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Abstract:
This article discusses representations of ‘failed’ salarymen in recent South Korean television dramas
and the ways in which these representations have emerged as sites of cultural negotiation of negative
aspects of the contemporary corporate workplace, and corporate masculinity in particular. The recent
television drama series Misaeng (Incomplete Life, 2014) is an example of a post-1997 financial crisis
salaryman narrative that deals with relations of power between men, individuals and companies. Such
shows register a growing unease with the neoliberal corporate environment driven by global competitive
value systems, which are shown to be incompatible with the in-group harmony-based corporate
practices of the pre-1997 financial crisis era. As such, these cultural texts are influential sites for South
Korean viewing audiences to make sense of day-to-day experiences and social relationships in the
contemporary corporate workplace. This article illustrates how unkempt and unfashionable appearances
signify cultural resistance to new forms of governance that are seen to both oppress individual men, and
also threaten ‘authentic’ Korean cultural values. In this context, these contemporary television shows
plot the narrative return of the re-masculinized salaryman, through reclaiming and overplaying the
aesthetics and values of a working-class Korean masculinity.
Aestheticizing Authenticity: Corporate Masculinities in Contemporary
South Korean Television Dramas
by Joanna Elfving-Hwang, University of Western Australia
Volume 15, Number 1 • Fall 2017
Permalink:
usfca.edu/center-asia-pacific/perspectives/v15n1/
Elfving-Hwang
Keywords: Corporate masculinities, Korean television
dramas, body and appearance, presentation of self
Date of Publication: Vol. 15, no. 1, Fall 2017
Citation:
Elfving-Hwang, Joanna. “Aestheticizing Authenticity:
Corporate Masculinities in Contemporary South
Korean Television Dramas.” Asia Pacific Perspectives,
Vol. 15, no. 1, 55-72.
© 2014 CJ E& M CORPORATION , ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. Used wi th permissio n.
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Aestheticizing Authenticity – Elfving-Hwang
Volume 15, no. 1 ~ Fall 2017
Aestheticizing Authenticity: Corporate Masculinities in
Contemporary South Korean Television Dramas
By Joanna Elfving-Hwang, University of Western Australia
Introduction
In 2014, a television drama titled Misaeng (Incomplete Life, tvN) became a surprise hit with
audiences in South Korea (henceforth, Korea). Misaeng was first published as an online graphic novel
(“webtoon”) in 2012, and has since garnered over one billion hits on its website. The print version of
Volume 1 has sold over a million copies since 2013, and the television adaptation became
the second
most-watched cable channel television program of all time in Korea.
1
When first aired it became
little short of a cultural phenomenon for
its unapologetic yet humorous take on the
desperation that young corporate interns
face when trying to secure permanent
employment, as well as the travails of
permanent employees who struggle to
hold onto their jobs in the increasingly
precarious employment market. Online fan-
communities and media praised the series
for its “realistic” depiction of the struggles
and daily humiliations of salarymen who
have to negotiate the increasingly exploitive
corporate workplace without any real
prospects for permanent employment.2
Moreover, while romantic narratives with
attractive male actors tend to dominate
television drama ratings in Korea, Misaeng
broke the mold as the series was narrated
from the perspective of an ordinary-looking
salaryman (chigwŏn)3 and no significant
romantic plot. Moreover, the leading male
characters did not conform to the aesthetic
expectations of contemporary Korean
beauty cultures reflected in popular media,
or other hegemonic definitions of manhood
where the leading man was typically
presented as “a man in power, a man with power, and a man of power.”4 To the contrary, Misaeng
is concerned with the salaryman’s lack of power, and yet the success of the series indicates that it
clearly represents a cultural narrative that struck a nerve with viewers.5 So what resonated so much
with audiences that even the restaurant where many of the scenes were shot became a place of
pilgrimage for some viewers?6
It would be tempting to read this popular narrative as mirroring the real lives of the chigwŏn, and
there is certainly a didactic element in the way in which the show provides strategies for survival
in the changing corporate world. In this respect, the series follows many soap opera narrative
conventions in that it focuses on the failures of the main characters, who are forced to “stoically
[face] life’s problems rather than to make grandiose gestures or to seek magical solutions to
Figure 1. Sales Team 3 in the original webtoon (Yun
T’aeho, Misaeng 2012). Available at: http://webtoon.
daum.net/webtoon/viewer/15299
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Aestheticizing Authenticity – Elfving-Hwang
them.”7 However, when one examines the aesthetic representations of corporate masculinity in
this series and others like it, their narratives emerge as more than simple sites for learning about
the lives of the chigwŏn in the ruthless, neoliberal corporate world. The salaryman, whose self-
sacrificial devotion to a company in the developmental context of the 1980s and 1990s may once
have signified nationalistic masculinity, is now represented as anxious, frustrated and powerless to
withstand the exploitative corporate forces that require loyalty of their workers, but offer none in
return. Within this context, the image of the oppressed salaryman emerges as a marker signifying
masculine powerlessness, expressing – as Kimmel observes in the context of the American man –
“the feelings of men who were raised to believe themselves entitled to feel that power, but do not
feel it” (emphasis added)8, thus rendering visible the relations of power that engender such sense of
powerlessness. While patriarchy is intact and men in Korea continue to benefit from what Connell
has termed as “patriarchal dividend,” access to such dividend is not equally distributed among all
men. As Connell explains:
For instance, working-class youth, economically dispossessed by structural unemployment,
may gain no economic advantage at all over the women in their communities. Other
groups of men pay part of the price, alongside women, for the maintenance of an unequal
gender order.9
In this article I will explore how Misaeng emerges as an example of a popular televisual cultural
text that reflects Koreans’ growing unease with the competitive value systems in the workplace
which require individuals to submit to the logic of relentless investment in self (whether through
education, appearance or connections) without offering any sense of empowerment in return. While
the patriarchal gaze in Korean popular media has been explored in existing literature,10 less attention
has been paid to how men experience the increasingly precarious workplace in contemporary
Korea. Popular culture texts such as Misaeng have become effective ways of raising consciousness
of structural inequalities in the workplace, and also perform a cathartic function for the audiences.11
As representations of underdog salaryman masculinity provide male viewers with achievable and
positive “discursive positions that help [men] ward off anxiety and avoid feelings of powerlessness,”12
although this cathartic function is not the focus of this present article. While the actions of the
characters are important for the audiences to identify with their narrative development in the series,
I will focus here on how appearance and the presentation of self are utilized to signify cultural
resistance to aspects of corporate masculinities perceived as undermining “authentic” working
class masculinity. Before discussing the link between appearances and traditional masculinities in
popular culture narratives, this essay will first outline the development of masculine leads in Korean
television dramas in order to contextualize the cultural significance of the salaryman or chigwŏn as a
cultural sign of changing social conditions in the 1990s and 2000s.
