Why do Koreans hate babies?

The original title is "The Indifferent Baby-Weary Society", author: Qianli Lonely, the title picture comes from: Visual China

According to German noise prevention regulations, the "rest time" is from 22:00 to 6:00 the next day, during which if someone thinks that the neighbor has caused noise disturbance, they can directly alert the noise maker or call the police. Depending on the circumstances, the police and the court may impose a fine of up to 5,000 euros.

It is worth mentioning that in 2011, Germany had delineated the crying and playing sounds of infants and young children under the age of 6 into the category of "natural sounds", which does not belong to noise, although the law stipulates that parents have the responsibility to reduce the influence of their children on others through educational means, but also protects the right of babies to cry to a certain extent.

According to relevant media reports, Germany's revision of the Federal Emission Control Act is part of Germany's fertility incentive policy, and Germany hopes to take the lead in establishing a more relaxed social environment for infants and young children to combat the sluggish fertility rate.

But a year later, South Korea, which is also a developed country and has the same low fertility, began a vigorous "rejection of babies" campaign.

First, the opportunity

The trigger was the "Miso Soup Incident" in South Korea in 2012.

The "miso soup incident" is also very simple to say, at first it was just a mother who posted that she took her child to eat in a restaurant, and the girl next to her disliked the child for being too noisy, so she poured the hot miso soup on the child.

After the post caused a storm of public opinion, the store's surveillance video made public opinion directly reversed, and the surveillance video showed that there was no "deliberately spilling miso soup", but simply because a child was playing in the store and knocked over another customer's miso soup, which caused it to be spilled with miso soup that was overturned.

The child was burned and could say that she was to blame, but the girl who was hit really suffered an unwarranted disaster, her hands were seriously burned, and the parents and children did not even apologize, and even posted on the Internet to beat a rake, causing herself to be cyberbullied.

Taking this incident as an opportunity, whether because of the guilt of wrongly bullying others, or because of the empathy of fellow bear victims, South Korean netizens began to denounce bear children unprecedentedly.

In order to comply with consumer sentiment, merchants have put up no kids zone (no babies are allowed to accept babies) at the door, and ironically, some merchants who refuse to accept pets have put no kids zone and no pet (pets are not allowed), which is ironically called "babies and dogs are not allowed to enter" by foreigners.

2. Impact

By 2014, child-friendly stores began to appear on a large scale in South Korea, followed by a series of refusal slogans such as "No Uncle", "No Live/Video Shooting", "No Rapper", etc., and most of the reasons for refusing to accept this part of the population are the same as refusing to accept children, that is, businesses refuse to accept guests who may affect other guests.

Uncles are generally greasy, like to drink, like to talk about pornographic jokes, and refuse; Live video shooting may infringe on the privacy of other guests, and the process of interacting with the audience is also noisy, refusal; Rappers are noisy, litter cigarette butts, refuse.

According to estimates by the Jeju Research Institute in South Korea, there are about 542 stores in South Korea that are off-limits to children, not including bars, internet cafes and nightclubs, which are not allowed to enter in the first place.

By November 2021, a poll by a company in Seoul showed that 73 percent of people said they could accept a "child-free zone," 9 percent said it didn't matter, and only 18 percent said they were explicitly against it.

This child-hating ethos has even spread to their mothers, and in South Korea, there is a term called "맘충" (mom worm) that is specifically used to disparage stay-at-home moms and also to disparage moms who are unable to discipline their children who shout loudly in public.

At one point, the trend even spread to public institutions, and even the Seoul Library banned children under the age of 16 from entering.

At this point, South Korea's baby-hating society was completely formed.

3. Attribution

After the formation of a baby-hating society, every mother who intends to have children must ask herself a question, that is, "Do I have the courage to endure the regret of being rejected by the store I want to go to, and the humiliation of being called a 'mom worm' for several years." ”

In fact, the reason why Korean mothers have to endure discrimination is precisely because other people refuse to put up with it. Yonsei University professor Bonnie Tilan explains this baby-resistant mentality as "intolerance": a refusal to tolerate people who are different from one's identity.

But rather than being harsh on individual morality, I prefer to attribute this phenomenon to the inevitable traps of capitalism and consumerism.

South Korea, as a typical capitalist country controlled by big conglomerates, has an incredible degree of involution, and in March 2023, South Korea will increase the legal maximum working hours from 52 hours to 69 hours. Even when he works during lunch breaks and dinner, Ali's infamous "996" is only 72 hours a week.

Friends who are "lucky" to experience 996 in an Internet company know that in such a large and highly involuted system as an Internet company, the "backstab" from a colleague is the most devastating.

Even a few minutes of delay will eventually increase step by step, leading to a series of costs such as communication costs.

Therefore, in a capitalist workplace environment such as Japan and South Korea, problems such as "dragging one's feet" and "influencing others" are not allowed, and "not causing trouble to others" is about to become a national character in Japan in some places.

Once the "social animals", who are the main force of public opinion, form a collective understanding that "they should not cause trouble to others", public opinion will reduce the degree of tolerance for similar situations.

After all, the social animals have 3 cups of iced American style a day, just in order not to delay the progress of "everyone", why should babies shout in public to affect the mood of "everyone"?

When everyone takes "not causing trouble to others" as the basic criterion, infants and young children who are "accustomed to causing trouble to others" will naturally be discriminated against.

After that, in order to promote consumption, brands will naturally use advertisements to hype "you are worth it". "You deserve to use the best for yourself", "You are born to be pampered", "There is nothing wrong with rewarding yourself", "The biggest happiness" and a series of advertisements continue to hypnotize everyone who watches, the world is big, you are the biggest, and then secretly remind you: You are so good, it is understandable to spend some money on yourself.

When the importance of "self" is infinitely increased, the tolerance for "others" will naturally decrease indefinitely:

I'm so good, why should I put up with you after work?

Without the help and tolerance of others, and without wanting to help and tolerate others, when everyone uses the Franklin effect against the reverse of the Franklin effect, an indifferent society is formed.

Marx said: "Man creates the environment, and the environment creates man." ”

If the environment created by man refuses to create man, then the person who created the environment can only be asked to swallow the bitter fruit.

Author: Qianli Guliang

This content is the author's independent view and does not represent the position of Tiger Sniff. May not be reproduced without permission, please contact [email protected] for authorization

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