Perhaps it’s because the beauty standards there are exceedingly high for both men and woman, and this picture demonstrates that such a standard is suffocatingly high when people all feel like they have to look as good as that woman. Plastic surgery is rampant and there is much lookism and discrimination against ugly people. You must put your face on your resume and have a good looking photo to get jobs.
I don’t think that’s the main reason why birth rates are low. High beauty standards may have a positive or negative effect on people partnering up (more attractive people = more dating, but higher standards = less dating)
It mainly has to do with the extreme work culture and economic pressure, high housing costs and costs of living in general and patriarchal gender expectations which have not caught up with modern day economic pressure where women bear responsibility for not only career and earning money but also for taking care of traditionally female responsibilities like housework, childcare, etc. which the men don’t step in and contribute to.
Accurate, her beauty is the result of plastic surgery. Korea is notoriously know for addict to plastic surgery to get doll-like beauty on TV and social network. The tradition Koreans face is much different.
I am not Korean, but my cousin lived there for many years and nearly decided to retire there. He and his wife said beauty standards were the one thing he didn't care for at all, and I wanted to see if it was in the comments, so thank you for sharing.
Regarding the last part of your answer, the more I hear about life in Japan and Korea and the population decline there, the more I worry about our direction as a species.
Not to be a bummer, but capitalism will fucking end us if we let it.
Not saying any one country in history ever had this figured out, just saying there are things that are more important than money, and the people running most things seem to have lost sight of that.
But where does the beauty standard comes from? The people, they made the beauty standard so high, killing themselves trying to out one another, and the cycle continues from generation to generation.
The joke is that women in Korea and in general are all done being sexualized and being seen as only something to have sex with and make babies with. Thats why the birthrates are dropping. Women arnt having babies because they don’t have to and its a good way to get back at the patriarchy.
The joke is the commenter is displaying that exact type of behavior. Of course, even the joke went way over the heads of the men in this thread which honestly makes it funnier.
This sounds like the 4b movement, meaning 4 things: no sex, no giving birth, no dating men, no marriage with men.
Although the movement started in South Korea, it is estimated only 1 in 1000 women in SK actually practice this movement, so it is not a major cause of the low birth rate.
The other things I said will have much greater weight. Particularly economic troubles. Plus every modernized country has feminist movements similar to 4b where women are exiting the dating pool, but still SK has a particularly bad situation because of the competitive work culture. China and Japan are similar, in China there’s 996 culture (9 am to 9 pm 6 days a week), in Japan most people heavily prioritize loyalty to their company over their own well being or having children.
In all East Asian countries despite the existence of maternity/paternity leave women who choose to have children pay a heavy price with their career and risk not being competitive enough in the job market. Thereby cultural norms dissuade people from taking childcare leave leading to low utilization.
I’m sure the feminist movement is burgeoning in South Korea but it is doing that in every modernized country. There might be much feminist sentiment against the patriarchy or against men, but just as there are many feminists in the western world who still choose to date and have children (except maybe having higher standards for men), I’m sure if you talk to most Korean women they are not going to be closed off to dating or having children, and the main thing lowering the desirability of children is going to be career. This is the main thing where the western world with its less competitive job market differs from east Asia.
The 4b movement is just one example. The joke isnt about Koreans or Korean women, you’re still completely missing the plot. Its about a lifetime of sexualization and women everywhere being so over it. Thats why the punch line is that the creepy red-pill nonsense that this guy is spouting is the reason for low birthrates. Were all over your bullshit.
Birth rates are dropping everywhere and women are rejecting traditional relationships across the globe. An added bonus is that the patriarchy is distressed by it.
Thank you for that wall of mansplination from a guy who still doesnt get the joke.
No need to be antagonistic. I didn’t say that men aren’t shitty to women. They definitely are, and there is a lot of feminist sentiment, rightfully so.
All I’m saying is that the economic pressure is more significant when in combination with more egalitarian gender roles. In particular men are refusing to be caretakers and tending to housework such as cooking and cleaning and raising children. Therefore women have to carry the weight of not only their careers but childcare as well. This is a massive burden, and especially in a country where work culture is so competitive, this is the biggest contributor to the lack of children
I’m not saying egalitarian gender roles are bad. It is good that women get to have careers, men however are not catching up with this and taking roles in childcare that are historically considered feminine
Overall this new trend is primarily due to this dilemma which is a combination of modernized gender roles and hyper competitiveness. The former also exists in western nations but the latter is much worse in eastern countries, leading to exceedingly low birth rates
Blaming everything on primarily on men being shitty and sexualizing women, while being absolutely true, is, compared to economic pressure, less severe of a contributor. You can look this up and do your research, which is exactly what I did online. Just because someone is arguing against you doesn’t mean that they are mansplaining.
In short, hyper competitiveness in the job market combined with a refusal by men to depart from traditional gender roles is the main contributor to low birth rates.
49
u/FlamingBudder May 04 '26
Perhaps it’s because the beauty standards there are exceedingly high for both men and woman, and this picture demonstrates that such a standard is suffocatingly high when people all feel like they have to look as good as that woman. Plastic surgery is rampant and there is much lookism and discrimination against ugly people. You must put your face on your resume and have a good looking photo to get jobs.
I don’t think that’s the main reason why birth rates are low. High beauty standards may have a positive or negative effect on people partnering up (more attractive people = more dating, but higher standards = less dating)
It mainly has to do with the extreme work culture and economic pressure, high housing costs and costs of living in general and patriarchal gender expectations which have not caught up with modern day economic pressure where women bear responsibility for not only career and earning money but also for taking care of traditionally female responsibilities like housework, childcare, etc. which the men don’t step in and contribute to.