Salaryman as a Cultural Sign: Contested Corporate Masculinities in South
Korean Television
In Korean public discourse, masculinity and presenting oneself as a “manly man” (namjadaun
namja) have typically been linked to notions of militarized masculinity. Seungsook Moon notes that
in this context the “warrior man” has been represented as the mythopoetic and “authentic” measure
of manhood, and military service represented as a rite of passage through which this authentic
masculinity is discovered.13 Chungmoo Choi argues that militarized masculinity is an ideal which
was constructed in the decades after the Korean War (1950-53) in cultural and state-enforced
discourses to subvert the image of an emasculated and weak male, who in cultural representations
had come to symbolize a sense of historical failure.14 In contrast to these images of “masculinity
in crisis” and the emasculated male as symbolic of individual struggles to come to terms with the
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socio-economic changes in postwar Korea, Park Chung-hee’s (1961-1979) administration promoted
a cultural meta-narrative intended to bring the nation together by quelling social unrest, and creating
a an ideal (male) citizen as part of a discourse of shared cultural identity (“Koreanness”) for the
post-colonial and divided nation. The “authentic” or “real” masculinity (and even citizenship) was
constructed in relation to nation and duty, and to valorizing strength, courage, loyalty and leadership
in men, and the ability to negotiate successfully the constraints of patriarchal capitalism.15 Within
these discourses men were represented as warriors bringing glory to the nation, whether in the
actual military16 or within the economic sphere, battling with the market forces to bring in maximum
profits to benefit the nation and their families.17
Representations of men in
Korean corporate settings in the
1990s were also not completely
dissimilar to the way in which the
Japanese sarariiman (salaryman)
was portrayed as a “corporate
warrior” in the Japanese popular
cultural imaginary.18 However,
unlike in Japan the salaryman did
not occupy quite as iconic position
in the Korean cultural imaginary
because of the emphasis on the
military as a place where young
man transitioned to full adulthood
as an act of ritual citizenship
– possibly also because Korea
had less time to develop an idealized large-scale social organization centered around the white
collar worker. This said, in the 1990s permanent employee status (chŏngjig’wŏn) at a large-scale
organization (tae’giyŏp) came to signify both masculine empowerment and success. However, cracks
in the prevailing discourse of hegemonic masculinity linked to white collar employment first began
appearing in the aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis, which brought the Korean economy nearly
to collapse and led to mass redundancies. As the Korean patriarch’s position of power had been
built on his ability to provide for the family in cultural and state-led discourses, loss of employment
meant not only the loss of income but of symbolic status as well. Public discourses about work
became increasingly gendered, and female office workers often became the first casualties of the
mass layoffs as various campaigns were initiated to protect the hardworking (presumably male)
heads of families.19 Phrases such as “Abba him naeseyo!” (“Daddy, be strong!”) were plastered on
large billboards in prominent locations around the cityscape of Seoul in an effort to lift the spirits
of the struggling patriarchs, and to encourage their families to support them. Whether or not there
was a conscious effort on the part on the government to promote patriarchal familial structure is
debatable, but there certainly was a concerted drive to allay feelings of powerlessness among men.
In public discourses of the social impact of the crisis, men were presented as primary “victims” of
the crisis, emasculated through redundancy or demotion.20 This image of the patriarch in crisis was
used to legitimate the perceived necessity of supporting the existing gendered structures, which
in turn repositioned women into the domestic support roles or into “flexible workforce” thought to
benefit the nation and society at large by safeguarding the normative family.21
On large and small screen this remasculinization was achieved in two ways. In post-1997
cinematic representations, male characters were often remasculinized as action or military heroes.22
Moreover, at the same time Korean television series began to find international markets with
Figure 2. Sales Team 3 in the television drama version of Misaeng
(Episode 18, tvN 2014). © 2014 CJ E&M CORPORATION, ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission.
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narratives that offered light entertainment in the form of heterosexual romances in which men took
the leading role in initiating and sustaining relationships, and in which the image of the hardworking
salaryman was not the only measure of masculine achievement. These new masculinities reflected
an increased fluidity in the ways in which hegemonic masculinities were understood and consumed
in the post-financial crisis era. The early 2000s saw a rise in popularity of a new kind of “soft”
masculinity, and the domestic and international popularity of the so-called kkonminam (“flower
boy”) actors such as Kwon Sang-woo (We Are Dating Now, 2002; Stairway to Heaven, 2003; Sad Love
Story, 2005; Bad Love, 2007) and Bae Yong-joon of Winter Sonata (2002) fame. Actor Bae Yong-
joon’s huge popularity in Asia following the release of the television series in Japan and Taiwan in
particular, helped to create an overseas perception of Korean men as soft, romantic and sensitive.
This image was further popularized and developed in romantic dramas such as My Girl (2005),
The 1st Coffee Shop Prince (2007) and Boys Over Flowers (2009) which featured floppy-haired and
androgynous male leads, whose images proved especially popular with young and middle-aged
female audiences. At this point, there was some anxiety in the media over whether “authentic”
Korean masculinity was under threat from being “effeminized”23 as the new “sensitive” masculinity
was embodied through a “soft” appearance, manner of speech and behavior which stood in
stark contrast to the hyper-masculine and violent male lead characters of the 1990s. However, it
should be noted that much of this anxiety was either generated by Western media, or by domestic
media’s self-searching of whether encouraging “soft” masculinities (that in fact drew much on
the Japanese bishōnen imaginary) was something that would fundamentally threaten “authentic”
Korean masculinity. Perhaps to assuage any suspicion, the male leads began increasingly to show
exposed torsos, and frequent fight scenes would also be built into the narratives without the need
to tamper with the characters’ soft, flowy hairstyles or cutting-edge fashion. In this sense, whether
one presents masculinity in ways that may be coded as “effeminate” in some Western cultural
contexts (such as the kkonminam’s soft aesthetics and attention to maintaining carefully groomed
appearances), a person’s sexual orientation is not necessarily immediately in doubt in the same way
that it might be in the West. For this reason, popular culture representations of masculinity in Korea
have often afforded male characters a significant degree of fluidity and flexibility in terms of the
aesthetics without linking fashion or use of makeup to a specific sexual orientation.24
Toward the end of the first decade of the 2000s, there was a resurgence of televisual narratives
dealing with the ruthlessness of the corporate world, and the increasing precariousness of the
contemporary workplace where no traditional other-oriented social values seemed to matter. As
companies came to be seen as increasingly hostile environments for individuals who sought to
make success of their lives as employees, a number of television dramas tapped into this sense of
powerlessness and rage, creating characters that sought to make the most of the opportunities
presented to them. Examples of such include Hot Blood (2009), Incarnation of Money (2013), Empire
of Gold (2013), Flames of Ambition (2010), The Innocent Man (2012), Bad Guy (2010) and Shark (2013),
which all used the revenge plot to present male leads who are ruthless and intelligent enough to
utilize corporate structures to their own (often destructive) ends. These characters differed from
the ideal salaryman masculinities of 1990s television dramas which featured men who were loyal to
their companies. Those characters succeeded in the corporate world by perfecting their ability to
negotiate within corporate cultures informed by Confucian structures of corporate paternalism, and
by sacrificing their individual needs for the sake of the company’s success. This aspect of Korean
corporate culture has been referred to as “dynamic collectivism,” which draws on Confucian cultural
notions of in-group/out-group distinctions where an individual’s focus is always on ensuring the
success of one’s own social group over individual gain (such as one’s work team). Cho and Yoon
argue that in the past, such a group orientation was perceived as a highly positive aspect of Korean
management culture because it tended to “reinforce the boundary between in-group and out-
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group and to intensify competition between the two groups, which in turn [made] Korean society
more dynamic and competitive.”25 In addition to considerations of competitiveness, the dynamic
collectivist organization of the corporate labor force has been observed to foster a strong “we”-spirit.
