The “Strong Woman” series have created a new scenario for Asian female super heroes
A normal life with marriage, childbirth, parenting, and endless care has become something far fetched for Western female super heroes. However, the JTBC drama “Strong Woman Do Bong-soon” has another way to tell a super hero story. It was a drama in which a small, soft and cute young woman struggled to control her power.
In the drama, Do Bong-soon (Park Bo-young), who scolds the powerful villains while being a wife of a supporting husband.
The gender reverse storyline is even further emphasized in the spin-off “Strong Woman Gang Nam-soon.” Nam-soon (played by Lee Yu-mi) is girl with a superpower inherited from her mother. In her family, only women own the power and they are outstanding figures who have self-made themselves successful.
While Do Bong-soon’s mother and Bong-soon herself was once ashamed and felt like she was cursed with her power, the women in Nam-son’s family have no complex and do not shy away from it. To go a little overboard, it can be said that the drama comically transferred the premise of gender subversion.
Under this setting, the drama makes the inner gender conflict itself that Do Bong-soon experienced in 2017 an old story. With the slogan “Save the World,” Nam-soon tries to perform her role as a hero justly without fear in revealing her ability.
In addition, Nam-soon’s reunion with her mother is also not the conventional cliché of tears and runny noses, but rather during a hero practice of her jumping into the fire and saving people.
The most prominent part of “Strong Woman Gang Nam-soon” is definitely the mirroring of gender roles. Women play the role of breadwinners. Men only have to be good at housework. There is also demand for daughters, not sons, to pass on superpowers in the family.
Nam-soon and her mother are not afraid to express their affection for the man they love. Nam-soon gives Hee-sik (Ong Seong-woo), who he met for the first time, an affectionate look, saying, “He’s handsome.”
In this way, women in the “Gang Nam-soon” completely ignore the gender patriarchy in expressing their affection or desires.
The way Nam-soon’s mother treats her is also different. Rather than saying that she is pretty and nice, her mother tells her what a super hero should do to save the world. She teaches that the meaning of earning a lot of money with her superpowers is not to spend and show off but to benefit the world.
Source: Daum
