case: (Default)
Case ([personal profile] case) wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets2011-10-15 03:40 pm

[ SECRET POST #1747 ]

⌈ Secret Post #1747 ⌋


Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 13 pages, 316 secrets from Secret Submission Post #250.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 1 2 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 - too big ], [ 1 2 3 - repeats ]
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Re: oppa? really?

[identity profile] fivil.livejournal.com 2011-10-15 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
No, it's because in Korean, people call non-relatives "oppa", eg. girlfriends call their boyfriends "oppa". It can mean a blood relative, it can also mean any (slightly) older male a female feels close enough to call "oppa". So it's not that creepy, though it is a little weeaboo for non-Koreans to use the term I guess.

Re: oppa? really?

[identity profile] writerserenyty.livejournal.com 2011-10-16 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
People do call their boyfriends Oppa, but from my knowledge that's a fairly recent development (after googling it) and that the term really originally meant "oppa". It's not so much "eww, incest" as much as the connotations about older siblings in Korean culture from what I've gathered from friends (that older siblings should be protective/make decisions, etc.) and what that means.

From a Korean culture blog (askakorean):
many younger wives call their husband seonbae (“class senior”, the term for anyone who went to the same school before you did,) or [first name]-ssi (“Mr. [first name]”, the catch-all term for all other ambiguous situations, often happening during dating scenarios.) Or – horror of all horrors to purists like the Korean himself – some young wives carry on calling their husbands oppa, women’s term for calling older brother or men who are a little older them."

It's more of the connotation of the man in that situation being a "mr." or the senior. I know I've definitely read some interesting things about Korean culture and the word oppa in particular. There's an interesting article written by a Korean academic that's translated by a group I follow, that includes girl groups and the use of the word oppa to end up being sexist.

http://thegrandnarrative.com/2011/07/06/k-pop-girl-groups-themes-oppa-empowerment/

It's really interesting, and for sure worth a read if you're into gender politics and Korean girl groups.
ext_279035: (Default)

Re: oppa? really?

[identity profile] dentedsky.livejournal.com 2011-10-16 05:25 am (UTC)(link)
I think you may be looking too far into it. In kpop fandom calling our biases oppa or unni is normal. It's because Koreans informally call their friends these titles when the other person is older than them. Oppa = 'big brother' but that's the literal translation. There's no direct English translation though, it's hard to trans and explain, and trust me I didn't get it at first either.

I think for me the closest eng trans would be calling your friend 'mate' or 'bro'.

Re: oppa? really?

[identity profile] fivil.livejournal.com 2011-10-16 10:37 am (UTC)(link)
Okay, I see what you mean better now. Sorry, I thought it was just a linguistic misunderstanding -- one has to know a thing or two about Korean language to get oppa, unni, ajumma and all these other terms.

I took a Gender Studies course in a Korean uni, actually, and while the term of 'oppa' was not discussed, there is a lot of gender imbalance in Korean dating culture and overall in modern Korean culture. To pressures to look good for women are ridiculously high compared to my own country (Finland), which is one of the reasons I probably wouldn't want to live in SKorea, though I enjoyed my time there and gained a lot of local friends.

Anyway, I could go on about this forever .. I'll just say while I don't have a strong reaction against using "oppa" even though I don't use it myself, I can definitely see your point. It's one of those reasons I want to learn more Korean, actually, so that one day I could read articles etc about the feminist movement in Korea, and see how and whether they begin to break these linguistic categories, or the negative connotations related to certain gender-specific terms (like ajumma).