My Sassy Girl Structured by Patriarchy

Initially, I was pleased to see that the “sassy girl” the film returns to is snappy and fearless, and seemingly unapologetic about being that way. I was pleased to see a female character that ventures out of the submissive female stereotype that the patriarchy normally imposes on women in film. But it quickly becomes clear that the girl’s spunkiness is portrayed to be a type of (feminine) hysteria that needs to be cured/destroyed in order for her true femininity to be liberated.

In an emotionally climatic part of the film in which Gyeon-woo interrupts the girl’s blind date, he appears to be the (masculine) voice of reason that tries to tame the girl’s hysteria for her own good. This voice mirrors the voice of patriarchal power, telling the girl that she has been misguided because she does not appear “obedient” to men, and thus men do not find her attractive. Gyeon-woo is not portrayed to be a jerk who tries to change someone he loves, but rather a source of rational advice. 

When the couple prepare to bid goodbye, the girl yells to Gyeon-woo across the mountain that she is sorry. Presumably, the girl apologizes for the anger and the aggression that she has imposed upon Gyeon-woo. More generally, it can be understood that she is apologizing for what Gyeon-woo deems as her unfeminine behaviour. She “can’t help it” that she has acted irrationally, and it becomes the man’s duty to tame her hysteria and to forgive her for her emotional instability when it arises. Without Gyeon-woo, the girl would seemingly fall to self-destruction.

Throughout the film, Gyeon-woo describes the girl (who remains nameless) as the girl of his dreams in terms of her physique, but not her personality. Her unfeminine sassiness, then, is presented to be her only obstacle in becoming the ideal woman. By the end of the film, the girl is shown to be effectively “cured” of her unfeminine characteristics, and thus truly becomes Gyeon-woo’s dream mate. Therefore, although some would argue that the film disrupts stereotypical gender expectations, it is framed entirely within a patriarchal structure.