Recalcitrant or Obedient? Same-Sex Love and Female Students

Abstract

Same-sex love was a discernible feature, a fad, among female students during colonial Korea. Intimacy between female students, as long as it did not involve sexual acts, was considered a healthier form of love than intimacy with male students. Some archival sources from the era go as far as stating that most female students had experienced same-sex love at some point in their school life. Even those female students who disclosed their same-sex relationships in the newspaper and magazine, upon graduation, would pursue heterosexual marriages and dedicated themselves to the making of a “sweet home.” That is to say, same-sex love was not necessarily tied to sexual identity (although we cannot eliminate the physical dimension altogether), but rather, it was more of a socio-cultural phenomenon. By engaging with newspapers, magazines, essays, and literary texts during colonial Korea, this paper seeks to examine the social and cultural meanings of same-sex love among female students. Recent studies in disciplines such as women studies, anthropology, and sociology indicate that same-sex love was rampant across gender, age, and class, and it was largely overlooked without any stigmatization or restrictions. I contextualize same-sex love within the imposing feminine ideals of the era which centered on virginity, chastity and the prejudices against free love stemming from feudalistic oppression. That is to say, same-sex love was driven by two irreconcilable impetuses: while defying the heteronormative ideals, it was an offshoot of feudal ideology that upheld virginity and chastity as women’s foremost important virtue and duties.