Late on the night of December 26, a topic titled “The Settings of Female Characters of ‘Squid Game 2’” was posted on the Korean forum “theqoo,” which attracted attention.
The topic cited a review of “Squid Game 2” from a media site, which pointed out one of this season’s major flaws: the lack of color in the female characters, especially when compared to the male ones.
According to this review, while the number of female characters in “Squid Game 2” has increased compared to the first season, these characters are essentially reduced to “mothers”, “people who are about to become mothers” or “people who were once mothers” .
Notably, Geum-ja (Kang Ae-sim) enters the game to help her gambling-addicted son, only to face her son as a gambling partner. Jun-hee (played by Jo Yuri) loses everything due to her boyfriend’s betrayal and is on the verge of becoming a single mother, while No-eul (played by Park Gyu-young), is a deserter and former soldier who he dropped out as a young man. daughter in North Korea and doesn’t even know if she’s alive.
In comparison, the female characters in the previous season of “Squid Game”, such as the cunning and manipulative Han Mi-nyeo (played by Kim Joo-yeong), Kang Sae-byeok (played by Jung Ho-yeon) who formed a life The deadly friendship with another contestant and the hope of saving and reuniting with his family, and Ji-yeong (played by Lee Yoo-mi) who killed his abusive stepfather, seem to deserve higher praise simply to cause for diversity.
At the same time, the female character with the most intriguing story turns out to be Hyeon-joo (played by Park Sung-hoon), a trans woman who enters the game for gender confirmation surgery. However, this is due to the fact that his role also involves the male sphere, raising serious questions about the director’s ability to write female texts.
Netizens seem to agree with the above opinion, leaving rather harsh comments on the matter.
Below are some comments from netizens:
- they only sexualize single women and have absolutely no interest in unmarried women. This is how this country and its tragedies are.
- The character settings are really poor
- It’s really annoying to see women only as mothers…
- That damn trait of maternal love. It really seems like you couldn’t write female characters without mentioning maternal love, you couldn’t draw female characters. Yet there are no male characters who emphasize paternal love
- The female characters in the previous season of “Squid Game” were not mothers, yet the second season turned to propaganda.
