Coming out as Korean

Douglas Murray in the Spectator on the curious case of Oli London, the lad who decided that if men can become women by messing around with their pronouns and maybe their faces, he can, by the same logic, become Korean:

Not everyone will have heard of Oli London, a British social media influencer who made news for two reasons last week. The first was that London came out as plural. Which is to say that he came out as a non-binary person. Which is very 2020 and something so un-noteworthy that I’m sure you’ll agree it is hardly worth remarking upon. The other thing London did was more unusual. Which was that he came out as Korean.

You might guess from his name that Oli London is not Korean, but he has spent some time there (in the South rather than the North apparently) and enjoys the language and culture. So in his coming-out message London revealed some rather extreme plastic surgery to his face and announced that he wished to be known as Korean. ‘People might not get it, it’s a new concept, whatever,’ he said, demonstrating that whatever his proficiency at Korean, he retains that Millennial urge to mutilate the English tongue.

On the matter of coming out as Korean, the reception was not universally warm. But you might have sympathy for the crossroads at which this confused young man sits. The current era has arrived at an uncomfortable, indeed contradictory, settlement on such matters. It has decided that a man may become a woman or a woman may become a man with great ease. Indeed, saying it makes it so. To such an extent that last month when a man in LA allegedly identified as trans in order to get into the women’s changing room of a spa and wave his penis around at the women in the changing room, the only thing anyone was meant to say to the women who complained was: ‘What’s your problem, transphobe?’

This is no exaggeration. Last weekend in California, crowds of ‘Antifa’ activists assaulted a number of women and a Korean man (as it happens) who were protesting against such activities at the spa. In 2021, fighting fascism means beating up women who do not want penises flashed at them in a spa changing room. One of several reasons why this is a wonderful time to be alive....

It’s a tricky one. On the side of the Koreans, I can see that having surgery to look like another race is liable to be interpreted as stereotyping, among much else. On the side of the ‘Yay’ people is the fact that it would be rude to tell a young man who’s just had elaborate and costly surgery that he is patently nuts. If somebody cuts off his arm and demands to be known as Nelson, it is kindly to refer to him as Nelson....

It may take a bit of getting used to, but there have always been people who wished they were of another race. For example, there have been many men in the British Foreign Office who wished that they were Arabs. And if people can buy their way into looking like another sex, we will probably have to get used to the idea that some people will buy their way into looking like another race. You may not agree with this. But I didn’t make the rules. And it’s not remotely clear which madman did.

Is race so different from sex? You and I might have thought it was a matter of heredity and biology, but if you can change sex simply by making a declaration, why should you not do the same for race? True, Rachel Dolezal was ridiculed when the supposedly black campaigner turned out to have a solidly white (German--Czech) heritage, but times are changing. Perhaps soon you won't need to go through the plastic surgery that poor Oli London suffered to claim that you're transitioning to another race.

So, take the thinking of the gender ideologues - it's all about stereotypes - and apply it to race. You like fried chicken and rap music? You're really black, even if you're heredity isn't. Good at logical thinking but a bit repressed? You're really white, whatever your heredity. It's one solution to America's perennial race problem that perhaps hasn't been given the consideration it merits.

Comments

[Shir]

I'm going to avoide the important issue here but, isn't it a trend in South Korea to have plastic surgery to look more Caucasian?

[Mick H]

Yes it is. Highest rate of plastic surgery per capita in the world. The most popular is round the eyes - blepharoplasty. https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/8xyzag/double-eyelid-rite-of-passage-korea-beauty

[Shir]

Ouch. Well anyway, they can't complain about him. Well they can but it makes them look stupid, kind of like those surgeries.
Why would anyone who looks Korean would want to look western??? Weird.