Resistance to a gender threat: a case-study analysis of Vietnamese viewers’ unfavourable reception of soft masculinities in romantic Korean television dramas

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the past two decades, global media audiences have witnessed the development of a phenomenon known as Pan-East Asian soft masculinities, present in Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, and South Korean pop culture. This construction, characterised by male entertainers’ effeminate appearance and personality traits, has seen both celebration and backlash worldwide and attracted scholarly attention. Contributing to such literature, this article features case studies of three Vietnamese male and female research participants’ unfavourable reception of soft masculinities in romantic South Korean television dramas. Once fascinated with South Korean pop culture, which has established its presence in Vietnam over two decades, the adult informants now view Korean soft masculinities as inauthentic, immature, unpragmatic, and inappropriately feminine. Such views are intimately linked to their lived experiences, including disillusionment with life and romance. To shed light on the informants’ attitudes, the article uses R. W. Connell’s concept ‘hegemonic masculinity’ and Judith Butler’s theories of gender performativity and gender anxiety to reveal the influence of norms on the informants’ gender perceptions. It helps fill the gap in research on the resistance to Korean soft masculinities in Vietnam and contributes to the literature on Korean pop culture and non-fans as well as contemporary Vietnamese society.