Abstract

This paper closely analyzes the discourse of scientism and the construction of gender in 1960s and 1970s South Korea. Existing scholarship on the 1960s and 1970s often discusses cold war politics, militarism, the New Town Movement, and the discourse of productivity. To supplement this scholarship, this essay designates scientism as an additional defining characteristic of this period in South Korean history. More specifically, I explicate the formation of the concept of girlness through an analysis articles appearing in the magazine 『Yeohaksaeng』(Schoolgirl). I show that the nature of editorials appearing in 『Yeohaksaeng』 differ greatly from the 1960s to 1970s. Articles from the 1960s concentrate on ideal constructions of girlhood. In particular, controlling one’s emotions and taking care of one’s body constitute a large portion of writing from this decade. The emotions of girls are spoken of in terms of cheerfulness, sentimentality, vanity, and jealously. Among these, cheerfulness and sentimentality are the main terms defining emotions and temperament. Cheerfulness is the main term used to define the ideal personality of the girl. Images of ideal girlness describe young girls as a bouquet of flowers which brightens the lives of family members. The undesirable personality of the girl is defined by excessive sentimentality, vanity, and jealousy. The concept of cheerfulness is inseparable from the state policy of creating a “cheerful society.” Indeed, ideal girlhood can be seen as a representation of the state ideology of cheerfulness. It was typical for so-called “cheerful novels” and romance to appear in 『Yeohaksaeng』, which demonstrates the interconnectedness of discourses informing the concept of girlness. Indeed, the redefining of emotional temperament centered on the nature of girlness. In this essay, the discourse of scientism (including discourses on hormones and puberty) is analyzed for how it was deployed to naturalize the concept of girlness and proper emotional temperament. The era of the 1970s can be said to begin on December 5th, 1968 with the promulgation of the National Charter for Education. The 1970s signals the full-scale arrival of the enlightenment period and magazine articles typically emphasized the need for the discipline and management of rebellious youth. The 1970s emerged as a decade distinguishing between polluted girlness and pure girlness. An article from August 1970 titled “The Absconding of Schoolgirls” succinctly reflects the dominant discourse of the period. Articles discussing “wandering runway teenagers,” purity, and relations with the opposite sex increased dramatically during this period. In addition, considerable emphasis was placed on the category of shame as an important emotional category. Commercialized eroticism also emerged as the dominant culture in the 1970s. This period saw a rapid increase in girls moving to Seoul and working in factories which necessitated the management and discipline of young girls. In this context, it is significant that shame became a concept central to emotional health. Indeed, the directing of shame and hatred toward specific nefarious individuals can be viewed within the larger project of forming uniform subjects of the state. Modern state-building projects sought to create uniform subjects for the purpose of guaranteeing male labor power and restoring eroded post-war male subjectivity. Moreover, the concept of girlness is also intimately related to the transformation of the productive power of the male into the “mechanical body.” It can be deduced that the discarding of the fragile, imperfect, and shameful physical body was achieved through the construction of girlness. The reorganization of gendered definitions of emotion in the 1960s and 1970s is one method for conducting an analysis of making national body under Park Chung-hee’s modernization project.