The Truth About the Nightclub Harassment Video

If you have been keeping up on kvetchpat news, you would have discovered the posting of a video of several Western (white) men harassing a drunk, Korean woman at a nightclub. Max Fischer wrote about this after discovering it through the Korean media after it was posted on Facebook. Then, it spread to several other English news outlets, the usual kvetchpat watering holes, and other Korea related blogs.

Recently, Max Fischer wrote an update saying that he had seen alternate footage of the same scene from the video. He falsely concluded that because there were several takes of the scene that the whole video was acting. Wrong. I do believe that the makers of this video re-shot the scene because they were making a movie and wanted to get the "right" effect. The makers had already rehearsed how they wanted it to play out and wanted to get the desired response from their victim, so of course, they would repeat the same dialogue. And of course, a woman with limited English skills who was drunk would repeat the only English she knew how to respond with. There was a commercial in Korea a few years back making fun of how mindless some Koreans can be when learning English. In the commercial, a young Korean man gets hit by a car. A Western (white) driver comes out and asks, "How are you?" The young Korean responds, "I'm fine and you?" when he has just been hit by a car. The Western man looks at him bewildered. This commercial reflects how some foreign speakers will respond the same way to certain questions because that is all they know to say. It was obvious from the video that the Korean woman's English was not great.

I know that the makers hope this movie idea will exonerate them, but I know much better. Just because the creators were shooting a movie does not mean that there were no victims involved. This was not a standard filming where ALL actors knew they were going to be filmed and were willing participants of the movie. The young, drunk Korean woman was not conscious enough to make that decision. The other participants of the movie were. They set out to shoot a movie degrading Korean women and found an easy target. "Strong men" who felt empowered to approach a Korean woman as a group, but would be too cowardly if there was one more Korean woman. The young Korean woman in the video was alone with very few people around her. It was a loud nightclub, so unless you were close, I don't think you would have been able to catch on to their conversation and how degrading it was even if you spoke fluent English, which many Koreans don't. These guys AMBUSHED this lone, drunk Korean woman because they wanted to use her in a fetish video degrading Korean women. These guys were trying to do something similar to "Black Out Korea" by finding people they could humiliate by capturing their image on camera. They looked for a drunk Korean woman who was alone that they could BAIT into their degrading scheme. I would not be surprised if there are other videos like this. I know that the creators of this video hope that the pretense of shooting a movie will get people to back off so that they can continue to be whiny ESL teachers who hate on Korea and victimize unwitting, probably drunk Korean women. But I have news for you guys. It doesn't.

This whole scenario reminds me of Joe Francis and his "Girls Gone Wild", an American video series that showed women taking their top off in public. Now, I'm sure that there were some women who did this voluntarily out of some exhibitionist streak, but there were actually others who were ambushed by the crew by having their tops pulled up without their consent. There was a class action suit made by a woman who did not realize that she was on one of their videos after one of the crew members pulled up her shirt. There were testimonies from other witnesses that said that they had had the same thing done to them or seen it happen to someone else. They won the lawsuit and Joe Francis and company had to pay a lot of money. Were there several takes in the shooting of this series? Yes, because the videos did contain outtakes that were added to another video. I only saw commercials of these videos with the boobs blurred out. Some of the women in this lawsuit were drunk as were others. Just because something is a movie doesn't mean that there are no victims. Child pornography is one example. Filming sexual contact without the other party knowing is another. I'm pretty sure that the drunk, Korean woman in that video was not able to give her consent because she was drunk. If someone made you sign a contract while you were drunk, should it be legally admissible? Absolutely not.

The lengths that some kvetchpats will go to in order to "protect" their own. The more you reinforce this kind of behavior, the more it will be perpetuated. The mentality that justified "Black Out Korea" is the same one that fueled this video. Only these guys took it a big step further. Who do you think it hurts? You can continue to blame the Korean public for being "xenophobic", but until you take responsibility for yourself, then nothing will change. This is the kind of mentality that kvetchpats love to trash Korea for, but unfortunately, they aren't willing to be self-critical and prove to be the biggest hypocrites of all while exalting how multicultural and tolerant their own countries are. Even if that were the case, they certainly aren't the best examples of that from their own country. Koreans are self-critical for the most part when a Korean does something bad overseas, so netizens will criticize that person for shaming the country instead of choosing to blame it on the environment or the victim. Just goes to show that until kvetchpats take responsibility for their behavior and hold others accountable in their community, they will continue to perpetuate the cycle wondering why they don't get respect, trashing those who have a good time in Korea as Korea apologists. I've watched some videos of people who had a great time in Korea and what I've noticed is that they actually make an effort to understand Korean people and culture and learn the language as well. I can't really say that about kvetchpats who take no responsibility for their bitter and negative attitude. It is not Korea that makes you such a negative and toxic person. It's you. You control how you choose to live your life and the fact that you continue to live as a bitter and hateful person in a country that you are miserable in says a whole lot about you. You CHOOSE to LIVE in Korea and yet you complain about what a miserable life you have.

