Some people just can't take a critique

며칠전에 Semilla님의 포스팅을 읽다가 기억나서 주섬주섬 써 내려간 글이 바로 아래다.

자질이라는 것

오늘 장본인이 핑백을 걸어놓고 쓴 글을 읽은 참이다.
나를 racist라 부르며 한국 네티즌은 익명으로 숨어서 남들 욕을 한다는 둥, 어떻게 한글을 이해했는지는 모르겠으나 내 글이 상당히 불쾌했던 모양이다. 그런데 글을 읽어내려가면서 나로서는 참 이 사람 오바한다는 생각밖에 안 들더라. 내 한글 포스팅도 복사를 해서 떡하니 붙여놓고 나중에 안 했다고 발뺌 못할 증거물이란다. 아니 내가 뭘 그렇게 외국인이 어쩌고 피토하면서 글 쓴게 있다고.

평소같았음 그냥 대충 코멘트를 남기고 넘어갔겠지만 날 본인 앞에서는 말도 못할, 후에 따로 연락도 못할 겁장이라면서 (아니 나뿐이 아니라 나를 비롯한 한국 네티즌이라고 잡아 말했으니) 하나씩 바로잡아 써 주었지만. 가끔 보는 한국에서의 블로그 배틀을 영문버전으로 보는 느낌이라 참 어색하기도 하고, 뭐 그렇다.

아래가 그가 쓴 전문이다. 내 포스팅은 위에 링크해 두었으니 빼도록 하겠다.
본문 링크는 여기 클릭

i’m really quite tired of hearing about korean netizens. during the 2006 world cup,koreans were banned from fifa’s website as a result of the netizen complaints.not only did the national soccer team play very poorly, but koreans complained because they believe they have a right to win. this blind patriotism is reallyquite astounding sometimes.

so, imagine my surprise when i found a korean netizen has blogged about me and my site.this netizen’s name is mannoya. of course, that’s not her real name. she hides her real name and identity because she’s a coward.

her blog has an article (full article in korean is below, so she can’t delete and deny it)which states that my nude photographs are pornographic. she states that it’so ffensive and unethical. there are numerous assumptions on her blog that she doesn’t support with evidence.

i’ll deal with her comments one by one, for the point of simplicity.

first.mannoya is a coward. my identity is open and true. i’m not hiding behind someweb site. i’m an honest person and i have nothing to fear. korean netizens hide their identity and then make accusations about everyone else. mannoya would never have the courage to contact me. she would never have the courage to speak to me face to face the same way she speaks in her blog. she is very much a coward.

mannoyastates that my nudes are not art, they’re porn. she provides two links to prove her point. one link is to a blurry photo which looks like it was taken by a 10year old child. in my opinion it’s a terrible photo. art is very much subjective. my nude photographs have no sexual intercourse. all of my photos are a tasteful and not too revealing. i don’t have much experience in nude photography. but it’s not reasonable to say my photos are porn simply because they’re not blurry.

mannoya states that i don’t have the right to publish the girls’ photos on the internet. however, in fact, i do have the right. those were professiona models. each girl was paid 300,000 won (about $300 US) per hour for theshoot. the models also signed release forms. both models were over 20 years ofage. therefore those photos belong to me. the girls were paid very, very wellfor the photos.

mannoya continues by saying that i’ve made rude comments and insulting comments aboutwomen (probably korean women) on other websites. however, mannoya providesno evidence to support this accusation. i’ve never offended or insulted women. why would i do such a thing?? there is no evidence and she cannot support this statement. it’s a lie.

mannoya admits that she’s offended because the models are korean and i’m a foreigner.this is an admission that mannoya is racist. if the models were white, shewouldn’t care. if i was korean, she wouldn’t care. mannoya is a racist,pure-blood korean because she doesn’t want foreigners ruining the “perfect reputation” of korean women.

mannoya stated that sexual issues are each person’s private business. yet, she’s on the internet complaining about my photos … which are my private business. thisis an extremely hypocritical point of view. also, mannoya never contacted me or attempted to communicate with me in any way (via email, which would have been more appropriate) … instead, she jumps on her secret identity and proudly admits that she’s a racist coward.

