceptance of e-commerce in both countries, but perceived risk didn't influence consumer acceptance of e-commerce in either country. The contribution of this study is to provide strategic insights for successfully managing cross-cultural e-commerce.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.537-547
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to develop the measurement of the fashion sensibility. The stimulus were 91 photos selected in fashion magazines and had dominant visual power under detail, color, texture and pattern in the elements of fashion design. The semantic differential scale was constructed bipolar 25 pairs. The obtained data were analyzed by cluster analysis, factor analysis, ANOVA and t-test. The results were as follows; 1. The hierarchical structure was combined a natural and interesting, sensitive and lovely fashion sensibility. 2. The constructing factors of fashion sensibility were found out as aesthetic value, maturity, character and femininity·masculinity.(total variance: 55.7%) 3. Fashion sensibility by elements of fashion design was significantly different regarding all factors. 4. Fashion sensibility by demographic variables sex, age, marriage, education, occupation and expenditure was significantly different regarding partial factors.