The shows tended to treat instances where men took part in housework as special cases, with commentary that said the person was a ‘good husband’ or a ‘family guy’. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Jan. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — The expectations that men and women should carry out traditional gender roles is still prevalent on South Korean variety shows, according to a recent study.
On these types of television programs, women were typically expected to stay at home, while men were responsible for ‘outside work’.
In addition, male appearances on variety shows were 1.7 times more frequent than female appearances. The hosts as well as permanent guests were also twice as likely to be men.
The Korea Communications Standards Commission conducted a study on 39 of the most popular variety shows and 20 lifestyle programs that aired on South Korean television last May.
Variety shows tended to be male-oriented when it came to gender proportion and role allocations.
A total of 608 men (62.7 percent) appeared on the shows, while there were only 362 women appearances (37.3 percent).
On lifestyle programs, there were more women (142 people, 55.9 percent) than men (112 people, 44.1 percent).
On variety shows, the hosts and permanent guests were almost twice as likely to be men, while on lifestyle programs, men (41 people) and women (43 people) were similar in number.
Variety shows were mostly led by a male host in his 40s or 50s with permanent male guests.
The study also showed that 61.5 percent of variety shows and 50 percent of lifestyle programs included sexually discriminating content, mostly focusing on the idea that ‘women are to be at home, while men work outside of the home’.
The shows tended to treat instances where men took part in housework as special cases, with commentary that said the person was a ‘good husband’ or a ‘family guy’.
Variety shows also made fun of women with certain looks, even going so far as to ask young female guests to make alluring gestures or do a ‘sexy dance’.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
