From: timothy lee <tlee@silver.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Clarification on My Thought
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 01:23:28 GMT

I guess that now I might be notorious as an advocate of domestic 
violence.  What a nonsense!  I believe that, due to my lack of 
English and logic and the distortions by some ill-bred people, 
some of you misunderstood what I really meant to say.  Please, 
let me clarify what I wrote.  I hesitated to write 
this article since the flame war went beyond my imagination
and my intention. I was flabbergasted at the complete distortion 
of the original article (This was my first time to be involved in a 
touchy subject.  I learned a lot about human nature. It's rotten.)  
and I felt that some clarification should be done.

As I said before, I don't condone wife beating.  I swear by God that 
I have never beaten my wife and even thought or dreamed
about it.  You might say, then, that why you advocated wife beating
in Korean culture.  If you say like that, your saying reveals that
you haven't understood what I wrote.  The topic was an emotional issue 
and some of you jumped at a conclusion before you carefully digested 
my article or even read it to the end.  Don't put your emotion before 
your cool head.  Calm down and read carefully if you are an intellectual.

My indignation on some people's prejudice that Korean culture condones
wife beating caused me to write my original article.  (I didn't remember.
I think a person at University of Washington posted that kind of article.
I will check the old articles later.)  And even some Koreans had that
misconception which such Westerners tried to enforce upon Koreans.
That made me think that that's not true and decided to write an article
to get rid of that kind of misconception and myth among Koreans and
non-Koreans.

What I meant was, first, we have to acknowledge that wife beating exists
in Korean culture and ALSO in American culture.  (Some responses against
my article almost sounded like that Americans never beat their wives.
Even some netter said that Koreans had to learn from Americans.  What a
baloney!)  My next point was that although wife beating seems to be
prevalent in Korea, in fact, that's not true.  And then, I added that, 
contrary to our common sense and myth, domestic violonce in Korea is not a
big social issue since wife beating in Korea is rare and less violent;
on the other hand, domestic violence in America is a serious social 
disease and have grim characters.  That was the point.  Some of you,
however, as I said before, almost sounds like that Americans never beat 
their wives DUE TO THEIR CULTURE.  Some of you almost portrayed that
Americans are angels who never beat their wives.  (On the opposite way,
Koreans are seated as the two-horned devils who beat their wives.)
I wanted to eradicate that kind of myth and to point out that that's not true.
I acknowledge that I was carried away too much by my sacasm and
generalization.  But some fragments of truth are there, though.

And then, my next point which I was intended to write was that although 
some of Americans never beat their wives, that doesn't mean anything
if this is done superficially.  I think that you know what I mean
if you studied the philosophy of law.  What I mean is that strict 
adherence to any written code is meaningless if you don't follow the
spirit of the law.  (I don't expand this although I have so many things
to talk about this topic.  If you are above grade school level, you know
what I mean.)  Although you don't beat your wife, but you can beat
her psychologically and torture her mentally.  Once again, I am saying
at the risk of being misunderstood.  Don't flame it.  Imagine that a
primitive wife-beater met a civilized wife-mental-psychological-wife-
torturer.  I am sure that the primitive wife-beater will say to the
civilized folk, "You, hypocrite, you are worse than what I thought. 
That's all about what you talked about not beating your wife!"
That's my point.  Some Americans don't beat their wives, but I have
seen that they psychologically and mentally crush their wives with
their cruelty and sarcasm and selfishness and ruthlessness and
heartlessness.  So in this sense, who can blame whom? (D"ong Moo-Dun
Gae(Dog) Ga  Gyeo Moo-Dun Gae(Dog) Reul G"oo Ji-Neun-Da).

So, my dear Korean friends, you don't need to be defensive or ashamed
when other non-Koreans criticize you about wife beating in Korean
culture.  We are noble people who have a noble culture.  Overcome your 
self-imposed misconceptions on your culture.  Don't be a collaborator 
with Americans who want to enforce their prejudices upon Koreans.  Don't 
say like that we Koreans should learn from Americans about wife beating.  
Be proud of being a Korean or (Korean American) and don't accept American's
criticism but show them their hypocrisy of their criticism.


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