Women We Love

Women We Love: Femininities and the Korean Wave is an edited volume exploring femininities in and around the Korean Wave since 2000. While studies on the Korean Wave are abundant, there is a dearth of thought put toward the female-identifying stars, characters, and fans who shape and lead this crucial cultural movement. This collection of essays is one of the first works to focus on gender and the key female actors of this global phenomenon. Using “women” as an inclusive term extending to all those who self-define as women, this volume examines the role of women in K-pop and K-drama industries and fandom spaces, encompassing crucial intersectional topics such as queering of gender, dissemination of media, and fan culture. 

In addition to the communities engaged with visual culture of the Korean Wave, the audience for Women We Love will reflect the contributors to this text. They are K-pop and K-drama fans, queer, international; they are also academics of Asian histories, sociology, gender and sexuality, art history, and visual culture. The chapters are playful, intersectional, and will be adapted well into syllabi for media studies, gender studies, visual culture studies, sociology, and contemporary global history.

SooJin Lee is an art historian and assistant professor at Hongik University.

Kate Korroch is a PhD candidate in visual studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

Liew Kai Khiun is an assistant professor at Hong Kong Metropolitan University.

Other contributors:

Crystal Abidin, Curtin University, Australia

Erik Paolo Capistrano, University of the Philippines, Philippines

Stephanie Jiyun Choi, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA

Douglas Gabriel, Seoul National University, South Korea

Malinee Khumsupa, Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Gi Yeon Koo, Seoul National University, South Korea

Maud Lavin

Jieun Lee, Wake Forest University, USA

Jin Lee, Curtin University, Australia

Kathlyn Ramirez, University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines

Atchareeya Saisin, Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Hyangsoon Yi, University of Georgia, USA

“Women We Love goes far beyond the dyad of the flower boy Hallyu star and his female fan to offer readers an illuminating discussion of plural femininities in the Korean Wave since the turn of the millennium. The essays will answer many burning yet heretofore unanswered questions about the affective resonances and political significance of Korean popular culture’s gender dynamics, which have fascinated, puzzled, and at times frustrated many fans and observers. Rigorously interdisciplinary, yet grounded in textual detail, historical context, and material reception practices, this is a timely and valuable contribution to the study of gender, fandom, and global media.”

—Michelle Cho, University of Toronto

“This is a provoking and fascinating book—one of the most awaited books in Hallyu studies. Drawing from a multitude of feminist theories and case studies, this edited volume not only provides captivating and much-needed discussions but also critically expands the current debates in gender studies, feminism studies, and fan studies. This book is vital literature for researchers, students, and practitioners who are willing to advance their understanding of the Korean Wave from a new scope and angle.”

—Dal Yong Jin, Simon Fraser University