Gotta agree, smells like a wide swath of female representation to me, too, Yeong
The King: Eternal Monarch Catches Plenty of Hate Online Why That Is, And Why You Should Feel Free to Ignore It
(presented in parts for @dumbassdictionarysds)
Part VII: Ladies Just Bein’ Ladies…Hating on Ladies?
[because this begins with another “controversy”, sort of piggybacks on Part VI]
Subjects of the Kingdom, Citizens of the Republic, and (as always) Gentle Readers, Wikipedia cites some outrage regarding two lines in the first episode given to women. [Outrage in the sense that viewers in Korea complained to an official agency there about them: “the Korea Communications Standards Commission issued an advisory warning against the series for scenes that challenged gender equality after viewers complained that those scenes promote fixed gender stereotypes.”-wikipedia quoted]
The lines in contention were PM Koo’s remark above about her bra, and an unnamed female character with Seung-Ah (Na-Ri’s counterpart) calling for the men at the rowing competition to wear less [clothing].
No argument, here, Gentle Readers, both of these lines are exceptionally clunky from a “good dialogue writing” standpoint alone, and as such I honestly count them among total outliers within the series as a whole, as nothing like them ever gets said again (though, for the record, their content—as opposed to their delivery—did not affect or offend me at all. [I fail to see how Koo’s body positivity flex ‘promotes fixed gender stereotypes‘] Koo’s is specifically meant as a character-building interaction, and probably a flex. It’s even clumsier b/c it’s rendered so formally, especially since she’s talking to another woman who is frisking her for security purposes. It would have been less clunky as, “sorry I tripped the sensor, but my boobs are too big not to wear an underwire”).
[As for the woman’s aside at the rowing competition, I frankly fail to see how a female character employing the Female Gaze and being vocal about liking to see men sweat and wear less clothing “promotes fixed gender stereotypes”.]
Yes, fandom had it out for PM Koo, which I admit puzzles me—especially in a show with so MUCH female representation. We can’t have greedy women bad guys who flex about their bra size? I loved that she was [spoiler] an evil PM. But I loved even more that she was constantly shown being REALLY GOOD AT HER JOB despite her (in-show) haters.
Even Lee Gon, her close frenemy, found her an effective diplomat, and textually a politician he could work with. Yes, she was ultimately an antagonist, but well-written and performed female characters aren’t all condemned to be purely “good”, are they?
ARE they? [I have never seen this film. It is possible Nurse Ratched is a poor gif to place here wrt the point I am making]
[A little research will show how aspirational many kdramas are when it comes to portraying women in powerful roles, as this practice (bravo to it!) does not give a true reflection of actual Korean society where, for example, the gender wage gap is among the worst in developed countries. Viewing PM Koo and her quick-route to power (queen for life!) in light of such facts does give a Westerner pause, and adds an additional pause when I start to mull over the SKorean anti-feminist movement and those complaints about Koo’s comment “promoting fixed gender stereotypes”, and how those complaints could actually have come from people threatened and displeased by a woman being represented as the country’s PM.
It seems fair to at least suspect the real world hate Koo caught was not so different from the in-show disdain her male counterparts seemingly had for her. I’ve seen what I’ll label as ‘disappointment’ among viewers that Koo did not end up being a bright light of all that is good as a lady and the most powerful politician in the Kingdom, which smacks to me of a cloaked type of misogyny, masquerading as concern about women’s representation.]
As for female representation, I don’t know how anyone can deny that it’s a delicious smorgasbord, here. Jeong Tae-Eul as the nuanced, multi-faceted female lead, Na Ri as an entrepreneur and holder of power in both universe iterations; there are two important women shown as officers at the Republic’s police station, the court of Corea has Lady Noh as its indisputable head who can even tell the King how to behave, the servants of the Royal Court in Lee Gon’s reign are overwhelmingly female (barely a ‘eunuch’ to be seen after the night of the treason), Royal Court Press Secretary Mo is female (and in the final ep she’s used to make an explicit point about women on the job). There is only a single female in the Royal Guards that we meet (which I admit saddens me) and until he attempts to bring PM Koo on-board, the traitor R/Lee R/Lim has only a single woman willingly in his employ.
And yet we have PM Koo’s male secretary loyally choosing to leave with her as she’s removed from office, we have JTE’s Chief Park’s wife holding positions of civic power in both universes, we have JTE’s parents TOGETHER running the Tae Kwon Do Center, mom a black belt, and we have King Lee Ho and Gon’s mom meeting as intellectual equals (she’s a scientist noted enough to be giving lectures, and must have had some degree of notoriety)! I mean, this list goes ON and ON and ON and I love it. Shout-out to PM Koo’s mom running her own fish shop, as well as to the lady (probably evil) running the care center for Lee Lim. Lady characters don’t seems to be getting shortchanged, here.
...and then we felt bad for the antagonist
And a bevy of women are shown as single parents (as, of course, are JTE’s dad and King Lee Ho), or de facto single parents (where’s Koo’s dad?) (how long has Kang Shin Jae’s dad been incarcerated?)
Again, a smorgasbord of female representation. The top three most powerful people in the working and private life of Lee Gon are, in fact, all female. [PM Koo, Court Lady Noh, and arguably Secretary Mo]
I hate to say it, but if you only want to see perfect, heroic, old-fashioned and sweet female princess characters who ‘stay in their lanes’ and don’t challenge the men [and women] in their lives, you might hate this show.
