9 / March / 2009 Today , one of doctoral students in the merged faculty , a Japanese boy ( to me he ’ s just a boy ) said tome this : “ I heard from myfriends ( must be Korean boys ) that Korean girls are materialistic ” I was shocked tohear this kind old - fashioned comment that I used to hear in my generation . Herein Sydney , I heard this from a foreign boy ? In fact , I likedto say : ‘ So , Japanesegirls aren ’ t materialistic ? ’ Or , ‘ Aren ’ t you ? Justa week before , you said that you wanted to be rich when I asked you to pray foryour birthday wish . ’ Well , to beforeign , he is too Asian , in fact . All of sudden , I was just reminded thatAsian man means they are pretty much like conservative Korean man . After one second , I said this : “ Well , it ’ severywhere . ” Then he nodded . Well , I didn ’ tmean to say that . I was just trying not to refute him , just because I thoughtthat if I did that , it would sound boring , not persuasive . But that was notwhat I ’ d like to say . I tried again . “ How about this ? If I say Japanese men like pretty girls ” He said , “ Well , it ’ severywhere . ” I : See . ( I wasn ’ tsatisfied , because it is not my point . ) I attempted again . “ You know if girlsare materialistic , why do you think it is ? It is because they are more invulnerable position . They are more likely financially unstable and insecure . So , you guys put women in that situation and when women try to seek for help , you criticize women and despise them . Also , they are judged by theirappearance … . ” Soon I realizedthat he was not listening to me . ‘ Ok , then . What itmeans is that he doesn ’ t want to communicate seriously , rather he just wants tobe either sarcastic or teasing me . What a mean boy ! ’ I thought . Then this is whatactually I ’ d like to say . I said : “ Ok , then . Who ’ screated this capitalist society ? And who owns the most wealth ? It is obviouslymen . Men have shaped the this kind of materialistic life condition for girlsand now you guys are criticizing girls for that ? ” He turned nearlyhalf of his back , looking slightly embarrassed ” “ I need to bringmy friend . ” I said : “ Year , bring yourfriends to me . ” How despicable ! Imean , I hardly do this thing to men ! And men do this to women . Well , let ’ s saygirls are materialistic . What about men ? Aren ’ t they just looking into girls ’ skin deep ? Isn ’ t that the same dimension as alleged girls ’ materialism ? Whatwill be the difference between wealthy guys looking for beautiful looking girlsonly and the other way round . Henceforth , whoever makes this kind of comment , generalizing negative aspects of femalethis way , you can say : “ Ok , then ! Who ’ sdeveloped this bloody human history full of murder , crimes and inhumanity , etc ? ” We should fightany kind of ignorant thinking way . You ’ re lookinginto things such as a single tree only with microscopy , not looking at aforest , failing to grasp a bigger picture . It ’ s in fact womenthat are suffering from their lower status and accordingly poverty and morevulnerable situations . It is women thatare more exploited and misused when a society is in poverty . If you look moreclosely at them , they are not just housewives . Contrary to general perceptionsabout the roles of men and women , women in many cases are virtual bread - earnersas well as housekeepers , raising children and doing all sorts of work . In manycases , it was like men were not doing any work for their family at all . Rather , it would be fortunate if they did not bash their wives . So , if you do notknow all this sociological aspect of man and woman and simply blame woman fortheir practice of behaviour , you are just proving your ignorance andphallocentric orientation , or simply male chauvinism .