Is ‘the Missy’ a New Femininity?

Abstract

In the early 1990s, a new term emerged to refer to young married women in Korea. The term is ‘Missy’, which means a young married woman who dresses like and presents herself as an unmarried woman. Married women have begun to identify themselves with the term instead of the traditional title, ‘Adjumma’1 because they do not want to take on the traditionally associated images and lifestyle implied by this title, especially ageing and dow-diness. The novel term Missy originated from a small advertising campaign to promote a department store in the early 1990s. It rapidly became widespread in different components of the Korean media and has been redefined to refer to young and attractive married women who want to look like unmarried women and share their lifestyle and attitudes. This has caused huge controversy amongst social commentators and feminist scholars, who argue about how to understand this explosive concept.