Homosexuality In South Korea

Personal Taste and Sungkyunkwan Scandal both portray gay men on a range – one that is questioning his orientation and one that is pretending to be gay, although the last scenario would hardly take place in a conservative society. Plenty of papers and theories have been written about the gay culture in western media but the conservative view on homosexuality in South Korea indicates that very less has been written about the issue academically and if they are written so, they happen to be written in Korean and translations are not made available. Therefore much reliance is made on theories whose writers are situated outside of South Korea.
In Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity (Theorizing Masculinities, edited by Harry Brod and Michael Kaufman, Sage Publications, 1994. 119-141), Michael Kimmel talks about homophobia being fear of being exposed or unmasked as not a real man, rather than being fear of being gay or discriminating against gay men. He writes that the definition of manhood is inherently tied to not being a ‘sissy’ and therefore men tend to have a hyper-masculine disposition to make sure that they are not perceived as …show more content…
According to MacDonald, Personal Taste showcases the negative reaction that Koreans might face when coming out – the character of Choi Do-Bin is a dignified character who discusses the humiliation his preference has caused in