Negotiating Masculinity and Male Gender Roles in Korean TV Drama

Korean TV dramas are believed to be the battlefield of the Korean feminism. Previous research has paid great attention to media’s representations of female gender roles in Korean TV dramas. However, there is an absence of study on representation of males, the indispensable counterpart in the social negotiation of gender roles. This study aims to examine the redefining of masculinity in two South Korean TV dramas, My Lovely Sam Soon and Full House, with consideration of the social cultural environment of the country. The textual analysis of the main male characters of these two TV dramas show a transformation is occurring in the representation of male gender roles. The “new manÀ and the “new ladsÀ under the Korean context are observed, as well as the recurrence of the “old manÀ and the traits of the “hardline masculinityÀ. These findings indicate a negotiating process of the masculinity in today’s Korean society.

Publisher: Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Marriott Downtown, Chicago, IL, Aug 06, 2008
Year of Publication: 2008