South Korea - too old or fat?

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aussie
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South Korea - too old or fat?

Post by aussie »

I am visiting South Korea on April 30th for a four day tour between Seoul, Busan and the east coast. I will also have two long weekends in Seoul where i will do some sightseeing such as the DMZ and view the sakura cherry blossoms in full bloom from April 6th in Seoul. My research about Seoul also included finding out more about the saunas and bath houses as mentioned in this post by artic55 from 2013.

viewtopic.php?t=5461

I doubt if much has changed as far as descrimination and xenophobia in South Korea is concerned when reading the article below from 2015.

“You cannot enter here if you are fat, or 45 years or older." That counts me out although i am not too overwieight. I like this quote from the article: “It is very hard to satisfy all. Some young men even complain that we don’t have enough old men”. Hopefully there is a sauna and bars that cater for young guys that like older but i might be pushing my luck there. I am not that fussed about saunas anymore but hopefully i can find the standard type bath house to relax and hopefully observe some nice Korean bodies, discretely of course :D

If anyone has visited South Korea it would be interesting to read about your experiences there.

http://www.koreaobserver.com/gay-saunas ... ers-29503/ June 2, 2015

A famous gay sauna in Seoul has banned old, unattractive foreigners, according to a source who was refused entry.

Black is a gay bathhouse in Shinnonhyeon, Seoul that made the headlines in 2012 when the owner was arrested for allowing gays to have sexual intercourse in his public bathhouse.

About 20 people were engaging in a sexual act when the police burst into the sauna according to media reports.

The business still thrives today as people consider it to be a “hot place” but people are also being turned down because they are too old, too fat or from an ethnic minority.

A sign at Black reads that people who are fat or aged 45 and older are banned from enterring.

“When trying to visit there I was rejected saying that this place was only for KOREAN PEOPLE,” the source said on the Consumer Complaints Forum of The Korea Observer.

“Clearly foreigners for them means white people and not Asian because I saw a Chinese guy going inside which is a clear discrimination based on race. I was very offended by this policy.”

He said it was very disappointing to see “an already discriminated minority such as being gay goes on to discriminate against another minority such as being a foreigner.”

An employee of Black, however, said to The Korea Observer that he would have allowed this customer in if he looked attractive and that it is inevitable to have a discriminatory policy because it needs to attract “hot” males to make the place “hot.”

“You cannot enter here if you are fat, or 45 years or older. We allow young and slim white customers but try to prohibit all South East Asians because we get complaints from other customers,” he said.

An employee of Prince, a popular gay sauna in Shinchon, says that Prince and many other gay saunas in Seoul have a stricter policy than Black to fill their bathhouse with customers who have a strong sex appeal.

“We need to make the majority of our customers happy to stay in business,” said an employee of Prince.

The employee said that gay customers are too picky and hard to satisfy.

Prince and other gay saunas, including Shelter in Seocho, Seoul, refuse to have customers who are older than 39, fat or South Asians.

“It is very hard to satisfy all. Some young men even complain that we don’t have enough old men,” the employee of Prince said.
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Undaunted
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Re: South Korea - too old or fat?

Post by Undaunted »

I don't see a problem here.....Babylon in BKK has lost alot of its appeal for the very reason it was overwhelmed with old, some fat falangs......
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Re: South Korea - too old or fat?

Post by Gaybutton »

You're in South Korea now? I'm wondering if you have encountered any problems since the ouster of former president Park Geun-hye.
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Re: South Korea - too old or fat?

Post by aussie »

Gaybutton wrote:You're in South Korea now? I'm wondering if you have encountered any problems since the ouster of former president Park Geun-hye.
I arrive in Seoul on March 30 before the anticipated Presidential election date of May 9. I will report back on what I find there but hopefully it will be a quieter time before the election.
fountainhall

Re: South Korea - too old or fat?

Post by fountainhall »

It's many years since my cruising, bar-hopping and sauna days in Seoul and I am sure everything has changed. I'd just like to echo the point made about the bath houses. I never found a sauna in Seoul but there were several bathhouses known to be at least gay friendly. Nothing happened in the bathing area itself apart from the staff giving customers what seemed like brutal soapy massages and a bit of cruising if some nice eye candy appeared. The action all took place upstairs. In my days, these had a line of small bed areas separated by partitions less than half a meter high. Whilst many pretended to be asleep, most were not and arms were casually positioned over the low partitions with a few guys then paring off on their own. Ceilings then tended to be pretty low so you had to watch your head more than your more intimate parts! The layout was a little similar so some Japanese saunas with action taking place in full view (albeit dim) of others.

A request. If you come across any nice cute gay guy who looks as though he should be in a Korean boy band, do please take his photo and post here. Give him a fake name ("Rain" will do nicely as he was the hottest star for years - although he must now be in his mid-30s) and identity. and I'm sure no-one will know!!

Incidentally the South Korean government ran a series of commercials a few years ago with the tag-line "Korea - Sparkling!" When Rain did one in the series, he ended by saying "Sparkling - Just Like Me!" He was uber cute!

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