Why is the Reversal of Gender Roles Comedic?

I think we can all agree that an important narrative component in My Sassy Girl is the reversal of gender roles that is observed.  The Girl is presented as dominant over Gyeon-woo, physically aggressive, blunt, and belligerent while Gyeon-woo is portrayed as submissive, weak, and under the Girl’s control. Through this blog post I would like to consider the reasoning behind the film’s intended portrayal of both gender roles. What is it trying to show or prove regarding gender roles during the 2000s through these characterizations?

In the article Female Sexuality in Popular Culture, So-Hee Lee asserts that “Korea is now entering into a new stage with respect to women’s issues” (Lee 160) following the 90s initiation of a new social discourse. The 90s birthed a social discourse on female sexuality with the release of various novels, films and television dramas from confronting topics related to women’s sexual subjectivity, sexual pleasure and desire. Therefore, the time at which My Sassy Girl was released (2001) emerged from a time when the outlook on the female subjectivity was transitioning.

In addition, the film is said to have been based on the true story of Kim Ho-sik, who posted his story in blog posts on the internet which were later adapted into a novel. On a side note, I believe that the fact that the film is based on a true story slightly affects the directorial interpretation of the film: this means that the trope of gender role reversal was not inserted into the film to convey the director’s beliefs, but it is present simply because it actually happened. As such, I find it difficult to interpret how the director feels about such issues. However, this does not change our interpretation of the fact that during the 2000s, the female subjectivity is evolving. For this “true story” to actually have happened, women’s understanding of their own roles and characterization had to have evolved from the traditional Confucian image of an obedient, fragile and subservient wife. The idea of a “powerful woman” had to have emerged somewhere, allowing for this story to exist.

One particular aspect of the gender role reversal in My Sassy Girl that slightly bothered me was why, ultimately, it was funny at all. After some thought, I started to wonder why from an audience’s point of view did we find it “comedic” that the Girl was beating up Gyeon-woo? It wouldn’t be even remotely funny if the opposite was portrayed in the movie with Gyeon-woo beating up the Girl. I think this tells us something about our underlying beliefs as a society: in the real world, we would never expect a girl to assert power like that over a man, and that is why we find it funny when we see such abuse onscreen because it seems absurd to us in real life…