well, i would like to retort with a few points of my own:

my website has nearly 400 photographs. of those, 20 phoographs were part of my nude gallery. the other 380 photographs were all taken in korea. 380 photographs that showed the wonder and beauty of korean life. 380 photographs that highlighted how much foreigners love to live in korea and immerse ourselves in korean culture. but, obviously, those 380 photographs are not important.

my website has 30 articles regarding photographic tips and tutorials. the articles are designed to help photographers improve their skills (mannoya uses a photologo on her site, suggesting she has an interest in photography). but,obviously, those 30 articles are not important.

my site hasa guide for buying cameras, in depth reviews of photo equipment and discussionabout my life in korea. but, obviously, all that information is not importanteither.

the onlyimportant part of my site is 20 nude photos. wow. that’s just amazing …ignorant, but amazing.

i’d also like to point out that mannoya’s anger towards me is very much misguided. yousee, i live in one of the most sexually perverse countries in the world. the korean government has evidence that over a million people work in korea’s sexindustry. korea’s sex industry is larger than thailand. every neighborhood has 안마 rooms (sex and massage), room salons (sex and karaoke) and love hotels(sex hotels, paid by the hour). during my 6 years in korea i’ve had countles sexperiences where korean men (married korean men) tell me that they get drunk and have sex with prostitutes. this is not random at all, this is a common occurence. it’s a part of korean male life. very few husbands can claim to befaithful to their wives, because office ‘bonding’ involves drinking and sex.

in fact, 4days ago two old korean men (in their 50s) were on the subway looking at pornDVDs that they’d bought. they were looking at the DVD cases on the crowdedsubway. women and children were nearby, and the DVD covers were very graphic.these men didn’t seem to care at all.

none ofthose problems are important. what’s more important is a foreigner who has 20nude photos of korean women on his website. 20 photos of perfect, pure-blood,korean women.

the opinionsof people like mannoya are simple biggotry … and what makes it worse is thatshe lies about me degrading women on other websites … and doesn’t even have thecourage to reveal her identity.

*as an afterthought, i believe mannoya may have lived abroad (in LA) and it’s possible thatshe knows me or has met me. this makes her opinions even more ignorant andracist. you’d think that someone who lived abroad would have a betterunderstanding of reality … and you’d think that she’d have the courage tocontact me directly.

… obviouslynot.

mannoya …your country has many, many problems. why don’t you try fixing your owncountry’s corruption, economic failure and sexual perversions. once yourcountry is perfect, then criticise me and my photographs.

thefollowing is her blog entry. recorded here for prosperity so that she cannotdelete her post and deny what she wrote. i would expect a person who is acoward to delete their own blog so that they can pretend nothing happened.

뭐..나는 간단하게 쓰려고 했는데 너무 넌센스가 많아서 쓰다보니 길어졌다.
아래는 나의 답글.

OK. First of all, it is very interesting that you assume that I am angry at you. Yes, I’m offended by your nudes, and yes, I don’t think they’re artistic. As you said yourself, art is subjective.There is no absolute role for everyone to feel the same positive way on the same objective. I see no reason that yours should be an exception. As this can happen to anybody in anywhere, I didn’t feel that I should contact you to approve my dislike. Plus I find those two photos I linked are quite artistic,especially the one of a pregnant woman. Let’s not focus on the one you call‘blurry’ and ‘poorly done’ because you know about photograph, it is arrogant,too.

This is neither the anger towards you ruining Korean women’s reputation nor racism. You didn’t do anything illegal and I didn’t say you did. I even mentioned that it is possible that you consider them seriously and they’re just not for my taste. For your information, it is because your photos remind me of those low leveled ones reflecting oriental fantasy on ‘Asian chicks’. As an Asian woman, I don’t find it very respectful but a naive view of westerners, you may not happy about it but that’s between you and me, it’s not subjective to associate with Korean massage parlour or word-cup incident.

I didn’t say you have no right to post your  own work on your own blog. Here are my points of the article. I don’t find your work artistic and I explained why. And it is not common at all for Korean girls to agree their nudes being published online (the word publish usually means on the paper in Korean, which made me wonder if they knew it could also be online accessible by almost anyone who uses web). It is good that you made contract with them, mentioning how much they got paid is still bit off the subject because you have all the rights of those photos as long as you hold contract with models, regardless of payment. That was my question on the matter, not an assumption.

