LGBTQ+ Subtext in 'The King's Affection:' A Case Study in Balancing Subtext and Outright Homosexuality When Creating Media in Conservative South Korean Society
As you may recall, I got my roommate hooked on Netflix's romance period K-drama, "The King's Affection," last month. With the streaming giant having just released the series finale two days ago, it got me thinking. How does conservative South Korean society balance LGBTQ+ themes in their media?
I have a theory.
What Is "The King's Affection?"
"The King's Affection" is a South Korean romance period drama that centers around the relationship Park Eun-bin's Dami, a girl who becomes the Crown Prince of Joseon, and Rowoon's Jung Ji-woon, a royal tutor.
When the royal family gives birth to a set of twins, one boy and one girl, an ominous sign at the time, the King orders the girl's death. Little does the royal family know, the girl, Dami, makes her way back to the palace as a court maid. When Lee Hwi, the Crown Prince, discovers a court maid with the same face as him, he begins switching identities with her to escape his constricting palace life. During this time, Dami also meets Jung Ji-woon, the son of an inspector, and the two become each other's first love.
One day, while out as Dami, the real Lee Hwi is assassinated, leaving Dami to assume her twin brother's identity as the Crown Prince of Joseon. Years later, after Dami has closed herself off emotionally from everyone to protect herself and the ones who know her secret identity, Ji-woon reenters her life when he becomes a royal tutor. However, with Dami assuming Lee Hwi's identity and Ji-woon unaware of this, how can their love story flourish? That question is what the series seeks to answer.
LGBTQ+ Themes and "The King's Affection"
Right off the bat from the story synopsis, a couple key LGBTQ+ themes emerge.
One, there's a possible trans element at play since Dami is masquerading as a man to be Crown Prince. Similar to stories like "Mulan," if anyone finds out about Dami's true identity as a woman, we're told that not only will she die, but so will everyone around her who knew about her secret. Interestingly, in episode 13, when Dami is finally afforded the opportunity to operate in society dressed as a woman, she observes that she feels much more comfortable and at home in men's clothes. When she changes back into men's clothes partway through the episode, she remarks, "I finally feel like I am in the right clothes."
Two, while the audience and other characters, such as Nam Yoon-su's Lee Hyun, the other leg of the core love triangle, know about Lee Hwi's true identity for much of the story, Ji-woon is very much unaware of this fact until episode 13, when Lee Hwi reveals her identity to him. In fact, prior to this episode, it's clear that Ji-woon has fallen in love with Lee Hwi, not questioning why he has feelings for someone who is presumably a man. This acceptance of Ji-woon's feelings toward Lee Hwi creates obviously romantic situations in the show between two supposedly male characters, which begs the question: How are two characters from South Korea's Joseon Dynasty so accepting of a relationship with so much LGBTQ+ subtext?
LGBTQ+ Subtext and Conservative South Korean Society
Known for its globally influential pop culture in the form of K-pop and K-dramas, South Korea is a surprisingly conservative country with a great proportion of its citizens being Christian. Because of this, South Korea's track record when dealing with the LGBTQ+ community hasn't been great.
When Hong Seok-cheon came out as a gay man in 2000, many thought it would be the end of his career. Within a day of his confession, Hong was fired from his TV program and his family was put under a lot of scrutiny. Despite 20 years passing since Hong's coming out, he remains the most prominent openly gay celebrity in South Korea.
With this societal context, it may then be confusing why South Korea would produce a show about a presumably gay relationship between the Crown Prince and his tutor. After all, it's a lot easier to accept and understand the proliferation of films and TV shows featuring LGBTQ+ stories from Taiwan, the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage and the only Asian country to hold Pride parades. (If you haven't already, check out "Your Name Engraved Herein," a 2020 Taiwanese romance film about a gay male relationship in 1980's Taiwan, on Netflix.)
However, I feel that shows like "The King's Affection" exist as a middle ground that allows a more conservative South Korean audience to explore a LGBTQ+ relationship without having to fully commit to watching one unfold. Since the audience knows Lee Hwi is a woman and because the character is played by Park Eun-bin, a female actress, it's more acceptable for a conservative society to engage with a LGBTQ+ relationship onscreen. If at any point, the relationship between Lee Hwi and Ji-woon feels uncomfortable to the audience, they can always comfort themselves with the thought that it's still a heterosexual couple onscreen at the end of the day.
While some might view this as a cop-out by the writers of "The King's Affection," the Netflix series still represents an important step forward. While we would all love it if South Korean writers and broadcasters felt they could openly explore an onscreen LGBTQ+ relationship, it may be better for the society to gradually explore the nuances of such a relationship through small step forward like "The King's Affection." Just as the fantasy and science fiction genres generate enough distance between the world of the audience and that of the story to allow audiences to consider topics that would otherwise be deemed to sensitive, half-steps forward like "The King's Affection" also allow for audiences to more candidly engage with the subject matter without feeling their morals are under attack. Additionally, as audiences are granted more exposure to LGBTQ+ relationships, the depictions of LGBTQ+ relationships normalizes them and might make people more willing to open up and talk about them.
After all, no matter how much you may want to hide from it, Jung Ji-woon is canonically in love with someone whom he believes is a man in "The King's Affection." Even if he finds out later that Lee Hwi is a woman, Ji-woon was in love with Lee Hwi as a man first, and that's a queer relationship that we can all get behind.
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