nimwoo
Germany
This review may contain spoilers
Is this the only topic that can be written about women?
'Why Her?' is a drama I had been looking forward to ever since it was announced, mostly because Seo Hyun Jin is one of my favorite actresses, but also because it was going to be Hwang In Yeop's first major leading role, and it had Bae In Hyuk included in the cast, both of which are new actors that I'm keeping my eye on. I hadn't read much about the plot when it was announced, nothing more than it being a story in the legal world and about a professor and student relationship. I don't really have a problem with teacher-student plots, as long as it's not set in a high school with a weird romanticization whenever they cross paths, or just look into each other's eyes, especially while solving math problems with a borderline psychopathic enthusiasm *side-eyeing Melancholia*.
Oh Soo Jae is a confident woman, who has escalated high up in the ladder by her own means, surviving in a tough male-dominated field, despite not having the expected educational background for people in her position. I'm still not sure about how to feel about this because the drama has not explained yet how she managed to land such important positions in a top 10 law firm as only a high school graduate, and I don't think a person with her qualifications can actually land a teaching job at a law school, but then again this is 1) fiction and 2) she was given the position, so it's not like connections can't solve everything in this case.
Then we have our male lead, Gong Chan, whose age we are still unclear about and I would personally love to have it addressed because I can totally ship him with a successful professor in her early(?) 30s if he's above 24 years old, maybe? But if he's any younger it would make me a bit uncomfortable. He spent one year in prison and it looks like he was already out of school when the murder of his step-sister happened, so he must be at least 22 years old, I would say? It would be nice if they throw in that he already served in the army, so that he would meet my desired age of 24, and then I would have peace of mind while watching the show.
But anyway, my problem is not really about either main character, or the story so far at all, but with a recurrent topic not only in 'Why Her?', but also thrown into many Kdramas nowadays.
Ep 1 starts with Oh Soo Jae's character introduction, showing the viewer she is a tough woman with no support from her coworkers or other colleagues even outside her law firm, except for her assistant and some guy that looks like he would kill on his boss' command, whoever that is. We see many graying middle-aged men (boooo) despising our female lead over the littlest things, and basically, just for being a capable woman in the industry, some of those trying to use her to their own convenience. We also see Oh Soo Jae on two occasions (if I recall correctly) sitting alone in the middle of her fancy apartment, once again showing the viewer that she may be tough on the outside, but she feels the loneliness of her lifestyle once she is all on her own.
The plot continues with a case of a woman suing her client over sexual harassment and this is where my problem starts. In order to understand why I find this so incredibly unnecessary and problematic, we would need to contextualize this drama in the place from where it comes: the South Korean society, where women's rights are violated multiple times, and —as mentioned in the Ep about three times, and inappropriately (in my opinion)— where the law is never on the woman's side in sexual harassment claims, as well as a place where sex crimes against women are one of the highest in the world, from 'developed countries', and where women have it overall really bad in this sense.
So we see our (flawed) female lead shaming the alleged sexual assault victim, giving her 'reality checks', making her feel even more miserable, despite the victim's attitude not being the particularly stereotyped attitude of a victim, and here is where I have another problem. Sexual assault victims are expected to be ashamed of themselves, to be depressed, to be in mental hospitals trying to recover from it, and overall visibly suffering, but if a woman is confident and recovered speedily from this horrible situation, then questions arise over whether she was actually assaulted or not. And we see this quite clearly in the show. Park So Young had a nonchalant attitude, quite relaxed, giving off a vibe that she's actually a gold digger and not a real assault victim. Now, I have two problems with it. One, as mentioned, sexual assault victims react differently to their assaults, some and most, actually, take it really badly and will need a lot of time to recover from it, if ever, but some are actually able to continue with their lives and it doesn't mean that they did not suffer from the assault, or that they do not deserve justice. Just because a woman is not suffering doesn't mean the predator doesn't deserve to be thrown in jail. It is unclear whether the sexual assault actually took place or not, but this is just overall dangerous to the already very stigmatized view of sexual assault victims.