The last paragraph of my article is a question about if Koreans you work and socialise with knew it and accepted it,would it be because my country has become so open for such matters or because you’re a foreigner. Do you see the point? I am actually pointing out Koreans being so generous on foreigners (westerners, to be precise) for the matters that can problematic. I know my country is not ready to accept a person, who has proven to willingly photograph nudes and teach under-aged in “any possible way”. I wrote so because I found Koreans being racists against their own people, not being fair. So where is the racism for you?

For the last, your comment on Korea’s corruption, economic failure, and sexual perversions are very irrelevant and almost childish. Are you saying that I don’t have a right to dislike your photographs and dare to talk about your fine work and your blog because my government and its policies work poorly and my people suffer? I didn’t know that. Common now, if I was from one of few countries with great government and economic/social environment in your standards, I could comment on your photos?That sounds very close to racism you’ve been accusing me of, no?

My postings are published in Igloos.com and can also be found through web searching. How would you explain that almost non-comment on my article, if it is so provoking? You seem to know the negative side of Korean netizens, so you sure know it can cause many of them actually visit your blog and leave bad comments, not to mention email attack and whatnot. It didn’t happen because what I wrote is clearly my own opinion and people just read it and let it go. I don’t understand why you had to come up with all of those to defend yourself and prove me wrong. Being a good photographer is also to connect with viewers, not only to people who know a bit or more about it. I gave you a critique and it is up to you how to handle it. But such generalisation and insult on the whole nation for my very personal article doesn’t seem ‘cool’, does it?

 

**I live in Malaysia; you would know it and my point of view on racism if you tried my articles (since you somehow can understand Korean). Guess i wasn't the only person who omitted other entries of a blog?

붙여넣기를 했더니 스페이스들이 군데군데 사라졌다. 고치느라 고쳤는데 혹시 빠진게 있더라도 읽는데 큰 지장은 없을 듯.
참 황당한건 내가 본인한테 먼저 컨택하지 않고 지극히 간단한 포스팅을 올린것에 대해 화를 내고 있으며 내가 하지 않은 말을 가지고 문제를 삼는것은 물론, 중간중간에 참 연관성 없는 (내가 매너없는 겁장이 네티즌이라는 것+내가 섹슈얼 어쩌고를 운운한 자격이 없다는 걸 증명하기 위함인듯) 다른 이야기들을 넣고 난리도 아니다.

내가 언제 본인의 나라에 대해 왈가왈부 한적 있나? 아니면 본인이 백인이라고 뭐라 했나.
내가 보기엔 정말 그다지 예술적이여 보이지 않는 사진을 것도 한국여자들만 올려놨으니 기분이 나쁘다. 이게 만약에 괜찮게 여겨졌다면 왜 한국사람들은 문제가 될 걸 (본인 블로그에 떡하니 그런 사진 올려놓고 누군가를 가르치는 일거리를 얻는다는건 아마 힘들거다. 아이들이면 더 그렇고 어른들이라도 '선생'이라는건 우리한테 뭔가 더 기대하게 하는 직업이니까) 이 사람은 괜찮은건가 하는 게 내 마지막 요점이었다. 이걸 가지고 외국인이라는 말을 썼다고 인종차별이라네..

남친이 글 읽고 엄청 웃으면서 'hey, like this guy'란다. 재미난 사람이라고.
정작 한국 사람들은 내 글 읽고 반응도 없는데 왜 저렇게 오바를 한건지 이해가 안된다.
자기 사진 가지고 비판했다고 속상해서 저러는거로밖에 난 안 보이는데-_-..

알지도 못하면서 자기에 대해 함부로 썼다고 씩씩대면서 정작 본인은 내가 미국 엘에이에 살지 않는가 추측까지 한다.
자기를 알거나 만났을 가능성도 있다고.
뭐 다른것도 내가 그리했다며 나쁘게 몰아세우면서 자기도 글 써놓은 걸 보면 별 다를바가 없는데.
아니 그러면 신빙성이 없잖아.

내 글이 무슨 이오공감에 올라간것도 아니고 엄청난 파장을 일으켜 본인에게 정신적인 피해를 준것도 아닌데 (아 속상함 빼고)
고귀하신 자존심에 금이 가셨는지, 거참 센서티브하시네.

오타 있는건 아는데 그냥 올렸다. 무슨 저 글에 반박하는데 퇴고를 몇번을 할것도 아니고. 알아들으면 됐지.