Consumer culture and gender identity in south Korea

This paper examines how consumer culture works as a cultural backdrop to th e process of women's identity construction, reproduction, and transformatio n. In particular, it seeks to understand the correlation and interaction be tween gender identity and self-identity in women. The study, therefore, foc uses attention on three aspects, first, the reinforcement of gender identit y and the fostering of postmodern identity. Second, it looks at the split o f gender identity as the so-called phenomenon of "neo-tribalism." Finally, it examines the tyranny of a self-oppressive gender identity by means of wh ich self-identity is constructed in women, by enhancing the body or what I refer to as "body making." These points are examined through the recent phe nomenon of the Korean consumer culture, comprising the commercialization of the role model of the professional housewife and postmodernism; the "Missy syndrome," as it is called in Korea; and the craze for what I refer to as "body making." Therefore, in this study, I seek to explore mechanisms that force women into internalizing a self-oppressive gender identity, perpetuat ed as a type of self-identity by consumer culture.