By Elvis Anber
You might think the growing presence of ``queer'' (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) content in the media has had a softening effect on Koreans, who continue to frown (at the very least) on homosexuality.
Dubbed South Korea's ``gay movie'' by the West, (``gay'' as it knows the term) ``King and the Clown'' in 2005 became at one point the country's highest grossing film, with a quarter of the nation's 48 million having seen the film about a sixteenth-century emperor's infatuation with an overtly effeminate male clown.
While not demonstrative of a modern queer political and social identity, King and the Clown delivered national exposure of an uncommon intimacy (although not overtly sexual) between men. It wasn't alone. ``Brokeback Mountain'' proved quite a success with 150,000 ticket sales in its opening weeks.
Television has been immensely queered. Leading the charge back in 2000 was actor Hong Seok-cheon who became Korea's first public figure to come out of the closet. Transsexual entertainer Harisu gained much visibility with her commercial for DoDo cosmetics in 2001.
With its modern portrayal of queerness (predominately that of the middle-class white male), the momentous series Sex and the City continues to dominate the small screen with Koreans eagerly tuning in to follow the sexual escapades of the show's four leading heterosexual women and their queer supporting cast.
Other notable shows having attracted queer and heterosexual viewers alike include Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Will & Grace and The L-Word.
But it wasn't until the vastly popular Queer as Folk hit the airwaves that Korean broadcasters began to bank on the success of Western imports and include queer characters in a number of its own dramas and situation comedies, such the SBS drama Perfect Love in 2003 (Hong's character became the first openly queer Korean on television) and the MBC comedy Hello Francesca in 2005.
Most recently the MBC drama Coffee Prince, with its blatant subversion of gender in ways reminiscent of Shakespeare's As You Like It, centers on a son who manages his parents newly acquired coffee shop and his subsequent attraction to a woman who, in order to land a job at the establishment, masquerades as a man. The show's ratings surge left MBC little choice but to extend the season.
While Koreans continue to flock in increasing numbers to the screen (both big and small) to catch a curious, and many a sincere glimpse inside the lives of fictional queers, Korean society remains far less enticed by a non-heterosexual reality.
The nation remains a place where queers fear coming out to family, friends and colleagues, making Hong's provocative move a number of years ago still quite the feat. Queers, facing endless pressure from family, fall into unhappy marriages, while those who escape marriage still face ongoing scrutiny of their personal lives.
The burgeoning nightlife scene in a number of cities offers alluring venues, but many choose to keep a low profile and stay away. Looking for a way out, some leave the country, settling in Australia, Europe or North America (where much progress still remains to be had in these more ``open" societies).
The nation remains one where the cultural depiction of queers is moving at a pace far quicker for a social and political reality to keep up.
Young Koreans are increasingly cast as more accepting of queer folk than their parents' and grandparents' generations, when the notion of a queer identity was virtually non-existent; but how will this ``acceptance'' square off against a fully matured queer rights movement, one that hits the streets in mass demonstrations and protests, one that demands new rights and freedoms, one that actively seeks to uproot and reconstruct value systems so entrenched and pervasive yet in dire need of change?
In a country where assumed heterosexuality runs rampant it remains unknown how the queer landscape will form. Certain, however, is this: Media depiction alone cannot sow the seeds of revolution.
Elvis Anber has been living in Seoul for the past 20 months. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from McGill University in Montreal. He currently works as an editor/proofreader of essays.