Monday, December 13, 2004

Strange -- yet funny -- picture

Koreans have a much more matter-of-fact take on body parts and bodily functions than Americans do. At night, men don't feel much inhibition about peeing in public (drunk or not). Schoolchildren think 똥 (poo) is funny, but don't freak out if they hear it talked about in class.

Apparently, such comfortability transitions well when it comes to sex education. I volunteered as the photographer for the Hope Run 2004 in Seoul a few months ago, and part of the presentation there promoted AIDS awareness, one aspect of which is the use of condoms. As it was a family event (with a 5k/10k run), there were lots of kids around. And that led to some interesting situations.

Take this one, for example:


Everyone loves a good fan-powered dancing balloon-type thingy, but a condom? And if you think the two kids staring up at the purple condom mascot seems weird, though, you should have been there when the kids were jumping around trying to hug it.

Yes, I'll admit I'm more uptight than the average joe, but c'mon, tell me you wouldn't be just a little uncomfortable with your kid doing that....

1 comment:

redMoon said...

I don’t know! At that age (which they seem to be about six and eight plus or minus two! I’m just horrible at guessing children’s ages!), I didn’t know what the heck condom was along the purple condom! Let’s just hope that they don’t know what it represents here in the picture! That way! We feel better!