Are you a silver spoon? Analysing Intersectional inequalities in K-drama romances from a feminist political economy perspective

With the global popularity of South Korean popular culture, more and more people around the world watch Korean television series for enjoyment. We argue, that besides engaging plots and relatable characters, K-dramas offer a fine lens to make general observations about Korean society and its stratification structure, including social hierarchies in various settings – at school, work, among friends etc. Intersecting inequalities are an important subtheme in Korean melodramas, which, as it might seem, centre primarily on feelings and emotions. As we have observed, romance plots in TV series are particularly suited to understand (gendered and class-based) socio-economic inequalities. They show how inequalities are constructed and performed, e.g. in that characters actively negotiate their position in a hyper-capitalised society characterised by many remaining traditional forms social stratification (i.e. related to gender, wealth, education, beauty and family lineage) that are constantly adapted to the conditions of a competitive modern social environment. K-drama characters actively engage in converting various forms of capital which they have at their disposal in order to minimise hierarchies. Many different dimensions of social stratification impact on how relations between the characters evolve at various stages of their relationship, from the desire to date or its lack, search for suitable romantic partners, selection of venues for dates, to presenting the partner to family members etc. Analysing romance plots allow us to identify how various inequalities intersect and how people from different strata navigate (domesticate, resist or reinforce) them. The paper brings together a perspective of feminist political economy with an interpretive social structure analysis to study pop-cultural representations of Korean society. In our analysis, we apply an intersectional lens to show how various sources of stratification overlap. To illustrate the argument, the paper investigates three popular K-dramas which display various types of inequalities:“ Rain or Shine” (2017),“Fight for My Way” (2017), and“Gangnam Beauty” (2018).