Now, if Park So Young was actually lying and was a gold digger, I really don't think this is something that should be shown on dramas either. Not only in South Korea, but everywhere in the world victims of sexual assault are always questioned, doubted, shamed, and re-victimized when they come forward to raise their voices and confess that they are victims, so to raise the question in a drama where an alleged sexual assault victim is suing a powerful man perpetuates this idea and reinforces it, showing that "women can also lie about sexual assault". Now I'm not saying that this can't happen, but the percentage is very low, compared to actual assault victims that are still dismissed and never believed. It's disappointing that this drama is both written and directed by women, yet they use this problem as a plot accessory.
Actually, I have another problem with this. I don't think South Korean women, or women who watch this drama in general, need to hear from another woman the horrendous things that Oh Soo Jae told Park So Young when facing a sexual assault lawsuit. Yes, I'm sure this is just to show that our female lead is flawed and to set a standard about where she needs to start changing (which we see in Ep 2), but I personally can't really see a reason to use this specific 'flaw' on a female lead to show the viewers that she will change in the future.
Not satisfied with the female lead shaming her, the victim ends up killing herself by suicide (as we know so far), and becoming 'the flaw' of our female lead's career. Making a woman in a high position become the target of public shaming because another woman allegedly committed suicide after being raped and shamed about it really doesn't sit right with me. The drama entirely forgot the main point, that a woman being raped, and completely focused it on the female lead shaming her and leading her to suicide. I know this is how people would view it in real life, that they would shift the blame from the predator to the other woman because it's easier to blame women than predators. I know it's all true, but again, I just don't see why *this* needs to be the starting point, or the breaking point, for our female lead.
Now we have an awful start for our drama (in terms of content, not really that the drama started off badly), and we continue the drama with not only one or two, but three more cases of sexual assault. All in one ep. All to different women. Our female lead is groped and sexually harassed by a disgusting professor, then a female student is again groped and sexually harassed by said disgusting professor, and on top of everything, our male lead was previously and falsely convicted of raping and murdering his step-sister. The drama started with a sexual harassment plot, and continued with three more because obviously, that is the only thing that can be written about women, right?
This is exactly my problem: I really don't understand what's the recurrent fixation of Kdrama writers with including so many sexual assault instances in the plot. It feels like all or most recent dramas have a sexual assault minor or major plot point, all on different levels, but all there. I just don't think women need to be reminded of this when we see it all the time in the news, and it's not like it exactly helps with the 'raise awareness' attempt, because sexual predators are not the ones watching these shows so it will not prevent anything, and men who could help either already know this happens, or don't care at all, so showing this constantly on dramas will not really produce any impact in their lives. So at the end of the day, the only people being affected by this are women watching these shows, despite having to see this in our daily lives, reading news about femicides all the time, and overall facing sexual assaults on different levels every day.
Also, I might be wrong, but more than having 4 cases of sexual assault in 2 eps of a drama, I think not hiring an ex-convict of sex crimes would make a more powerful statement against sexual predators and would help to build safe places for women in the industry, so that the risks of being sexually harassed while working would reduce at least one bit, but that's just me, I guess.
Anyway, this review of only two eps is already very long, but I needed to get it out of my chest because it's something that has been bugging me a lot from dramas lately (lately being like, 2 years), but this drama was really just over the top with it.
Overall, the show looks promising if they focus it well on the romance part without neglecting the law part, but I really hope we don't have to see a certain graying middle-aged man too much (preferably not ever again), or just too many powerful, middle-aged men trying to screw our female lead over. Also, on another, totally unrelated side, I think it's funny that our female lead has not only one younger romantic interest, but two, which is uncommon because we usually see only one younger love interest in noona romances, while the love triangle develops with another, older and successful, daddy-like second male lead. But here we have two, both of which have a past connection with our female lead, and who look like they will form a nice brotherhood, so I'm actually looking forward to future eps of this drama, and I hope my complaints disappear quickly and my expectations are met so that I can enjoy this drama fully.