While the individual may be required to conform to the group’s or company’s values to attain shared
goals, the individual is rewarded by a strong, often homosocial sense of belonging to a “brotherhood”
and loyalty (ŭiri) to the group.
In the post-financial-crisis era, however, the widespread mass redundancies, increasing job
insecurity and the precariousness of fixed-term employment have meant that corporate working
environments have become more transactional than relational, meaning that workers became more
likely to allow individuality, self-interest and rationality to guide their actions and choices in the
workplace.26 As the government encouraged large corporations to restructure to better respond
to challenging global financial circumstances, workers were often forced to move on to precarious
contractual arrangements that created “flexible” (that is, undemanding) and self-governing
workers who were transformed into what Jesook Song calls “commodifiable labor power.” 27 New
recruits (sin’ipwŏn) in particular were envisioned as citizens who competed as for a chance to
prove themselves as exceptional and deserving to hold onto a job in the labor market that already
had a surplus of graduate employees, each one of
whom were seen as potentially disposable unless
proven useful. The alternative was to enter the world
of venture companies in which “their employment
depended on their own capacity for maneuvering,
inventiveness, and adaptation.”28 While in one sense,
the responsibility of one’s success was thus shifted on
the individual, Song goes on to point out that “these
autonomous individuals became micro-engineers of
“productive” labor as a whole and involved themselves
in the appropriation and exploitation of surplus labor
power.”29 There was a dramatic rise in the number
of irregular workers and a decrease in expectations
for companies to consider their workers” rights or
concerns (such as the right to form a labor union or fair
pay), and each worker was increasingly seen as having
to “earn” their right to stay in the company or face
being laid off and replaced by others waiting to seize
their opportunity to prove themselves.30 Consequently,
many workers now feel very little to no emotional
connection with or loyalty to their companies. In this
context, You-me Park notes in her nuanced analysis
that corporate masculinities now intersect with profit-
driven neoliberal ideologies in ways that have created
“toxic cultural practices” requiring individuals to
measure up to a “quasi-utilitarian criteria of productivity and consumption” that effectively reduces
the workers themselves to the status of a function more so than an individual. What is more, Park
notes that the measures by which success is defined are by and large unobtainable and require
constant effort which is unlikely to be rewarded with long-term work prospects.31 Moreover, the
uneven ways in which individuals have fewer resources to constantly invest in themselves leave
a growing number of citizens vulnerable to precarious economic realities. Park argues that both
Figure 3. Figure 3 Team Leader Oh
Sang-sik in the original webtoon (Yun
T’aeho, Misaeng 2012). Available at:
http://webtoon.daum.net/webtoon/view-
er/15299miseng
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militarism and neoliberalism “both justify their absolute power to adjudicate whom to let live and
whom to let die by resorting to idealized forms of masculinity and heroism” from the past, but in
ways that rarely guarantee an individual success in the present.32
However, while “heroism” and militarism are still expected, the transactional way in which the
individual salaryman is positioned within the system simultaneously requires them to develop a
degree of detachment from others in order to pursue individual goals. In this sense, contemporary
corporate salarymen may feel disempowered not only by the unequal level of resources to compete
with other, but also by the culture of corruption and cronyism that often marks contemporary Korean
work cultures and large scale corporations in particular.33 Unsurprisingly, television representations
of corporate masculinities are marked by ambiguity and ambivalence about previously essentialized
and relatively stable notions of presumably “authentic” masculinities. The South Korean corporate
workplace is increasingly shown to be a place of alienation rather than of belonging, and a place of
powerlessness rather than empowerment.
Negotiating Masculine Power in the Precarious Workplace
It is in this context that the televisual representations of the Korean salaryman have recently
witnessed a reincarnation of the anxious, but immensely likeable anti-hero. Anxious and insecure
male characters have featured in Korean popular culture since the Korean War, but what sets
these anti-heroes apart is that despite being full of self-doubt and fear of failure, they emerge
in many ways as positive role models to the modern man. While vulnerable to abuses of power,
the characters are determined to find workable solutions to their predicament. The root of their
struggles is not that they are lazy or incapable, but that they lack the right connections (yŏnjul) to
achieve permanent employment (chŏnggyujik) – or refuse to use them to gain shortcuts. As noted
previously, this predicament is rooted to real work-life conditions, as the first two decades of the
2000s have also witnessed a significant rise in youth unemployment and the one of the highest
rates of youth inactivity as university graduates struggle to secure permanent employment.34
The rapid casualization of the Korean work force has meant that over 30% of the waged and
non-self-employed work force is now on non-permanent contracts (pijŏnggyujik).35 The lack
of secure employment opportunities occurs in tandem with more global management styles
and reorganization of the work force, which has meant a shift away from the harmony-oriented
management practices described above. The in-group harmony-focused corporate management
practices of the pre-1997 financial crisis era were replaced in the post-Crisis era by practices that
emphasized individual attainment over the previous group-oriented performance appraisal. A
shift toward constant self-monitoring and improvement through “ability- and performance-based
appraisal, appraisal feedback, merit pay and 360-degree appraisal” has increased the possibility of
being singled out for redundancy36 and one’s level of anxiety about job security. More significantly,
the focus has shifted increasingly to the individual’s own responsibility to ensure their employment.
Nelson has termed this as “elaborated ethos”37 under which an individual’s failure to succeed in
the corporate workplace is never blamed on the company’s structural weaknesses which prevent
them from thriving and developing, but on the individual’s inability to adapt to the demands of
the workplace. As a result of precarious contractual arrangements and a decreasing emphasis on
values such as dynamic collectivism, a feature of the new corporate culture has been constant self-
surveillance and competition, as well as the willingness to “endure (kyŏndita or ch’amta) present
privations or troubles for future rewards.”38 Furthermore, such vulnerability to redundancy has
also meant that bullying (kabjil), which refers to a superior being abusive to their workers just
because they can, has become a feature of contemporary corporate cultures. Such practices include
humiliating subordinates verbally or requiring bodily display of absolute self-effacement. This aspect
of Korean corporate culture is perhaps the most unfortunate mix of traditional and global in as much
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as Confucian hierarchies are kept in place, but are stripped of traditional ethics of reciprocity and
affection (chŏng) that would have previously regulated (at least in part) some of the more extreme
aspects of bullying.
