I read Lollybat's bus bump post with great interest, and was tempted to concoct my own rap in homage, but as I have not nearly her talent I thought it best to confine my thoughts to a slightly different subject: the subway.
I've spent a lot of time riding the Seoul subway: first as a Young Thing, later as a Older Married Thing, also as a species of the Pregnant, Uncomfortable, and Moody Don't-Mess-With-Me type, and even later as Herding Mom.
Now, I have an active imagination and a tendancy toward the dramatic so you may take this with a dash of 깨소금if you wish, but I think of riding the subway as having a front row seat at the Spectacles of Unspoken Resentment. And perhaps the latest front in the gender wars as well.
You got your old people, pissed if any young thing DARE sit in the old people seats. You got the men, who used to resign themselves to standing the whole time, who have in the last ten years decided they've had enough and will sit with their legs spread JUST to make it that much harder to sit next to them. They'll even use your shoulder as a spare pillow. You women! They say to me with their spread legs. You think you can do better than us at school and at golf too! Well I'm going to take your seat then. See how you like it. Maybe it'll make your calves EVEN STRONGER to stand a little.
And then the young women. Sick, perhaps, of being all cute and smily in their jobs as the ones who stand in the 백화점 parking lot wearing gloves and saying cheerfully for the 10,000th time to put your blinkers on if you're parking. Or sick of being told what to do by their older bosses. Sick of covering their mouths with their hands when they laugh. I've glared at many a young woman, thrust my 8 month pregnant belly meaningfully in her face as she pretended to sleep or send her important text message.
If you want to know where all the anger and rage goes, look at the suicide rate, the drinking, the depression rates, yes. But look also, my friends, at the Subway Spectacle. Subtlely, surrepticiously, stealthily, and a little bit snottily, people are using the subway to express disenchantment and to take revenge, one ride at a time.
That is why, my friends (although I admire Lollybat's rap), I only think one thing as I approach those doors. There can be only one. Yes, in fact, there are many people sitting in the seats. But admitting that fact is distracting and overly logical. There can be only one. I ignore the signs to stand to the side so that other people may exit. Instead I stand right in front of the doors so that I can be the first person on. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. C'mon, say it with me now, you know you think it too. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!
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5 comments:
Ha ha. I take pride in not rushing for a seat. I let them all battle it out, and I stand. Even if there are a few seats left empty, sometimes I stand. Other riders watch me anxiously, willing me to sit down before the next station, when newcomers will snatch up the remaining seats, but sometimes I'd just rather stand, not sit with some strange man's thigh pressed against mine.
In my Korean class, the teacher taught us a word for how the men sit on the subway. I can't remember the word, but it's the same word that's used to describe a watermelon that's split open. I thought the image was brilliant, and wish we had a word like that in English.
hahaha - I love the "watermelon split open" image - it's perfect!
I will practice my chanting of "there can be only one" next time I line up for the push and shove of getting on or off the subway. I feel mentally stronger already!!
I hadn't thought about displaced resentment and aggression as factors before, but it does make sense.
Some times it's really off the chain, though. I once saw an older woman at Hoehyeon Station knock a child down in her rush to get on the train and get one of the elderly seats.
I have to say that I rarely had to stand on the subway when I was pregnant. Usually there would be some middle-aged or older woman who would get up. The men and young women were the worst. And, I once had to ride more than 45 minutes standing up on a bus home when I was eight months pregnant, right in front of young guy in one of the seats *reserved* for the elderly/disabled/pregnant. It was small comfort that he had to pretend to be asleep the entire ride out because I stood right in front of him and glared.
If I'd had more guts, I would have pointed to the sign next to him and asked him if he could read.
As it is, maybe I'll just take out all my frustration on the slow pokes in front of me in line when I shope at the Homever. The ones who have the gall to leave like three! whole! inches! between the end of their cart and the flesh of the person in front of them. I mean, if she'd move up I'd be *that* much closer to done!
Sandra: The word is JJukbulnam.
I avoid subways and instead take buses, even if I have to transfer several times.
I hope we don't meet on the subway because I am in the habit of barging straight into people who stand right in front of the doors and pushing them so they are likely to be last on the train...
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