Being Legitimate Consumers: Women and Consumer Culture in South Korea During the 1990s.

With various social changes, South Korean women have been endowed with a new identity of activity and self-assertiveness, and young married women of South Korea, in particular, started to be called “Missy,” which implies a young and sophisticated married woman who voices her thoughts. The identities of “Missy,” however, were mainly defined in the categories of consumer culture. It was said that young married women called “Missy” pursued distinctive lifestyles and identities, which could be gained through individualistic consumption. Main argument is that the need to define (young) married women as a market segment in South Korea during the post-Fordist era allowed them active and individual identities. However, the dominant patriarchal ideology of the feminine that perpetuates women’s roles as life-givers and sex objects was still being articulated with the “Missy” discourse. In this research, using discourse analysis, I analyze newspaper content about the consumer culture of young married women in South Korea during the 1990s. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]