Popular Culture Review
through his progressively growing relationship with Ga Eul. A dismissive
attitude toward women that marks the traditional masculinity of Korean culture
is illustrated by the F4 in Episode 1, when three of its members, Jun Pyo, Woo
Bin, and Yi Jeong, are watching Jan Di getting harassed by other students on
a television. While they are watching this, Woo Bin and Yi Jeong make a bet
with each other to see how long she could endure the poor treatment. If Woo
Bin wins, then Yi Jeong has to give one of his handcrafted bowls to a girl that
Woo Bin had been trying to “hook-up” with. If Yi Jeong wins, Woo Bin needs
to give him the numbers of girls that he names the “super” girls. This scene
shows Yi Jeong’s initial feelings about women as being mere prizes.
Another example of Yi Jeong’s patriarchal and dismissive attitude
toward women occurs in Episode 4. While talking with Ga Eul at his house, Yi
Jeong tells Ga Eul that it would be best that Jan Di breaks-up with Jun Pyo,
because their relationship is impossible. Ga Eul then leaves Yi Jeong’s house
angrily. Woo Bin then arrives at Yi Jeong’s house and sees Ga Eul angry and
asks Yi Jeong if she was mad because Yi Jeong tried to “hit” on her. Yi Jeong
smiles and says, “She is not my genre. I really don't like tacky things” (referring
to Ga Eul). This scene shows Yi Jeong’s tendency to typify girls as objects of
sexual desire who exist to please men.
As the series continues, however, Yi Jeong’s view of women slowly
shifts. After seeing his divorced, professor dad kissing yet another beautiful,
younger girl student, he drives off ferociously. While driving around the city, Yi
Jeong sees Ga Eul sitting on stairs on the sidewalk in tears, sobbing over the
fact that her boyfriend cheated on her. Yi Jeong pulls over, picks her up, and
brings her back to his house. He grabs one of his hand-crafted cups and drops
it, but it doesn't break. He tells her, “To become strong this is what you have
to go through, just like what you went through today” (Episode 9). This scene
shows that Yi Jeong is starting to see women as more than objects, and, indeed,
he remembers a past relationship with a girl; “A girl is like a math problem. I
that Yi Jeong used to think that women are just objects or problems waiting to
be solved.
The denouement of Yi Jeong’s journey toward the new man persona
occurs in Episode 23, when Ga Eul goes to visit Yi Jeong at his house. Yi
Jeong is stepping on clay, when he apologizes to her for his actions when they
went to meet his father. Then he asks Ga Eul if she wants to try and step on
the clay with him, and she does. This simple image encapsulates Yi Jeong’s
main storyline: he no longer believes in women as objects, but as equals to
men as they step on the clay together, symbolizing his new egalitarian beliefs.
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