According to the Chosun Ilbo, a trans woman became among 50 (presumably cisgender/cissexual) women to pass the first preliminary round of the Super Model Contest 2009 in the Republic of Korea (a.k.a. South Korea), out of 1,200 applicants this year. Receiving a sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in 2006, she changed her name and sex on legal documents, and now lives as Choi Han-Bit/최한빛. Here's a photo of her:

I know, she's gorgeous. I found some photos of her before the SRS, but I don't think it's necessary to post them on here. I think she got a plastic surgery too, but I'm not sure.

On June 22, 2006, the Supreme Court of South Korea ruled that transgender individuals who had undergone successful sex reassignment surgery have the right to declare themselves in their new sex in all legal documents (wikipedia: it says gender reassignment surgery and new gender).

Trans women are not s0 uncommonly seen in the South Korean media. Harisu is probably the most popular Korean trans woman with her work as a model, actor, singer, and writer. She's been married to Micky Jung, a Korean rapper for 2 years, successfully reinforcing the age-old notion of what a real woman needs for her ultimate happiness. There is also a transgender pop group called "Lady." Some might thus say that South Korea is relatively accepting of transgenderism.

On the other hand, among too many celebrity suicide cases are a gay actor and a trans woman. Certainly, Korean society is not necessarily supportive of LGBTQ people just because they have a trans woman in a super model contest.

Here are my questions:
1) is South Korean society celebrating this trans "phenomenon," or is it just reinforcing normative gender presentation? (Or both?)
2) how does this "phenomenon" interact with the oppressive discourse of gender in South Korea?

I would call it a "phenomenon" because I get a sense of sensationalism from reading some articles (in English and Japanese by the Korean media), which seem to project transgenderism as something relatively new and progressive in South Korea, even though trans people have existed since cispeople began to exist. Some people may see this "phenomenon" as a celebration of trans identities that has finally arrived in this country after successfully liberating trans people in many Western countries. However, I remain skeptical of this view because, to me, it seems just like another celebration of "beautiful" women whose value is supposed to depend upon how many straight men they can give boners to. The reason why Choi Han Bit passed the first round is because she is defined as beautiful by straight Korean men, and inherently, straight White men. She succeeded because she looks exactly what a real Korean woman is supposed to look today. By no means I would blame MTF trans folks who can pass for passing, nor would I say that trans folks should not pass at all for the sake of genderfucking. What I'm pointing out here is that the beauty of Choi Han Bit and Harisu may do little to fuck/play with rigid gender binary, gender roles, and normative gender presentation in South Korean culture.

In fact, their "perfect" looks might reinforce these rigid notions around gender. If a "man" can look that beautiful, why shouldn't "real" women look as beautiful? If this is what trans women (not really women) seek for, it must be the ideal female beauty that all women should aspire and achieve... Thus, White hegemonic standard of female beauty (you should look like this), gender binary (because you are a woman and not a man) and gender role (because woman exist for men's pleasure) is reinforced.

Some losers of the contest have questioned Choi Han Bit's qualification; SBS, the TV company that's hosting the Contest, maintains that she is qualified to compete because her resident registration number starts with a "2," which means she is recognized as a woman by the government (the Chosun Ilbo). If female citizens are assigned with "2," then male citizens are probably assigned with "1." This seems to tell you something about gender oppression in South Korea. Some people may think that this is a prime example of institutional male supremacy. Meanwhile, this also makes me question what it means that one's sex and gender is defined by institutions like government, medicine, and education. Choi Han Bit is a "qualified" woman because the government recognizes her so. Am I too Westernized here, to think of those who refuse to or do not identify as any rigid categories of gender and sex? To think of those who flexibly swim through the system of gender binary and the culture of gender norms? Do they exist in Korea too, or do they think completely differently? (I'm starting to make myself laugh.) After all, what the government tells you who you are may be one of the sources of their/our struggles, but it might not be so central to their/our real struggles.

Amidst this contemporary Korean transgender phenomenon is an interesting documentary film about three Korean FTM transgender folks, called "3xFTM." I haven't watched it yet, so I can't really offer any analysis, but the Korea Times featured the film in this article:

The film is about three individuals who may be the newspaper deliveryman or wedding banquet caterer, or the guy wearing headphones in the subway. They are normal people with normal worries, but are subject to a few more complications because they grew to become men in a slightly different way ― what can you do when your sex has officially been changed, in person and on paper, but your resume states that you studied at a girls' high school? Is being asked to strip down during the physical exam for the compulsory military service a breach of privacy rights?