The only thing that the video makers are sorry for is getting caught and they haven't even apologized for taking part in the video. It was just a movie, they say as a lame excuse. I know that they would continue to make such videos if they weren't caught. They probably thought that they could make a bunch of videos that would be semi-anonymous and indistinguishable from the rest of Youtube. Videos that they could enjoy with their kvetchpat buddies, making fun of how stupid Korean women are and trashing Korean society as a whole. Only it backfired in their case and they received a lot of backlash. Now, they are really scared for their jobs and life in Korea. But as scared as these cowards may be, they don't know a hundredth of the pain that the young woman in the video is suffering. Her face was exposed and this will negatively affect her career and marital prospects. No respectable Korean family will want her to marry into their family even though she did nothing wrong in the video. She was drunk at the wrong place and the wrong time. I know of Korean women who lost job offers after receiving negative media coverage, so it's not a stretch to say that this is likely for her. Those ESL cowards did not reveal their entire face and I'm sure that multiple takes were done to give them some anonymity in the videos. They set out for a nightclub in Seoul where they planned to target a drunk and unassuming Korean woman that they could degrade with their antics. They kept retaking each scene until they got what they wanted. The Korean woman did not speak much English. She was drunk, so it is highly plausible that she would repeat the same answers to the same comments and gestures. If you don't speak a language well, that is what you are going to do because that is all you will know how to do. This actually makes it MUCH WORSE than if they were randomly at a club with a camera and just being spontaneous. They actually PLANNED this CALCULATED ASSAULT in order to create a video that they could use to get off on degrading Korean women. It's like Dave's ESL on steroids. Dave's is a place many kvetchpats go to in order to get off on degrading Koreans for their own twisted pleasure, because they are living miserable lives in Korea and choose to blame Korea instead of their own bad attitudes.

Now, these cowards are scared because they got their hand caught in the cookie jar. They are afraid of being discovered by their co-workers and Korean "friends". That is what they have most to be afraid of. Because most people watching these videos will not know them or be able to recognize them on the street. But the people that see them everyday or on occasion will have enough familiarity with their face that they will be able to put the pieces together. So I have news for you cowards. Be afraid. Be very afraid. If you are really that scared, you can always get plastic surgery like you degraded the Korean woman into doing. Get plastic surgery and stop being cowards. How does that feel, idiots? Plastic surgery or not, you know these guys will continue to keep looking over their shoulder the whole time they are in Korea and maybe afterwards. Frankly, I don't understand why they didn't just let this thing blow over. Now, they have left a big electronic trail with a number of people. You have one "reporter", Sam Power, writing for the English edition of a Korean newspaper vouching for them before any "evidence" showed of a film, which makes me think that he actually knows them as a friend or is just really invested in the expat image. If he is as fictitious a character as some on Marmot's Hole claim, I bet he is someone that works for the newspaper, but chooses to mask his identity. Someone should really check this out. You have Max Fischer writing about how he saw a clip of several takes of the same scene, which does not contradict that the woman was still a victim. You have a fake Facebook profile of a "Korean film director" who supposedly shot the movie. It is so easy to make up a fake Facebook profile and I don't know how that could be taken as evidence of a "Korean movie director". Of course, there was an exchange about making the movie. They had been planning it all along. Anyhow, I am glad that the video got out and that part of the cowards' faces were shown so that their acquaintances can more easily identify them. I am glad that there are a number of copies of the video on Youtube, The Washington Post, and other media sites as well as blogs.

You think you got away with this? You didn't. You think that you can stay in Korea and enjoy your miserable life here? You can't. As hellish as your life may have been before, it will get even more hellish like a raging inferno that you cannot control. That is what happens to people who have their conscience awakened with a rude awakening. And for guys like these who had a very low mentality to start with, I am pretty sure it was a VERY rude awakening. The poor young woman did not ask to be part of this. You made her. You chose to act like idiots and you need to face the consequences. YOU did this to YOURSELVES and you cannot blame Korea for that. Keep living in Korea looking over your shoulder because at some point the truth will come out. You have no idea how much you have hurt others a thousand times more than the fear that you are feeling. She is someone's daughter, granddaughter, and perhaps sister. How do you think she feels and how do you think her family and friends feel after she was degraded and humiliated by you? What makes you more important than the young woman you harassed? What gives you the right to stay in a country where you assault and degrade its people? What gives you the right to earn a living in this country that you hate and despise and degrade for your own pleasure, influencing young Korean minds? I'm pretty sure the young woman has lost her career at this point, so what makes you better than her? Why should Korean parents trust their children to you? Korean teachers are respected for the most part. English teachers don't have that reputation because so many of you guys have frankly MESSED IT UP. That was not the case in the 60's with Fulbright Scholars who actually gave a damn about the job, but unfortunately, too many people look to make money from hagwons and do not want to invest the time and money to vet English teachers properly. If nothing more happened than you guys losing your teaching jobs and having to leave Korea, then you should consider yourselves very lucky. Why are you in Korea if you hate it that much? Consider it a blessing that you are able to go back to your multicultural and progressive America or whatever country you came from so that you can live amazing and wonderful lives. But for some reason, I don't think your life in your home countries would be that great, either. The location may change, but YOU are STILL the SAME PERSON. Koreans may forget and so may other people, but God never forgets and you will get what is coming to you long after you think that everything has blown over.

I am sure that the young woman has a case and is able to sue you. I am sure that your school also have cause as well. Korea is not your playground, so you better shape up or get out. The police can be made aware of this even if no private party intervenes and they have every right to subpoena Facebook and other sites for this information. Korea has a highly skilled Internet agency that is trained to root out people like you. You should be jailed for harassment and invasion of privacy, both of which are against the law in Korea.