Traditional Gender Roles
Historical interpretations of Korean gender roles are androcentric and traditionally place women outside the locus of public culture (Ruhlen, 1998, p. 40; Kim & Kim, 2015). For Korean women, these gender roles are rooted in the creation of the country itself, in both the country’s origin myth of Tan’Gun, and the widespread adoption of Confucianism as a national philosophy in the 2nd century, continuing through the advent of Christianity later in the 18th century (Ruhlen, 1998, p.41; Kim & Kim, 2015). The core of these ideologies place women in inferior positions to men in culture. In Confucianism, the concept of the five central relationships relocates women to one relationship: man and wife. Additionally, codified norms such as the pressure to be married at a young age—to a family-chosen spouse—and to enter motherhood early are also tenants of this philosophy (Lee, 2012). The Confucian expectations for women are best expressed by the title of Helen Lee’s (2012) article, “I’m my mother’s daughter, I’m my husband’s wife, I’m my child’s mother, I’m nothing else”. This statement can be interpreted to mean that women may face multiple obstacles when trying to establish a personal identity within Korean society and that the identity they have is directly dependent on the relationship of the males around them. The Korean public rapidly adopted Christian ideology (Catholicism and Protestantism) in hopes of modernizing the country (Kim & Kim, 2015, p. 35).2 Under this new popular belief system, women were afforded more prominent social power, including personal identities through baptismal names. However, “the public sphere in South Korea remained androcentric and hostile because of the Confucian legacy” (Kim & Kim, 2015 p. 295). Furthermore, through various ideological changes, the country has retained rigid binary gender expectations. Neoliberal economic and political shifts have also had a strong impact on gender relations, including in how the gender binary plays out clearly in K-pop.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Traditional Gender Roles
- Contemporary Gender Roles and Neoliberalism
- Gender Roles and the K-pop Industry
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgments
- Recommended Citation
- Bibliography