Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok - One Thousand and One Nights, vol. 02, 04 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

This series keeps enraging me, but I read on because the art was so gorgeous. Thankfully, I have been released, since the author's note in volume 4 annoyed me so much that I refuse to pick up more! Ha, freedom!

I still like the stories being told between the main story, but the main story is so frustrating, especially because it's taking a source famous for its heroine and making it something in which all the women are ineffectual and unimportant or evil.

GOOD: Acknowledgement that the sultan's plan to kill women after marrying shouldn't be blamed on his cheating wife/stepmother.

BAD: Instead, let's blame it on his cheating mother!

I keep liking the stories within the stories, which at least seem to comment a little on the patriarchy (the angel whose husband steals her clothes). And I cheer on having more Korean folktales, although I am vaguely bemused by the fact that the heaven in the story looks like Chinese heaven (i.e. Tang-style clothing).

And then, the author writes notes like: "I like the move toward equality for women, but I feel like the push for it goes too far. Men and women should not fight! We should focus on both genders, not just one, and that way they will understand each other."

I was like, "Yes, yes, that is the exact impression I get when I read about a husband imprisoning a wife by stealing her clothes and burning them, then trying to kill her because her son is not his... because he stole her the day before she was going to get married and she was already pregnant! If only the wife tried to understand her husband more and not tried to fight him off when he was hunting down her fiance and locking her in the house and trying to strangle her!"

ETA: I realized I must have accidentally skipped vol. 3 and shoujo!Caesar.

Comments

[oyceter]

I think I could have even kept reading the series had it not been for the author's note. I mean, I know it's not a feminist series, but sometimes there's enough leeway for me to put my own pretend spin on things.

It was just her note had every single argument against feminism in it that I see over and over and over, from "I don't call myself a feminist" to "But what about the men?" It drives me crazy. Also, though I think any sane human being would blame the sultan's issues on his insane father, the spin the manhwa seems to be giving is on the mother—the focus is all on his mother and her influence on him, not on his father, and as such, it shifts the focus of his Issues onto his mom in terms of narrative weight.

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get that. There does seem to be more narrative weight on the mom. I can't quite tell if that's because that's how the author wants it, or that's how the character perceives the situation, but I can see how it might feel very sexist to some.

And yeah, the author's note does make me vaguely uncomfy in the 'what about the men?' feelings it gives off, but I'm able to excuse it as just being poorly phrased. I don't blame you for being P.O.-ed, though. Like I said, this series somehow doesn't hit my feminist-rage buttons, but I can certainly see how it might hit someone else's. :/

Really, I'm mostly just in the thing for the pretty art. I admit it. XD