TL;DR: Our female lead is the perfect successful femme fatale with two completely eye-candy younger romantic interests, but our Kdrama writers have a passion for sexual assault victims and cannot go one day without including sexual assault in their works.
Oh Soo Jae is a confident woman, who has escalated high up in the ladder by her own means, surviving in a tough male-dominated field, despite not having the expected educational background for people in her position. I'm still not sure about how to feel about this because the drama has not explained yet how she managed to land such important positions in a top 10 law firm as only a high school graduate, and I don't think a person with her qualifications can actually land a teaching job at a law school, but then again this is 1) fiction and 2) she was given the position, so it's not like connections can't solve everything in this case.
Then we have our male lead, Gong Chan, whose age we are still unclear about and I would personally love to have it addressed because I can totally ship him with a successful professor in her early(?) 30s if he's above 24 years old, maybe? But if he's any younger it would make me a bit uncomfortable. He spent one year in prison and it looks like he was already out of school when the murder of his step-sister happened, so he must be at least 22 years old, I would say? It would be nice if they throw in that he already served in the army, so that he would meet my desired age of 24, and then I would have peace of mind while watching the show.
But anyway, my problem is not really about either main character, or the story so far at all, but with a recurrent topic not only in 'Why Her?', but also thrown into many Kdramas nowadays.
Ep 1 starts with Oh Soo Jae's character introduction, showing the viewer she is a tough woman with no support from her coworkers or other colleagues even outside her law firm, except for her assistant and some guy that looks like he would kill on his boss' command, whoever that is. We see many graying middle-aged men (boooo) despising our female lead over the littlest things, and basically, just for being a capable woman in the industry, some of those trying to use her to their own convenience. We also see Oh Soo Jae on two occasions (if I recall correctly) sitting alone in the middle of her fancy apartment, once again showing the viewer that she may be tough on the outside, but she feels the loneliness of her lifestyle once she is all on her own.
The plot continues with a case of a woman suing her client over sexual harassment and this is where my problem starts. In order to understand why I find this so incredibly unnecessary and problematic, we would need to contextualize this drama in the place from where it comes: the South Korean society, where women's rights are violated multiple times, and —as mentioned in the Ep about three times, and inappropriately (in my opinion)— where the law is never on the woman's side in sexual harassment claims, as well as a place where sex crimes against women are one of the highest in the world, from 'developed countries', and where women have it overall really bad in this sense.
So we see our (flawed) female lead shaming the alleged sexual assault victim, giving her 'reality checks', making her feel even more miserable, despite the victim's attitude not being the particularly stereotyped attitude of a victim, and here is where I have another problem. Sexual assault victims are expected to be ashamed of themselves, to be depressed, to be in mental hospitals trying to recover from it, and overall visibly suffering, but if a woman is confident and recovered speedily from this horrible situation, then questions arise over whether she was actually assaulted or not. And we see this quite clearly in the show. Park So Young had a nonchalant attitude, quite relaxed, giving off a vibe that she's actually a gold digger and not a real assault victim. Now, I have two problems with it. One, as mentioned, sexual assault victims react differently to their assaults, some and most, actually, take it really badly and will need a lot of time to recover from it, if ever, but some are actually able to continue with their lives and it doesn't mean that they did not suffer from the assault, or that they do not deserve justice. Just because a woman is not suffering doesn't mean the predator doesn't deserve to be thrown in jail. It is unclear whether the sexual assault actually took place or not, but this is just overall dangerous to the already very stigmatized view of sexual assault victims.
