There was one comment which I want to share, because it’s explaining lots about drinking culture in SK:

selcri2013_841

OMG… I read all these comments doubting the victims, ok, here is my take:
Last year there was a bunch of A list actors outed as rapists. A lot of cases went like this:
-In SK is part of working life to attend drinking outings. It is unofficially mandatory (They wont fire you for missing out, but they will bully you and make career promotion impossible).
-Sometimes actors call staff or fellow rookie actors to go for a second round with them, specially the females. Of course they cant refuse. The only way to “protect themselves” but also protect their jobs is not going alone, often two girls go on “serving drinks duty”. Most of the times this is enough to safely get away from this.
-When the male actor or the superior is getting out of hand and starts harassing the girls, the girls will call a fellow coworker to “go save them” what it happens is that a person in middle ranks goes to the site and takes home the girls, giving a stern “warning” to the male, if it goes well…
This case sounds awfully familiar, and sounds like the girls went by the book but it still turned out badly.
It’s a shame, but this really happens all the time, people in power doing this all the time, it is really worrying, you should NOT drink like that and not force people to drink with you just to keep a job…

16
23

    I love SK but I really dislike this drinking culture especially since it is a patriarchal country filled with misogynists…

    6
    1

      It’s my least favorite thing to see in dramas, because it is very rarely seriously criticized. It nearly always makes me uncomfortable.

      10
      2

        I get really uncomfortable whenever I see these things happening in dramas. It never happened to me but I can imagine the reaction of people, especially women, who had to go through these things seeing them in dramas and feeling uncomfortable.

        3
        0

        Alcoholism is never mentioned in dramas. All that drinking all the time? Sounds like an alcoholic to me! The closest I remember a character being depicted as an alcoholic was Shin Mina’s character from Tomorrow With You and it was glossed over almost completely.

        SK has a very high alcoholism rate and yet they continue with this absurd drinking culture. Talk about peer pressure. If someone forced me to drink I would be furious. And what if you really were trying to stay on the wagon because you are a recovering alcoholic. How do you bow out from drinking under that situation?

        3
        0

    It doesn’t help that dramas are glorifying drinking..charactera get drunk to forget problems, drunk at parties, drunk just because. Can anyone name a drama that does not have a single non-drunk character? Honestly…I can’t.

    7
    2

      the only time I can remember a drama being realistic about problematic alcohol consuming is in Just between lovers. Moon soo mother is abusing alcohol because of past trauma. Drama show how much this have affected Moon soo as she say to her mother how scared she is for her when her mother is drinking heavily. this have really affected her. Her mother start to take it in and enter a rehab senter. I was so glad for this storyline because this almost never get told this way.

      11
      0

      My favourite drama: Mother, with no absurd drunk people…

      4
      1

    What was this originally in reference too? I’m having Put Your Head On My Shoulder flashbacks for some reason.

    0
    1

    Thank you for writing this. So many people need to read this because i see victim bashing or idk why would girls go there sort of comments. I might share this on another site. Basically such remarks just diver the attention from the oppressor and gives them a leeway. Otoh drinking culture in dramas and all is shown as cute mostly but I’m sure that’s not the case in real life and Koreans must be well aware of that.

    10
    2

      Because some of them probably think if the victims are “at fault” by “provoking tha attack”, they can lull themselves into feeling safe, because they would never get themselve into such situation so rape will never happen to them, le sigh.

      1
      0

      I’m thankful to selcri2013_841 that he or she wrote this comment on soompi. With the case of Vietnamese woman beaten by her hubby, who won’t get punishment because he was influenced by alcohol I still don’t understand why they won’t change the law. The lobby of alcohol beverages, especially soju, is huge in dramas, restaurants and public transport. It’s like smoking – cigarettes producers are sponsoring major sports events. Not a lot of sportsman can allow to smoke…

      0
      0

    To add to this, if both Misaeng and real life have taught me anything it’s that trying to get oneself out of drinking in work related cases can be very hard. I had a meeting recently when I refused a drink and I had to make up all kinds of excuses for why I couldn’t drink. I think it’s when you’re put in these situations–especially as it relates to culture–that you understand more.

    4
    3

      Having said that though, people who take advantage of this to sexually harass/assault etc. others are obviously reprehensible.

      1
      0

      In my country of origin when you are a driver you have to refuse drinking because there’s 0 alcohol tolerance. In France, where I’m living, people drink & drive & you have to find excuses to not to drink. My partner doesn’t like to socialize when he’s having his 1 month with no alcohol and no occasional smoking, because it’s no fun. I like my glass of a nice wine and a good whiskey and hruskovica but l don’t like to be drunk. Especially the day after l would be useless, feeling terrible and stink.

      0
      0

      That’s crazy to me. At work functions it’s more common NOT to drink than do. And choosing not to drink is just that, a choice. I usually say “no thank you, I’m not a big drinker” and the world moves on…it’s a real shame their is this form of peer pressure.

      1
      0

    Thank you for writing this, the amount of victim blaming that immediately started to pop up is astounding, but sadly not suprising.

    4
    0