Given the toxic mix of hierarchical social structures which concentrates power in the hands
of a few, and performance-based appraisal systems which focus on the individual actual realities
of corporate cultures in Korea, it is perhaps no surprise that parody and humor in particular have
increasingly become the vehicle through which the nationalistic ideology of the white-collar
patriarch as the imagined ideal of hegemonic Korean masculinity is both critiqued and problematized
in contemporary popular cultural texts. Successful television dramas that focus on the lives of
the underdog have included series such as Queen of the Office (2013), which pokes fun at the
precarious lives of contract workers who are willing to go to almost any length to secure permanent
employment; History of the Salaryman (2012), which parodies office politics and performance-driven
corporate cultures focused on short term gains;39 Ms Temper and Nam Junki (2016), which features
a male lead who is the ultimate, yet utterly likeable, yes-man; and Neighborhood Lawyer Jo Deul-Ho
(2016), which followed the struggles and victories of a self-made man and lawyer. What all of these
narratives share in common is that rather than simply lamenting the sorry state of the contemporary
salaryman, their protagonists actively reject both the capitalist symbolic economy which values
material possession over other things and a neoliberal logic according to which an individual is
required to constantly engage in self-cultivation (chagi kyebal) to survive in the competitive and
changing corporate environment. Instead, the main characters draw on older moral code to guide
their social interactions, which are defined in terms of absolute loyalty to the in-group, shared gains
and harmony – even in a workplace which does not ultimately care for their wellbeing.
An (In)appropriate Presentation of Self as a Critique of Hegemonic Corporate
Masculinity in Misaeng (Incomplete Life)
It is in the context of (non)belonging, homosocial in-groups and their relation to renegotiating
contemporary corporate masculinities that I now turn to discussing the presentation of masculine
selves in Misaeng (tvN, 2014) as a counter-corporatist critique of self-oriented neoliberal
masculinity. In this section of this essay, I will analyze representations of corporate masculinities
through the aesthetic gaze that the viewers are invited to fix on the main male characters as a
reflection of their return to traditional “other-oriented” values and social practices. I argue that in
these cultural narratives of masculinity in Misaeng, appearances are coded as aesthetic points of
resistance to the “inauthentic” performance of greed-driven, individualistic and global masculinity.
However, rather than signifying a crisis of masculinity40 in Korea, resistance to conform to sleek
corporate appearance in popular television narratives such as Misaeng emerge as visual reminders
of (or nostalgia for) lost authenticity and to reorient hegemonic corporate masculinities toward
traditional other-oriented social values.
Misaeng centers on the experiences of Chang Kŭrae, a 26-year-old temporary worker
(kyeyagjig’wŏn), who narrates his desperate effort to succeed in gaining an elusive permanent
contract in a large trading company. Yun T’ae-ho, the author of the original webtoon Misaeng, aimed
to capture this sense of struggle both in the storyline and the visual narrative of the manhwa.41
Chang Kŭrae’s point of view as a “newbie” is utilized as an effective narrative device that allows the
audience to learn about the world of office politics from a perspective of an only partially-informed
narrator as the audiences are rarely given information about the decision-making processes of
the executive board. Instead, the viewer experiences the workplace through Chang’s point of view
where minor tasks (such as writing a report) are seen in isolation from wider corporate aims, but
at the same time fill his whole purpose within the company. Moreover, Chang Kŭrae is physically
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slight and unimposing, with androgynous facial features and awkward social skills. As such, he is
scripted as the ultimate disempowered “yes-man” whose very name, “Kŭrae,” translates as “yes I
agree.” Despite having enjoyed some significant success as a baduk (a popular but difficult Korean
board game) player, his lack of connections and formal education are shown to have barred him
from securing permanent employment in the past and taught him determination to take every
insult and order unquestioningly to succeed. As such, he is presented as the ultimate disciplined
individual, trained to benefit the company and not himself through – as Foucault notes – its “specific
technique of a power that regards individuals both as objects and as instruments of its exercise.”42
After passing a grueling series of company entrance tests, he is overjoyed with relief to join “One
International” with four other new entrants (sinipjawŏn) on a two-year contract, and is assigned to
Sales Team 3. Sales Team 3 is headed by a hardworking and capable team leader by the name of
Oh Sang-sik,43 whose tendency to make decisions on moral grounds and refusal to sacrifice team
members have cost him a number of promotions which he otherwise would have been expected
to have been due. The third member of the team is a good-natured character Kim Dong-sik, who
has been equally unlucky in his career
thanks to his loyalty to Team Leader Oh.
Ultimately, none of the characters succeed
in the greed-driven and individualistic
workplace because of their decision to
resist its disciplinary practices. However,
it is precisely this process by which the
characters are shown to actively resist
neoliberal logic that prioritizes individual
attainment and success over that of the
team, that is presented to the audiences
as the proof of their moral character, and
a comforting cultural sign of “authentic”
Korean masculinity that also makes the
series resonate with the audiences.
Central to Misaeng is the way in which
corporate ideologies are critiqued and parodied both through overplaying selected disciplinary
signifiers of corporate masculinity (such as obedience and subservient body language when dealing
with superiors or clients) whilst on other occasions, certain idealized external markers of success
(such as expensive suits and watches) are passed over by the main characters as unnecessary.
Moreover, none of the characters in Sales Team 3 are shown to focus on maintaining a disciplined
and well-groomed appearance. The refusal to maintain the suave corporate appearance expected
of a chigwŏn is significant here because it allows the director to visually juxtapose characters with
shabby appearance as signifiers of dynamic collectivism (willingness to sacrifice for one’s team for
common good) with characters who are well groomed but also willing to forgo the needs of the
group to pursue their own gain. It is important to note here that an appropriate presentation of self
– both in terms of behavior and attire – has traditionally been considered very important in Korea,
and it is difficult to understate how much symbolic value is put on the maintaining of age and class-
appropriate appearance in professional contexts. In contemporary Korea, the idea of appropriate
appearance is typically linked to one’s real or aspirational class status, and in professional contexts
follows very closely Erving Goffman’s observation of how “a given social front tends to become
institutionalized in terms of the abstract stereotyped expectations to which it gives rise.”44 However,
the importance of appearances also goes beyond simply mimicking an appearance deemed suitable
to a given profession, and draws on much older Confucian ideas of how the body and self are
Figure 4. Team Leader Oh Sang-sik in the television series
Misaeng (Episode 6, tvN 2014). © 2014 CJ E&M CORPORA-
TION, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission.