Now, if Park So Young was actually lying and was a gold digger, I really don't think this is something that should be shown on dramas either. Not only in South Korea, but everywhere in the world victims of sexual assault are always questioned, doubted, shamed, and re-victimized when they come forward to raise their voices and confess that they are victims, so to raise the question in a drama where an alleged sexual assault victim is suing a powerful man perpetuates this idea and reinforces it, showing that "women can also lie about sexual assault". Now I'm not saying that this can't happen, but the percentage is very low, compared to actual assault victims that are still dismissed and never believed. It's disappointing that this drama is both written and directed by women, yet they use this problem as a plot accessory.
Actually, I have another problem with this. I don't think South Korean women, or women who watch this drama in general, need to hear from another woman the horrendous things that Oh Soo Jae told Park So Young when facing a sexual assault lawsuit. Yes, I'm sure this is just to show that our female lead is flawed and to set a standard about where she needs to start changing (which we see in Ep 2), but I personally can't really see a reason to use this specific 'flaw' on a female lead to show the viewers that she will change in the future.
Not satisfied with the female lead shaming her, the victim ends up killing herself by suicide (as we know so far), and becoming 'the flaw' of our female lead's career. Making a woman in a high position become the target of public shaming because another woman allegedly committed suicide after being raped and shamed about it really doesn't sit right with me. The drama entirely forgot the main point, that a woman being raped, and completely focused it on the female lead shaming her and leading her to suicide. I know this is how people would view it in real life, that they would shift the blame from the predator to the other woman because it's easier to blame women than predators. I know it's all true, but again, I just don't see why *this* needs to be the starting point, or the breaking point, for our female lead.
Now we have an awful start for our drama (in terms of content, not really that the drama started off badly), and we continue the drama with not only one or two, but three more cases of sexual assault. All in one ep. All to different women. Our female lead is groped and sexually harassed by a disgusting professor, then a female student is again groped and sexually harassed by said disgusting professor, and on top of everything, our male lead was previously and falsely convicted of raping and murdering his step-sister. The drama started with a sexual harassment plot, and continued with three more because obviously, that is the only thing that can be written about women, right?
This is exactly my problem: I really don't understand what's the recurrent fixation of Kdrama writers with including so many sexual assault instances in the plot. It feels like all or most recent dramas have a sexual assault minor or major plot point, all on different levels, but all there. I just don't think women need to be reminded of this when we see it all the time in the news, and it's not like it exactly helps with the 'raise awareness' attempt, because sexual predators are not the ones watching these shows so it will not prevent anything, and men who could help either already know this happens, or don't care at all, so showing this constantly on dramas will not really produce any impact in their lives. So at the end of the day, the only people being affected by this are women watching these shows, despite having to see this in our daily lives, reading news about femicides all the time, and overall facing sexual assaults on different levels every day.
Also, I might be wrong, but more than having 4 cases of sexual assault in 2 eps of a drama, I think not hiring an ex-convict of sex crimes would make a more powerful statement against sexual predators and would help to build safe places for women in the industry, so that the risks of being sexually harassed while working would reduce at least one bit, but that's just me, I guess.
Anyway, this review of only two eps is already very long, but I needed to get it out of my chest because it's something that has been bugging me a lot from dramas lately (lately being like, 2 years), but this drama was really just over the top with it.
Overall, the show looks promising if they focus it well on the romance part without neglecting the law part, but I really hope we don't have to see a certain graying middle-aged man too much (preferably not ever again), or just too many powerful, middle-aged men trying to screw our female lead over. Also, on another, totally unrelated side, I think it's funny that our female lead has not only one younger romantic interest, but two, which is uncommon because we usually see only one younger love interest in noona romances, while the love triangle develops with another, older and successful, daddy-like second male lead. But here we have two, both of which have a past connection with our female lead, and who look like they will form a nice brotherhood, so I'm actually looking forward to future eps of this drama, and I hope my complaints disappear quickly and my expectations are met so that I can enjoy this drama fully.
TL;DR: Our female lead is the perfect successful femme fatale with two completely eye-candy younger romantic interests, but our Kdrama writers have a passion for sexual assault victims and cannot go one day without including sexual assault in their works.
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