3GGG

"they're on two different plans though. there's a false equivalence." <-- could you elaborate, because I don't understand this one.

"so if one is interested in eradicating the other (which we should be) then men must participate in mitigating our harm."
I agree. But it's the same the other way around. Just because women have been objectified for so long, we shouldn't be striving to objectify men or be exempt from guilt if we do it. Again, I'm reminded of the fiasco that was the 2016 Ghost Busters film, where Chirs Hemsworth was horribly objectified.

It also happens that shows such as "It's Okay not to be Okay" and "Oh my Ghostess" display moments of sexual harassment for the FL towards the ML as comedy. And this is a recurrent problem in cinema. Sexual assault and sexual harassment towards men is always played for laughs, which is something that should change.

There's a great video essay from Pop Culture Detective about the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nheskbsU5g

It's interesting how in K-dramas the roles of which gender gets objectified are turned on its head. The fact that men are the ones objectified bothers me just as much as when females are objectified by "the camera" in the rest of the world.

It also reminded me of when Scarlett Johanson got angry at an interviewer (Jimmy Kimmel, I think) who kept asking her about her Black Widow attire while the questions he asked her co-stars were about their acting. I think the awareness of what should be okay to ask and what is stupid to ask should probably extend even further to those whose job is to interview these artists.

Great article, btw.

Yeah, at this point I'm taking the same decision. Based on the comments, it seems the romance is still weighting this down and the script (sci-fi related) isn't becoming better. The forced romance aside, the characters seriously lack dimension for me, so I don't even care if they all die because I'm not emotionally invested.

Will see what people think once this end. Then I can decide whether to continue it or save myself some time and drop it.

Dark is a German TV Series (scifi thriller) which is available in netflix. You can learn more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_(TV_series)

Hahaha meanwhile i like the family scenes and i find myself looking at my phone during the "romance scenes" lol.

I watched it on Kocowa.

I actually dropped it at episode 21. I think I saw a bit of his amnesia, though I just thought it was him continuing to be a jerk, lol. It's one of the worst dramas I've watched though. But a perfect example of how far Dramas have come in regards to non-toxic romance building.

I agree. I actually think it was a good choice to have him develop amnesia, as that would really allow for a start-over without any of the lies. I appreciated that he didn't recover his memories and, instead, he got curious about his family and wanted to build the relationship back up.

I couldn't actually finish BOF, lol. I tried, but it was just a bad drama for me.

I found the end was still great, despite that. But better spoiler tag your comment for those who have yet to see the show.

Great drama, highly recommend!

This is where the "subjective" part of the tags come into play. For me, I see "Rich" vs "Poor" as a power dynamic the writer uses to give one character an edge. It plays with the "Cohabitation" trope as well. So, if I see a drama tagged with: "Poor Female Lead," "Rich Male Lead" and "Cohabitation" I pretty much know that the Poor FL will end up moving into the Rich ML's residence at some point. Not always, but usually it plays that way (but what are dramas if not a collection of tropes, right?).

Ironically, I really liked Hyena precisely because the characters were morally ambiguous and that made them interesting. While morally ambiguous MLs are nothing new, morally ambiguous FLs are far from the norm and therefore already interesting in my books!

Having said that, I am not a fan of either of the actors playing the Leads, so it was still a bit difficult for me to warm up to their acting. I still gave it a 9, because of how unusual the Female Lead was (one of the few dramas in which a) FL is successful and ambitious, b) ML has a better moral compass than her, c) FL and 2FL become friends and learn to respect each other and d) there were more than 3 female characters (super low bar on this one!).

Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts on the article and tags in general.

While Naive and Innocent may have different connotations depending on one's view, the fact is that they are synonyms of each other and defined rather similar for them not to encapsulate everything under one tag.

Naive:
(of a person or action) showing a lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment.
"the rather naive young man had been totally misled"
(of a person) natural and unaffected; innocent.
"Andy had a sweet, naive look when he smiled"

Innocent:
not guilty of a crime or offense.
a pure, guileless, or naive person.

Having said that, there are 20 dramas within our sample tagged with Naive, 14 tagged with Innocent and only two tagged with both. So it may be that enough people agree with you in the differences between the tags to have them apply it in different situations. Though I would be interested in how many people knew of both tags and purposely chose one over the other.