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perceived as indivisible – quite unlike the Cartesian duality of immaterial mind and material body.
Lee Seung-hwan notes in his analysis of Confucian conceptions of body-mind, thinking about the
relations between appearance and inner self, “the self is the body in which the corporeal and the
spiritual are inseparable” (emphasis added).45 This idea draws on the belief that the self cannot
be “hidden” on the inside of an individual subject, because the inner self is always and necessarily
available to others to “read” as signifiers of the inner qualities each individual on the surface of
the body. Because of the perceived unity between the mind and the body, the surface of the body
(individual gestures, behavior, and facial expressions) becomes the agent through which propriety
(or li) is expressed in social contexts through a properly maintained and presented body. During
the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910) a truly righteous gentleman (sŏnbi) was expected to project his
inner virtue via an orderly outward
appearance. The appearance
appropriate to one’s status was
then validated and acknowledged
“by the intersubjective gaze of the
community,”46 which in turn made
the individual socially “visible” as
an outstanding and successful
member of a particular social
group. There is a high degree of
continuity between this principle
and the way in which the self is
presented in the contemporary
workplace (and other contexts).
Displaying appropriate external
signifiers of white-collar corporate
masculinity through appearance, fashion, behavior and grooming are important ways of signifying
not only an appropriate appearance for a salaryman, but an individual’s economic value to their
organization. Even cosmetic surgery and various facial treatments such as fillers and frequent
treatments of microdermabrasion are utilized to ensure a well-kempt and fresh appearance that
belies the physical effects of stressful work environments, and to signify not only youth and strength
but also a disciplined body that is valuable to the organization.47 Fashion is used to signify class
status (aspirational or real), and hair and skin care play an important role in creating an important
impression of age-appropriate or class-appropriate status. Consumption of beauty practices and
a presentation of a class- or profession-appropriate appearance are therefore closely tied to the
accumulation of social capital through reinforcing existing social hierarchies, and a strategy to
make visible one’s willingness to appear as a disciplined body that is of value to the organization.
Moreover, self-presentation is also considered a statement about one’s inner self: a disheveled
appearance signaling unease on the inside, and inappropriate clothing signifying lack of moral
judgment and respect to others.48 Because a tidy appearance is encoded as a signifier of an “orderly”
inner self, a disheveled appearance is considered discourteous toward others because an unruly
presentation of self raises questions about the mental state (or physical health) of the person and
can cause anxiety in others. A neat, orderly appearance with a dress code appropriate to one’s social
status and role is therefore considered a basic form of social etiquette (yewi).49
It is in this context that the characters’ “scruffy” appearances and overplayed markers of
humility to superiors are utilized strategically in Misaeng as “flawed” performances of hegemonic
corporate masculinities. The donning of unfitting suits and presenting an unkempt (ch’orahada)
appearance can be read as signifiers of the main characters’ unease with and inability to mimic the
Figure 5. The outside space where pretenses are dropped
(Episode 8, tvN 2014). © 2014 CJ E&M CORPORATION,
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission.
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Aestheticizing Authenticity – Elfving-Hwang
hegemonic ideals, as well as resistance to the disciplinary power of self-cultivation (chagi kyebal),
and markers of their inner distress about the inauthenticity and cruel nature of the contemporary
workplace. The visual aesthetics of the television drama adaptations of online cartoons such as
Misaeng typically borrow heavily from the original webtoons, albeit occasionally there is some
element of “fine tuning” to ensure that the main character appears more palatable to broader
audiences. Example of such can be seen in the case of the television show Neighborhood Lawyer
Jo Deul-ho (KBS, 2016) in which both the titular character and his female assistant lawyer were
presented as significantly more kempt and attractive than the same characters in the original
webtoon. In the original version Jo Deul-ho sports stubble, carelessly tied necktie and an ill-
fitting old suit, whereas his assistant is presented as a bookish wallflower without the typical
manga aesthetics of an attractive woman. In the small screen adaptation the appearances of both
characters have been altered to better correspond to audiences’ aesthetic expectations of normative
beauty, which in turn has the effect of lessening the visual effect of their potentially transgressive
appearances unsuited to the high-flying world of the law courts.
The visual representation of the main characters in the television adaptation of Misaeng, on
the contrary, is truer to the original webtoon in terms of how the presentation of the self is used
to signify unease with the values (or perceived lack of values) of current hegemonic corporate
masculinities. These visual signifiers that mirrored closely the original webtoon were a conscious
choice on the part of the director (Figures 1
and 2).50 From the start of the series, main
character Chang Kŭrae’s unease with his ill-
fitting suit, his initial inability to fix a tie, and
even his androgynous facial features mark
him as an outsider. It is his appearance that
causes other characters to initially deem
that he, if anyone, is a dead-end candidate
destined never to secure permanent
employment. His soft-spoken and anxious
manner is picked on from the start by those
around him, and he is advised to learn
assertiveness if he is to achieve his goal of
permanent employment. However, he turns
out to be a perfect fit for the Sales Team 3
as Oh Sang-sik and Kim Dong-sik are shown
equally reluctant to conform to either the attire or hairstyle expected of a worker in a global trading
company. In the original webtoon version, Oh Sang-sik’s disheveled appearance – with perpetually
blood-shot eyes and a stubble – and Chang Kŭrae’s ill-fitting suit are even more accentuated than in
the television series version, clearly signifying their “outsider” status (Figures 3 and 4).51
Their abject status in the corporate machinery is heightened by the way in which everyday
existence is presented as a constant struggle for survival. As many of the themes in Misaeng deal
with the unrealistic demands put on the sales team as they work to ensure the best profits for their
company under nearly impossible trading environment, their workdays require them to choose
between moral integrity and survival in the work place. For this reason, the office and the business
world are often described as a battlefield or a war zone. However, rather than being “warriors for
the nation” or even the corporation they work for, the men are shown to fight for the survival of
their immediate team. On the contrary, the company is presented as nothing more than a stage on
which the individuals perform their daily struggle. After years of service and personal sacrifice, Oh
Sang-sik realizes that in the corporate space the individual has been reduced to nothing more than
Figure 6. Business cultures as ritual humiliation (Episode
8, tvN 2014). © 2014 CJ E&M CORPORATION, ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission.
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their perceived economic value, and that neither effort nor ability can guarantee one’s success.
