#lgbtstoriesweek 🌈 day 2: canonically lgbt (’19 prompt) ➜ kang tae wan (sweet munchies) (x)
Buckle your seatbelts, you’re in for a ride.
First of all, I want to start by saying that I recognise the weaknesses of this drama. It is true that the male lead is lying about his sexuality. It is wrong and shouldn’t be justified. But I’m here for second-lead-but-actually-main-lead Kang Tae Wan. Please join me as I explore why he’s so fricking important.
However, in my humble opinion, it is naive to assume that Tae Wan is not in control of the narrative in Sweet Munchies. When in fact - everything points to the fact that he does. Kang Tae Wan is gay. We know it, although he is closeted for the majority of the drama. This is a very powerful thing to witness on Korean television. You might say “we’ve seen it in this drama and that drama”, but Sweet Munchies is treating Tae Wan with utter care and the execution is..often just brilliant. Tae Wan is the SECOND LEAD of this drama, he’s not a side character or the female lead’s distant cousin who shows up once. He’s THERE, present and vulnerable and we KNOW he’s gay.
Yes, this is the cable television, but don’t forget what JTBC went throught with Seonam Girls. Kang Tae Wan is not queer-baiting, and even talks about his sexuality later down the road. Throughout the series, there is sadness and discomfort radiating from Tae Wan. He wants to fit in, he wants to be a larger part of his friends’ circle, but he’s holding back because he’s in love with Jin Sung and..what will happen if he comes out and is heartbroken once again?
I want to give you an example of how the lighting directing is brilliantly describing Tae Wan’s emotions. This is the scene outside Jin Sung’s store in episode, when he is about to confess:
Tae Wan is standing there, and the lights shift between all the colours of the rainbow. It is apparent that his stagnant life is about to have a 360 degree change, because he’s about to come out. What I find the most endearing about this confession is that he lets it all out, and I don’t even think he’s hearing Jin Sung trying to interrupt him. Throughtout the drama, Tae Wan’s been looking up to Jin Sung’s “braveness”, but in reality, he was healing the wounds in his own heart and trying to come terms with the fact that there IS a place for him in society, among people who will love and cherish him and accept him for who he is. Will his heart break? YES. Will I cry and be infuriated? YES. But was the confession a step in the right direction for Tae Wan’s future? YEEES.
You see, dramas don’t exist on our screens alone. They’re created by people with opinions and emotions, and within countries that operate with their own set of norms and expectations. To have Kang Tae Wan, a gay character, on television is huge. And to have him laugh, fool around, follow his dreams and fall in love? It’s also HUGE. As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in a western country. And though we often think the West is far ahead of a lot of other countries in terms of LGBTQ+ rights, we have to acknowledge and learn that the Korean media we are consuming comes from a country that hasn’t acknowledged queer rights. We can fight and hope for better representation in the future, but we can’t expect Korean media to immediately come around and give us a queer lead because we’re seeing progress in our respective countries. That’s not how the world works. What we can do is appreciate and talk about the drama and continue to raise awareness.
But representation is so important, and Kang Tae Wan IS in the centre of Sweet Munchies. I have yet to see a viewer we actually agrees with Jin Sung’s choices. And perhaps, just perhaps, Jin Sung is rightly supposed to make us mad, because he represents the ignorance that is very much normalised all over the world. Jin Sung doesn’t know much, but he also assumes he can fake this because his brother is gay, too. But he CAN’T, and the show doesn’t shy away from making him uncomfortable (as he should be). I can’t imagine what Tae Wan means to people who can relate to him the most, but I hope he radiates som light in their lives. I do think the director is doing a very good job at portraying Tae Wan as the very center of this story. JS’s the fake gay chef, but Tae Wan’s his stylist, the one he meets in the fitting room, the one who keeps visiting him at his shop, the one learns to love himself. The drama does NOT make us forget who Tae Wan is. When he’s on-screen, we adore him, and when he’s not, we miss him. The creators are not perfect, but they know exactly what they’re doing. When is art ever not intentional?
Kang Tae Wan’s love for Jin Sung represents a lot more than romance. Tae Wan’s learned to come out of his shell, be vulnerable and open about his feelings, he’s learned to TRUST and is willing to give people a chance and let them into his world. So, while Sweet Munchies is flawed, so is the real world. But just as queer people have every right to fight for their rights and existence, so does Tae Wan. Change does not come over night, but dammit, Tae Wan is just so VALID. And, yes, he deserves to be happy by the end of the drama. Because they really can’t leave us hanging after developing him this much.
Listen, to not only Tae Wan, but to every other voice that is silenced in societies that could and should do better for their minority groups.
(Also shoutout to @sebumis and @achiara for always listening to my rants, discussing and making so many good points, and for watching this with me!!)
