The right to see and not be seen: South Korean musicals and young feminist activism

Abstract

In South Korea, musicals are considered as ‘female culture’. Based on recent fieldwork, this essay gives attention to the ways in which female fans project themselves in three common spaces: in dark theatre auditoriums, online fan forums and feminist protests. In each of the three spaces, female musical fans nurture and enact their own version of feminism. I employ the discourse of ‘voyeurism’ and ‘half-visibility’ to understand how young South Korean women navigate patriarchal capitalist society. I ultimately argue that today’s South Korean musicals empower young South Korean women by providing safe spaces for feminism.