The company is no longer a “safe place” that offers a lifetime of protection and security. In fact, in
Chang Kŭrae’s frequent voiceover narration the corporate world is described either in the language
of competitive baduk, or as a war zone, in which survival can never be guaranteed and annihilation
can only be postponed through careful strategic thinking and planning. This war zone mentality
is reinforced through the settings in which most of the work takes place: in the confines of the
impersonal office environment in which the individual is constantly open to attacks from other teams
in the company. The only place of relative safety is on the roof space of the office building, where
Oh Sang-sik’s team frequently retreats to plan their next move, away from the prying eyes and ears
of other teams that are plotting their demise (Figure 5). The “war zone” mentality thus critiques the
flawed logic of self-governance and internal competition as clearly damaging to the company.
Outside the office, and when attempting to win new business for their team, even entertaining
potential customers is described and planned in the language of war. The mise-en-scène for the
shots are framed in dark, claustrophobic night clubs into which the team “descends” – as if to the
netherworld – in order to seal deals at the expense of their dignity and health after long hours of
drinking games and excessive alcohol consumption. These scenes relate to Korean business culture
practices where suppliers are typically expected to provide potential buyers with entertainment,
which sometimes can be very costly. For Sales Team 3, the “entertainment” – aside from pouring
drinks for their customer – is shown to consist mostly of the ritual humiliation of Oh Sang-sik and
his team (Figure 6). Chang Kŭrae’s voiceover accompanies his concerned gaze as he observes their
vanishing chance to clinch a deal: “We panicked even before we could load our guns” (Episode 8).
Chang Kŭrae’s point of view is again utilized here to draw the viewer’s attention to the pathetic
ways in which true emotional connections as a means of building lasting business relationships
have been transmuted into practice of gabjil (bullying) and bribery. The audience is invited to
witness the pathetic heroism of the common salaryman as their feigned enjoyment appears tragic
and humiliating. Chang Kŭrae’s gaze thus both bears witness to the heroism of Oh Sang-sik (with
whom Chang has formed a son-like attachment and genuine sense of loyalty) in Oh’s marionette-like
performance and condemns those who humiliate Oh for their own twisted entertainment (Figure 7).
Throughout the series, the embodied performance of the expected external signifiers of
corporate masculinity are thus revealed as inherently false and not a basis for a meaningful
identity. The pathetic and exaggerated demonstrations of humility and subservience to superiors
and business partners belie any real meaning attached to them in ways in which the salaryman
masculinity may have once signified devotion and loyalty to the extended in-group of the company.
The series openly critiques the excessive entertainment practices of both superiors and customers,
which are purely shown as transactional (and thus immoral and ultimately meaningless) rather
than relational (the ideal). In some scenes where signs of humility might be expected, markers of
respect which in the past would have been read as genuine communicative tools representing power
relations of domination-subordination are taken to the extreme in the form of over-exaggerated
bows and self-effacement. The self-humiliation of the salaryman thus marks him both as the
abject of the corporate system and the signifier of the system’s corrupt and empty nature for the
individuals within it. Moreover, scenes of elaborate corporate entertainment are juxtaposed with
scenes depicting the moment after the “battle” for business, featuring images of pathetic drunken
men, spent and desperately ill after overconsumption of alcohol. The workers barely conscious and
vomiting from binge drinking, their expelled bodily fluids are symbolic of their own position in the
corporate machinery.
While on the one hand the behavior of the characters (Oh Sang-sik in particular) can be read as
a spectacle of powerless salaryman masculinity for the audience to witness, as the series progresses
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Oh’s disheveled appearance comes to signify the character’s authenticity. Observing the desperate
“battles” fought in nightclubs to win a deal, and practices of gabjil in the office, Chang Kŭrae’s
persistent gaze makes Oh Sang-sik’s inner human virtues visible to those around him. Rather than
signifying a self in crisis, Oh’s unkempt appearance is thus used to suggest his refusal to pretend
that the system works: a marker of his inner authenticity juxtaposed against well-presented but
“inauthentic” corporate masculinity. Through the process of making contemporary hegemonic
masculinities visible, their precarious discursive foundations are thus revealed as inauthentic
and contradictory and their value as a
measure of success is contested.52 In
this context, Oh’s character emerges as
the ultimate superior man (sŏnbi) both
because of his moral fiber, and because
he becomes everyman’s hero in his
ingenuity to survive in the corporate
world. The title of the series, Misaeng, is
taken from the piece of advice that Oh
Sang-sik gives to his new intern: “Since
you have entered the company, do your
best to hang in there (pŏt’ida). In this
place, sticking with it (pŏt’ida) is winning,
and enduring (pŏt’ida) can perhaps be
seen as moving toward complete life
(wansaeng). We are still living incomplete
lives (misaeng).” (Misaeng, Episode 8.) In this sense, Oh becomes perhaps paradoxically a true sŏnbi
in a Confucian sense in that he earns his subordinate’s respect through displaying “internal virtue […]
manifested in his face, people see it, are admonished by it, and voluntarily submit to it.”53 His virtue,
however, is not derived from a pursuit or display of wealth, but on traditional values of loyalty (ŭiri)
and genuine affection (chŏng) for his team.
By positioning the character of Oh Sang-sik as an archetype of authentic Korean masculinity
which is defined by one’s moral character, Misaeng thus presents a cultural counter-discourse that
aims to reclaim hegemonic masculinities from neoliberal materialism. The ending implies, however,
that integrity can only be found and upheld outside the system. Despite their best plans, global
corporate values are presented as alien to the other-oriented traditional values of the characters
because the system is set up to bring the maximum benefits to the company and the overseas
investor rather than the Korean individual. Ultimately, then, the narrative undermines faith in the
neoliberal corporate structures, while providing an ode to chŏng as the true connection of affection
that was traditionally thought to bind workers together in meaningful harmonious relationships.
Misaeng’s narrative also focuses on homosocial bonding as a precondition for respectful
relationships and survival: the workplace is claustrophobic, but it is so because of individual workers’
willingness to buy into the logic of transnational business masculinities as a norm that builds on
“the competitive individualism of contemporary business ideology.”54 So while on the one hand the
narrative illustrates how corporate workers buy into the logic of entrepreneurship of the self (or
self as an object of entrepreneurship) – as reflected in their conformity of maintaining corporate
code of dress and appearance55 – the main characters appeal to the majority of working men who
know that they will never be able to reach the executive ladder of the corporate sector. Therefore,
through presenting a critical perspective embodied in the refusal of the main characters to buy
Figure 7. Chang Kŭrae’s concerned gaze witnesses
Oh Sang-sik’s forced masquerade of joy (Episode
6, tvN 2014). © 2014 CJ E&M CORPORATION,
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission.
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into the aesthetic conformity of the corporate world, the male characters in this drama present a
powerful cultural counter-discourse to transnational business masculinities. Transnational corporate
masculinities are presented as an anathema to “authentic” Korean masculinity defined by shared
cultural values, rather than entrepreneurship of the self.
