I also used to think that it’s absurd. But then I read about the inhuman life teenagers lead with all their waking time devoted to school, after-school activities (hagwon), studying like mad until late at night with only some of them relaxing a little with videogames. And then the same in university (although many take it easier during those years and that’s when “some” dating will occur). And then the insane, cut-throat hunt for a job, which, when finally landed, will have equally insane hours, very often extended to 10 or 12 per day, and after working hours sometimes work dinners where you’re bullied into drinking until you’re in a stupor…
Even married people don’t have sex often, some of them only once a week or (after your 40s) once a month - and they see it as normal!
Thus the occasions for flirting and dating are very few.
Add to that the exhorbitant demands of dating, the boy expected to always pay for everything in a multi-course date (dinner, a movie, drinks, ice cream, amusement park or whatever). Many cannot afford it.
I’ve read a lot of articles and interviews, watched quite a number of video interviews as well, and it seems the situation is dire. Young people are very frustrated because of course they do have a sex drive like every other human being. Some will either stay virgins until late or, if men, will only have had experiences with prostitutes. And they will not know about women, they won’t understand women - the patriarchal, sexist, Confucian views Korea still has don’t help at all. Many women have forsaken dating and marriage out of frustration because of this and have become “political lesbians”.
In a 2021 study that surveyed residents of Seoul, only 58% of men in their 20s said they had had sex in the past year, a lower rate than for men in their 60s. The numbers were similar among women in their 20s, but for a different reason. While most celibate men said they didn’t have sex because they couldn’t find a partner, most celibate women said it was because they had no interest in sex.
Loneliness and hopelessness in young people is widespread.
Therefore, although of course not everyone is a late virgin (as dramas would want us to believe), it’s still a much larger percentage of young people than in the Western world.
That has nothing to do with being woke, gay people exist.
I don’t like the pressure of woke ideology in US and some parts of Europe, but you can’t erase people, and using gays as a topic is just as okay with using any other topic.
I mean, you don’t mind zombies, do you?
And don’t refer to yourself as “the world”.
The world include gay people as well, weather you like them or not.
East-Asian gay shows, the so-called BL (= boys’ love), are not liked by most gays, who feel they are not accurately represented in them.
A knowledgeable user here stated that
Somewhere between 95 to 99% of the Gay community has never heard of BL.
As much as it sounds weird, their main audience is young girls and, in lesser percentage, mature women.
You don’t run the world. If you don’t like them, don’t watch them. Also, you aren’t the world either. BL is globally popular. Your little patch of ground isn’t the world.
One of my pet K-drama peeves has always been how (in the historicals, the rom-coms, the family dramas, and the law dramas I watch) the FL and ML always seem to have perfect hair, the FL always has perfect eye makeup, and the ML always has lip balm on his lips. If either the FL or the ML has chapped lips, it’s a sign he/she has fallen on hard times. And yet (somehow) those lips are still gorgeous.
The shameless product placements with dedicated scenes, supposedly part of the narrative, but actually full scale adverts.
‘Hey, my friend, please take a seat. You know being scammed, kidnapped and blackmailed [and that’s in just this week’s episode] has you all tired out. Take a seat and try this great ginseng [insert product name] drink’.
When they commission sixteen episodes, for what would have been best at twelve parts.
The compulsory funeral scene. It’s not a K-drama if it doesn’t open at a funeral home, or the principal character stood before a recess in a columbarium!
Kissing, or rather the lack of it. Is Korean society really that coy? Sixteen hour love stories and the lovers get to kiss just once, and definitely no tongues! (honourable exception: Doctor Cha when we knew Song Ji-ho was sleeping with his senior from the start!)
Subtitles/swearing: it’s getting way too casual and coarse now. I’d want to say to the subtitlers out there, your grandmother could up watching this and she’s told everyone at her mahjong night about her granddaughter/son who subtitles for television. Go easy!
@steviepics_788 I honestly don’t mind the product placement. I’m guessing it allows them to do a lot of filming outside and also some really impressive sets, all costing a fortune normally.
A show like Backstreet Rookie. That set is incredible, and all built for one season of a show. I assume product placement allows that freedom?
I was thinking about this the other day actually…the ONE thing I don’t like about Kdramas is the ‘predictability.’ If it’s raining you KNOW he’ll pop out of nowhere with that umbrella; if there’s a pebble nearby you KNOW she’ll trip and he’ll catch her falling backwards (cue the music, cue the deep longing look into each other’s eyes, etc.); if someone has to work late and yawns you know to expect that caffeine candy to come into the shot. I wish they’d come up with something new that still reflected the meaning. Regardless, I still watch and love them all…I’ll just take a long blink once I see the raindrops.
The thing I don’t like is you need to have 4 to 5 subscriptions if you want to watch the dramas available. Before it was just 2, may be 3 subscriptions max.
Yes, I get that for sure. At first, I thought it was truly charming…dare I say, “heart fluttering” LOL! But after too many it became predictable. But I hear what you’re saying.