As to Intelligent vs Smart, that one I agree less with you. Wise is its own different concept, but Intelligent vs Smart are close enough to make the former tag clutter. The dictionary defines:

Intelligent:
having or showing intelligence, especially of a high level.

Smart:
having or showing a quick-witted intelligence.

It seems this time most people might agree, as no dramas within our samples were tagged with "Intelligent Female Lead" BUT 107 Dramas were tagged with "Smart Female Lead". Now I could've sworn I saw at least one Drama tagged with "Intelligent FL" (which is how I even learned the tag had been created!) but the search yielded no results this time around.

To aggravate things, now I found that not only is "Intelligent Female Lead" a newly created tag... but also: "Intelligent Woman," "Intelligent Child", "Intelligent Character" and "Intelligent Male Lead". At this point making, tags are getting crazy!

The reason why I advocate for umbrella tags (with the exception of tags meant as trigger warnings) is that reviews and comments are there to help people get a better grasp of the drama. Tags should merely be guides. But, of course, that's my opinion and I do know of other people who enjoy and vastly prefer very specific tags.

Regarding the "Strong Female Tag," I feel that one may be the MOST subjective tags of all. I tag characters as Strong if they are well-written, for example. But I know a lot of people tagged them as Strong if they are shown in at least one scene, beating someone up. So that one I always take with a handful of salt haha.

As to the tags for rich and poor, I'm copy-pasting my answer to a similar comment further down below:

Since this was an overwhelming amount of work, I was forced to simplify things at the cost of further categorization. So think of "negative" and "positive" as more related to the plot than character. Meaning, how do writers treat Poor and Orphan FLs (mostly as victims) vs how they treat a Rich FL (more positively).

The problem especially with a Poor FL, for example, is that it becomes a go-to for writers so they can give us a "Cinderella" type-of-story. If you take the "poor" out of the FLs in many dramas, the story changes completely. Just as if you take the "rich" out of the MLs in many dramas, the story also changes. However, if one has to compare who has more power between a Rich vs a Poor Lead, the former would be the one with the advantage.

"Finally - I think you made a typo when comparing strong and poor. As you say 31% and then 1 in 5. It's either 21% or 1 in 3."
--> Good catch, it should've been 1.5 out of 5, rather than 1.

PS: Man, this ended up being a long answer, lol.

If it had been spanish, i would've switched languages, as that is my mother tongue. Sadly, i only know two languages.

Indeed, I agree that asking for help or needing help isn't a bad thing. On the contrary, I'm of the mind that teamwork is better than a one-man/woman army.

However, there is a distinction between someone in distress vs a damsel in distress vs a damsel *in perpetual* distress. That's why in my comment I added the key word of "perpetual". So what do I mean by this:
>> In Distress: this means that a character is perhaps in a situation which --although they tried-- they cannot handle on his/her own. (Ex: Flower of Evil, My Mister, 365: Repeat the Year, Mr. Sunshine, Arthdal Chronicles, etc.)
>> Damsel in Distress: usually means a female character will be put in a situation so the ML can help her. It's done so we can marvel at the Male Character's prowess and/or to test the latter's love towards the former. However, when not overdone, it can be a good way to move the "romantic plot" without it feeling out of place. (Ex: Black, A Korean Odyssey, Catch the Ghost, Come and Hug Me, Crash Landing).
>> Damsel in *Perpetual* Distress: is a female character who is CONSTANTLY in distress. She needs saving at least once per episode, sometimes even several times in one episode. She's always saved but doesn't learn a lesson, so next time... she needs to be saved again. And her entire character is therefore reduced to being unable to take care of herself and needing constant protection (Ex: Born Again, Was it Love? & Alice)

BTW, what's your first language?

Thank you for reading and commenting. Uff, I agree about using the FL as a base of comparison to enhance the ML's prowess. I HATE that. It's one of my peeves. Writers usually turn the FL into a Damsel in Perpetual Distress just so we can marvel at how strong the ML is. Having said that, I still use and apply tags. And for those FL who are in perpetual distress, I usually do apply the "Weak Female Lead" tag. I was still very surprised at the low usage of that tag!

