Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the purest of them all?

Im not sure I want to visit Korea anymore, atleast not any time soon. When I was deep into the Hallyu entertainment craze (movies and Bi), I was determined to go to Korea. I even ignored the niggling voice in my head that was mocking me...it kept saying, "you hypocrite! you know you always dreamed of visiting Japan since you were in short pants, and now you want to visit Korea before Japan? Faker!"

After befriending and travelling with Korean girls in Europe, their stories about their traditions and cultural beliefs slowly planted doubts in my head about being able to appreciate their way of life. I respect our differences and marvel in our distinction, but some of the stories they shared were still unnerving for me.

Examples:

1. Men-Women relationships: Arranged marriage, dating services, and asset evaluation are normal and even expected. Maybe this is more applicable to wealthy or atleast, economically well-off Koreans, but these practices are still relevant today. My Korean friend said that because the people are so busy and so competitive to get ahead of the career rat race, romance has to fit in perfectly to their hectic schedule as well. Parents can do the match making, but its also popular to enroll yourself in a dating service where your "qualifications and requirements" are matched with potential partners and the company sets up the monthly dates for you in advance. This way, you can schedule dating, courtship, relationship, and possibly, marriage.

2. What men want: Pure women. Heck, the word itself is inducing stomach spasms inside me. Even in this modern age, men still want to be the first...first love, first kiss, first make-out partner, first shag. They've learned to adjust--we needed years to teach them but they managed--and yet, archaic beliefs remain. In Asia, this is even more a problem. In Korea, its kindda twisted how this concept of purity works.
The woman has to look pure: fair skinned, elegantly dressed and well covered (watch the K-movies and the women have a signature style), soft spoken, demure, and even act cute. She has to be protected and cared for by the macho, military-trained Korean male. My friend said even if you have a healthy sex life, you should not look it. You should not be proud of your sexuality. I mean, look, SHG was vacationing with her ex-LBH around the world and I can't see them playing korean cards in their hotel suite, so she obviously had a nice time with LBH. But until today, she continues to present herself as a conservative and polite Korean woman who's crap on kissing scenes because she would rather stop breathing and close her lips throughout the scene because she's conservative.
Lee Hyori is an exeption because, according to my friend, "She is not talented, but she's very beautiful without needing surgery and acts natural" (meaning she doesn't shrink like a violet just because her tight belly is exposed).
All right then.

But even if you look the perfect picture of purity, if you don't have the ideal family and educational background, your market value is not high either. This is the reason why women like Song Hye gyo, but Korean men are crazy over Kim Tae hee. KTH hails from a good community called Ulsan in Seoul, she graduated from a top high school and graduated from Korea's top university(even if she's active in showbiz) as well. She appears to also have a close family and would often visit her brother in his movie shoots.

Song Hye gyo on the other hand has divorced parents and didn't finish high school.

Guess who's gonna be the one reaping thousands of marriage proposals?

I personally don't like either of them, but I'm guilty of preferring KTH over SHG because she seems to have the brains behind the stereotype "pure" face. SHG is the better actress, but in terms of personal income through endorsements, it's a close call because KTH is very marketable because she's considered the complete package.

Amongst all Korean actresses, SONG HYE GYO irritates the crap out of me.

She says she's sick of all her roles because they're all the same: She's a damsel in distress and always cries her brains out because she either dies, or someone dies on her.
So what does she do in her debut movie role after a billion years as tv actress? She cries and she dies.
Nice. Smart.

Look girl, next time, don't even dream about ranting again about crappy roles because I might stuff your mouth with a fistfull of kimchi.