Conclusion
This article has discussed how transgressive appearances and overly compliant parodying
of social signs of respect and humility present embodied sites of critique and resistance to
contemporary neoliberal hegemonic masculinities. In Misaeng, the underdogs are depicted as truly
manly men (namjadaun namja) not because of their accidental successes in mimicking the corporate
ideal of the disciplined individual, but because of their desire to maintain traditional Korean values.
While it should be pointed out that these “traditional” values are of course as much a product of
social discourses that go back no further than the “New Village Movement” (Saemaŭl undong) of
the 1970s, the success of the program and the way in which these flawed characters have resonated
with the viewing audiences suggests a broader desire to resist individual-centered work aspirations
as the new norm. In many ways then, these narratives work to reclaim Korean or national masculinity
back from what is seen as inauthentic (and perhaps foreign) pursuit of individual gain. The return of
the unprivileged but hardworking “common man” who has no connections to speak of (or refuses to
utilize them as a matter of principle) and whose unsophisticated adherence to traditional values sits
uneasily within the competitive corporate landscape, emerges as an uplifting cultural narrative that
rejects domination and neoliberal logic as desirable markers of hegemonic masculinity. Symptomatic
of the growing unease with the increasingly alienating landscape of the Korean corporate cultures,
the common corporate worker is once more presented as the place of return, a site of cultural
counter politics of resistance to the more negative aspects of the contemporary corporate cultures
which normalize abuses of power through engendering neoliberal technologies of the self.
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ENDNOTES
1. Webtoons (web-based comics/graphic novels) have become extremely influential in the contemporary
Korean cultural context, and their wide popularity indicates the role they play in shaping popular attitudes
toward social issues, cultural values and even politics. The most popular webtoons deal with issues of
social importance to average citizens, and often address issues that are highly topical as the serialized
online publishing format allows for a quick process of getting creative content out at minimum risk.
Unlike television miniseries which usually tend to rely on recycling ‘safe’ subject topics because of their
high production cost and need for high viewer ratings to recoup their costs, webtoons have arguably
become one of the most accessible outlets for the dissemination of new creative content and imaginative
story lines. Similarly to the way in which many popular literary works of 1970s and 1980s Korea were
turned into film adaptations, television producers have turned to webtoons to source popular content
for television miniseries (Byung-yul Baek, “Webtoons emerge as source for dramas, films,” Korea Times
January 27, 206, http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/culture/2016/01/201_196512.html). As story
lines which garner a significant number of hits online are taken as indicators of wider popular interest
in the topic addressed by a given webtoon, television producers are increasingly developing a more or
less symbiotic relationship with webtoon artists. Conversely, the webtoon authors also benefit from TV
drama success which can lead to increased sales of print copies of their work. This was the case with
Misaeng, which has since the broadcasting of the TV series sold over two million copies, and became the
best-selling print book in 2014. (Mi-hwan Oh, ‘Misaeng’ webtoon and drama… the manhwa sells 2 million
copies, Hanguk Ilbo 26 November 2014:
http://hankookilbo.com/v/8461169c914644f29bf394ead162913c
)
2. Sung-Mi Ahn, “’Misaeng’ syndrome grips the nation,” Korea Herald (English edition), November 12, 2014,
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20141112000845.
3. While the term “salaryman” (saellerimaen) was in use in Korea until the 1990s, the terms “hoesawŏn”
(company worker) and “chigwŏn” (employee) are more commonly used today because of their gender-
neutral connotation.
4.
Michael Kimmel, “Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity,”
in Feminism and Masculinities, edited by Peter F. Murphy, 182-199 (Oxford: OUP Oxford, 2004), 184.
5. Sung-won Yoon, “Office Workers are already Missing ‘Misaeng,’” Korea Times December 21, 2014, h t t p : //
www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2014/12/133_170293.html
6. Denny Hong, “Explosive Success of Korean TV Drama Misaeng,” Korea Today, Episode 722, Arirang
Television Broadcast, Seoul: South Korea, 11 December 2014.
7. Christine Gledhill, ‘Speculations on the Relationship between Soap Opera and Melodrama,’ in American
Television:New Directions in History and Theory, edited by Nick Browne, 123-144 (New York: Routledge,
2013), 135.
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8. Kimmel, “Masculinity as Homophobia,” 194.
9. Robert Connell, “Politics of Changing Men,” Australian Humanities Review 4 (December 1996), http://www.
australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-Dec-1996/connell.html.
10. See for example: Yeran Kim,“Idol Republic: the Global Emergence of Girl Industries and the
Commercialisation of Girl Bodies,” Journal of Gender Studies 20, no. 4 (2011), 333-345, https://doi.org/10
.1080/09589236.2011.617604; and CedarBough T. Saeji, “Juvenile protection and sexual objectification:
analysis of the performance frame in Korean music television broadcasts,” Acta Koreana 16, no. 2 (2013):
329-365, https:// doi.org/10.18399/acta.2013.16.2.003.
11. After the final episode of Misaeng aired, the government introduced a proposal for a new law to improve
the working conditions of workers on temporary contracts. While no claim is made here that the proposal
was in any way linked to the television drama discussed here, the fact that the plan was dubbed ‘Chang
Kŭrae Protection Law’ after the main protagonist of Misaeng, speaks of the iconic status that the main
character had taken in the public imaginary (see Steven Denney, “South Korea’s New Labor Plan Looks
to TV Drama,’ The Diplomat, December 31, 2014, http://thediplomat.com/2014/12/television-drama-and-
south-koreas-new-labor-plan/)
12. Raewyn Connell & James Messerschmidt, “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept,”Gender and
Society19, no. 6 (2005): 842, https:// doi.org/10.1177/0891243205278639.
13. Seungsook Moon, “Trouble with Conscription, Entertaining Soldiers: Popular Culture and the Politics
of Militarized Masculinity in South Korea,” Men and Masculinities 8, no. 1 (2005): 66, https://doi.
org/10.1177/1097184X04268800.
14. Choi, Chungmoo, “Nationalism and Construction of Gender in Korea,” in Dangerous Women, Gender &
Korean Nationalism, edited by Elaine H. Kim and Chungmoo Choi, 9–31 (New York and London: Routledge,
1998), 20.
15. Seungsook Moon, “Begetting the Nation: The Androcentric Discourse of National History and Tradition in
South Korea,” in Dangerous Women: Gender & Korean Nationalism, edited by Elaine H. Kim and Chungmoo
Choi, 33-66 (New York and London: Routledge, 1998), 42.
16. Jin-kyung Lee, “Surrogate Military, Subimperialism, and Masculinity: South Korea in the Vietnam War,
19 6 5-73,” Positions 13(3) (2009): 660, https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-2009-019.
17. See Jongwoo Han and L. H. M. Ling, “Authoritarianism in the Hypermasculinized State: Hybridity,
Patriarchy and Capitalism in Korea,” International Studies Quarterly 42 (1998): 65, https://doi.
org/10.1111/0020-8833.00069; and Hyun Joo Yoo Murphree, “Transnational Cultural Production and the
Politics of Moribund Masculinity.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 16, no. 3 (2008): 662-663, Project
MUSE.