I also agree that each gender gets a different connotation out of the same tags. And that's something I definitely want/plan to go over on the last installment!

I do think "trigger" type of tags should stay very specific. It's not the same to say "Animal Abuse" than "Abuse in the workplace", let alone "Child Abuse". So those I wouldn't put under the umbrella term of "Abuse".

However, the example I gave could be placed under the umbrella term of "Trauma." Because IF the trauma was related to children being abused, then the tag "Child Abuse" would also be present. As it stands, we could easily get rid of "Traumatic Past" and "Past Trauma" and just put them under "Trauma" and nothing would change. "Flashback to the Past" is also irrelevant.

I think for the "Strong FL" specifically, IMO we need to have a "Well-Written FL" to complement. Then we can simply use the "Strong FL" for physical prowess. After all, we also have the "Smart FL" and "Nice FL" and all the other character-specific tags to compliment things. But a well-written FL doesn't necessarily need physical strength. She just needs to a) be consistent, b) have more strengths than flaws, c) be capable at handling problems and e) have character growth.

Thank you for reading and joining the conversation! Indeed, I agree with you that the "weak/strong FL" tags don't normally mean much. I still look up if the FL is tagged as strong before starting a series, tbh. Because that at least tells me she brings something to the table, but like I mentioned, I don't necessarily agree with all the tags.

I responded to a comment down below with the idea of defining a tag in a measurable way so as to serve as a guide for the user.

For example, rather than doing this:
A Strong Female Lead is a "A well-written female character at the forefront of a TV show or movie." Which, although true, leaves a ton to personal interpretation.

We do something measurable like:
A Strong Female Lead is "Someone who is actively engaged and important to the plot and who solves problems consistently by relying on her strengths, for at least more than 75% of the drama."

Although, at this point, I feel that most people apply the "Strong Female Lead" to a female lead who showed (at least ones) a physical type of prowess (have you noticed how many dramas showcase a FL either hitting a man or throwing him over the shoulder?). When, for me, that tag should be based on whether the FL's character (as in how it's written) is strong or not. So perhaps we ought to create a "Well written Female Lead" tag instead and use that for this purpose.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! The reason why I find the FL in TKEM average rather than strong (keep in mind, I don't find her weak) is because I'm applying "Strong Female Lead" as in "Strongly-written" rather than "A character who can beat someone up". In that respect, the FL loses all relevance to the main plot and becomes simply a romantic interest to the ML. Even her combat prowess doesn't help her achieve an important feat within the story.

My disappointment was further fueled by the writers deciding to give us a "plot-twist" (if you can even call it that, since the story being romance it was quite predictable) of the ML being the one to save his younger self and, thereby, taking at least that moment of agency away from the FL. It's her lack of agency in the story that makes her forgettable to me, especially when I compared her to other better-written FLs who are crucial to their own stories.

Full disclosure, I'm not a fan of TKEM in general and found the story all over the place.

And the issue goes back that, by taking at least that part away from her, she suddenly became irrelevant to the story outside of the romantic plot. Which, unfortunately, is a fate shared by many female leads and a source of my disappointment since the "FL getting sideline" is a pet peeve of mine.

Oh, you and me both! Antagonistic female characters fighting over the ML is quite tiring. And while you could argue that sometimes the ML and 2ML might fight over the FL, usually their story ends in friendship or at least a reluctant alliance. With FLs the story is quite different and often times the 2FL simply gets written away. An example of the FL and 2FL starting off as enemies, then developing an alliance and later a friendship of sorts happens in "The Last Empress" (a show which I loved enough to write an article precisely because there are SO MANY interesting female characters actively engaged in the plot AT ALL TIMES!).

I love the "tag-happy" way of putting it the issue at hand! Indeed, measurable tags might help get everyone on the same page, at least. Perhaps the other thing that could help if implemented, is to not allow any tags until past the halfway point. That would at least stop characters being tagged based on 1 or 2 episodes. I feel the same way about reviews of the first episode. I still don't understand why people write those as reviews rather than clicking on "Episode Guide" and then writing those into the "Reactions" section (where they belong!).

Thank you for reading, glad you enjoyed it! :)