This study is designed to analyze the rapidly emerging fantasy dramas from a feminist perspective. The goal is to understand the unchanging notions and perceptions of women inherent in contemporary pop culture and to expand the research horizon of tel ...
This study is designed to analyze the rapidly emerging fantasy dramas from a feminist perspective. The goal is to understand the unchanging notions and perceptions of women inherent in contemporary pop culture and to expand the research horizon of television dramas by revealing the gender typicality embodied in fantasy characters. The analysis targets were selected from fantasy dramas with human motifs that had high view-ratings. A total of eight dramas were subject to analysis: <My Love from the Star>, <Guardian: The Lonely and Great God>, <The Legend of Blue Sea>, <Hotel Del Luna>, <I can hear your voice>, <Another Miss Oh>, <A Girl Who Sees Smell>, <Strong Woman Bongsoon Do>
The analysis concluded that a typical gender/gender image, which has been embodied and criticized in television dramas with a background of everyday life, is being replicated hiding in the drama's imaginary character under the name of fantasy. Gender stereotypes, sexist portrayals are more explicit than in the dramas based the real everyday life. The characteristics were as follows.
In the case of imaginary characters in fantasy dramas, ① love is an adjunct to adventure for men, but for women it is the starting point, purpose, and everything. ② In addition, male characters may lead all situations related to women without women knowing, but female characters do not know this. ③ Male characters become guardians of women when they are in love, and rather than horizontal, they form like adult-child relationships. The female character was a lack of annoyance or concern to the male, but the moment the male recognizes it as an object of love, she wins the status of the guardian. ④ Male characters accurately recognize their ontological positions and abilities, while female characters are uncertain and unstable beings who do not know much about themselves or deny their identity. ⑤ Male characters protect/save women at their knees, but female characters cannot even save themselves. ⑥ Male characters' abilities complete themselves and lead the situation, but female abilities are often used to complete male needs, and their effects are limited by males. ⑦ Despite being a superpower, the male character's abilities were used proactively to control/adjust the natural order and human situation, while the female fantasy characters' abilities were incompletely utilized in defensive and restrictive situations.
Existing gender-typical images were explicitly implemented for characters with superpowers in fantasy dramas, but, like everyday-based dramas, they crossed the boundaries of typicality by building a deficient/harmless male image with boyhood. Juvenile sex was transformed into masculinity as a guardian of women through superpowers. They also all showed incompleteness and non-dangerous masculinity in men who were not completed without women.
In general, in everyday life-based television dramas, the heroes was described as a member of a chaebol family, a noble status or a capable professional, arrogant, feisty, but friendly only to a loved woman. Along with those characteristics, the hero of a fantasy drama has the ability to pick stars. Accordingly, fantasy television dramas are rebuilding an ideal male image that satisfies the desires of female viewers. Thus, "fantasy" was understood as a subgenre of romance, not a new genre of television drama. The fantasy of drama creates imaginary order through the rearrangement of symbols and norms that viewers are familiar with. The imaginative character of fantasy dramas could be evaluated as the result of the rearrangement of existing normative symbols and a replica of existing order. These results did not differ between terrestrial, cable, and general TV dramas.