18. Romit Dasgupta, Re-reading the Salaryman in Japan: Crafting Masculinities. Routledge/Asian Studies
Association of Australia East Asia series; 13 (New York: Routledge, 2013), 29.
19. Seung-kyung Kim and John Finch, “Living with Rhetoric, Living against Rhetoric: Korean Families and the
IMF Economic Crisis,” Korean Studies 26, no. 1 (2002): 123, http://doi.org/10.1353/ks.2002.0008.
20. Kim and Finch, “Living with Rhetoric,” 127-130.
21. Jesook Song, South Koreans in the Debt Crisis, the Creation of a Neoliberal Welfare Society (Durham:
Duke University Press, 2009), 52.
22. Films dealing with the troubled North-South Korea relations such as Swiri (1999), JSA Joint Security Area
(2000) and Last Witness (2002) can be seen as examples of such. The number of Korean War films
which focused on brotherhood and heroism under extreme stress, such as Taegugki: The Brotherhood of
War (2004) and Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005) also focused on characters who suffered trauma but
found comfort in building strong homosocial ties over fighting for a just or common cause.
23. Roald Maliangkay, “The Effeminacy of Male Beauty in Korea.”IIAS Newsletter55 (2010): 6-7.
24. This said, willingness to resort to acts of violence has continued to feature as a marker of
hypermasculinity in popular culture whether or not the male lead character is carefully groomed or not.
Moreover, where a character is represented as queer or gay, this is often achieved through excessive,
camp “gay gesturing” (kki) rather than through clothing and use of makeup.
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25. Yung-Ho Cho and Jeongkoo Yoon, “The Origin and Function of Dynamic Collectivism: An
Analysis of Korean Corporate Culture,” Asia Pacific Business Review 7(4) (2001), 71, https://doi.
org/10.1080/713999116.
26. Yung-Ho Cho, Gyu-Chang Yu, Min-Kyu Joo, and Chris Rowley, “Changing Corporate Culture over Time in
South Korea,”Asia Pacific Business Review20(1) (2014), 11, https://doi.org/ 10.1080/13602381.2012.755321.
27. Song, South Koreans in the Debt Crisis, 96.
28. Ibid., 98-99.
29. Ibid., 99.
30. Shin, Kwang-Yeong, “Economic Crisis, Neoliberal Reforms, and the Rise of Precarious Work
in South Korea,” American Behavior al Scientist 57, no. 3 (2013): 340, 347; https://doi.
org/10.1177/0002764212466241.
31. You-Me Park, “The Crucible of Sexual Violence: Militarized Masculinities and the Abjection of Life in
Post-Crisis, Neoliberal South Korea,” Everyday Militarism42(1) (2016), 19, https://doi.org/10.15767/
feministstudies.42.1.17
32. You-Me Park, “The Crucible of Sexual Violence,” 20.
33. Jean R. Renshaw,Korean Women Managers and Corporate Culture Challenging Tradition, Choosing
Empowerment, Creating Change,Routledge Studies in the Growth Economies of Asia (Florence: Taylor and
Francis, 2012), 72-73.
34. Byoung-Hoon Lee and Kim Jong-Sung, “A Causal Analysis of Youth Inactiveness in the Korean Labor
Market,”Korea Journal52, no. 4 (2012): 140-142.
35. Korean Labor Institute Statistics, “Employment Report 2015,” December 2015, f i l e : ///C : /
Users/00081053/Downloads/2015_%E2%85%A1_Employment.pdf
36. Woo Jun and Chris Rowley, “Change and Continuity in Management Systems and Corporate Performance:
Human Resource Management, Corporate Culture, Risk Management and Corporate Strategy in South
Korea,”Business History56, no. 3 (2014), 495. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00076791.2013.809522.
37. Laura C. Nelson, Measured Excess: Status, Gender and Consumer Nationalism in South Korea (N e w Yo r k :
Columbia UP, 2000), 187.
38. Nelson, Measured Excess, 187.
39. History of the Salaryman (SBS) reached a staggering 21.7% of the total audience share when the final
episode was broadcast in March 2013 (AGB Nielsen, 2013).
40. Todd W. Reeser, Masculinities in Theory, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, 27-28.
41. Yoon Tae-ho, “Introduction,” in Misaeng, ajik sar-a itji mothan cha, Vol 1: 4-6 (Seoul: Wuijŭdŏm hausŭ
2012), 5.
42. Oh Sang-sik’s name is again a play with words, and can be translated as ‘Oh common sense,’ which
ironically is shown not to take him very far in the fictional company of One International Trading.
43. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (London & New York: Penguin Books, 1990
[Originally published by Anchor Books, 1959]), 37.
44. Seung-Hwan Lee, “The Social Meaning of Body in Confucian Tradition: Between Moral and Political
Power,” Korea Journal 44 (2) (2004), 9.
45. Seung-Hwan Lee, “The Social Meaning of Body,” 10.
46. Joanna Elfving-Hwang, “Cosmetic Surgery and Embodying the Moral Self in South Korean Popular
Makeover Culture,” The Asia-Pacific Journal 11, Issue 24, no. 2 (June 17, 2013), 2.
47. Joanna Elfving-Hwang, “Old, Down and Out? Appearance, Body Work and Positive Ageing among
Elderly South Korean Women,” Journal of Aging Studies 38(2) (2016), 10, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jaging.2016.04.005
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Joanna Elfving-Hwang (PhD Sheffield University, UK) is Associate Professor of
Korean Studies at the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. Her research
focuses on beauty, cultures of cosmetic surgery and sociology of the body in Korean
popular culture and society.
48. Joanna Elfving-Hwang, “Old, Down and Out,” 9-10.
49. “Making of Misaeng,” Misaeng TV Series Deluxe Set (Director’s Cut), DVD Disk Set (Seoul, South Korea: CJ
Entertainment, 2015). The way in which the link between the original webtoon artwork and the television
series was also emphasised in the innovative marketing material for the program in which each of the
actors in character were shown as ‘half-drawn’ cartoon characters (see for example: http://program.tving.
com/tvn/misaeng/13/Contents/Html).
50. See http://webtoon.daum.net/webtoon/viewer/15299 for examples of these aesthetics.
51. Connell and Messerschmidt, “Hegemonic Masculinity,” 836-838.
52. Seung-Hwan Lee, “The Social Meaning of Body,” 18.
53. Raewyn Connell and Julian Wood, “Globalization and Business Masculinities,” Men and Masculinities 7(5)
(2005), 353, https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X03260969.
54. Connell and Wood observe similar conformity in dress code and even political opinion in their study of
Australian corporate masculinities in “Globalization and Business Masculinities,” 353.
