The Power of Representation: How Squid Game S2 shed light and sparked debate on South Korea’s LGBTQ+ struggles

Note. Image capture of Squid Game Season 2's "Cho Hyun-ju." From Netflix.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the second season of Squid Game.

In the last few days of the year 2024, international viewers tuned in to the highly anticipated second season of the hit Korean thriller Squid Game on Netflix. Though produced and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the show made history in 2021 as the most-watched Netflix original on the platform's record. The second series of the show created worldwide buzz long before it was released, when its creator went to the media and dropped clues about the new season and revealed secrets regarding new characters. Park Sung-hoon's casting was particularly controversial among Korean and global audiences of the show, as he would be playing Cho Hyun-ju - a transgender woman who enters the game for its eponymous game in a bid to raise enough money to pay for gender-affirming surgery. Hwang Dong-hyuk compared her character to Ali Abdul, another main character in the first season played by Indian actor Anupam Tripathi. The two characters were created to embody the condition of South Korean marginalised minorities, adding layers to the show's keen observations on social pressure and class divide, first by portraying the condition of working-class migrants, and then by focusing on an LGBTQ+ storyline (Moon, 2024).

Indeed, controversies have risen over the presence of a trans character in the program and the presence of this population in South Korea. In the East Asian nation, trans individuals are a marginalised minority and therefore, the struggle for equality and rights has lagged behind progress in comparison with other countries.

"Trans people constitute an often overlooked minority in the East Asian country, and progress on transgender rights and equality has been considerably slower than in other countries."

South Korea’s human rights regulations categorise sexual orientation minorities as a protected class; meanwhile, minorities in terms of gender identity are not covered by the country’s anti-discrimination laws (Yi et al., 2019). As of 2023, a growing number of district courts have declared it unconstitutional to require gender reassignment surgery to legally change one’s gender on documents. Yet, the requirement has not been overturned at a national level, and it adds to the list of barriers faced by trans people in South Korea (Oh, 2024). Access to hormone replacement therapy is constrained by material costs and dismissive attitudes by medical personnel (Oh et al., 2022), and trans people face an intense social stigma that negatively affects their mental health and makes them less likely to come out and openly express their identity (Yi et al., 2019). This is presented accurately in Cho Hyun-ju’s storyline; when questioned about her motivation for taking part in the titular games, she states that the treatment required to carry out her gender transition has a significant cost. Additionally, she was forced to withdraw from her position in the South Korean army because of her gender identity.

Division of opinions in the show's global fanbase has surfaced over the issue of casting a cisgender male for the role of a transgender women. Some argue that it was a major missed opportunity in marking a step forward for a genuine queer representation in local media. Despite this, the show's director replied that the crew was not able to find and openly transgender actress in the country (Moon, 2024). Western audiences listened to the clarification, which served as an important justification for a controversial choice. Worldwide fans of the show were also urged to consider the cultural context behind the production team’s choices; in the event that a transgender actress had been cast to play Cho Hyun-ju, she might have faced unwanted harassment and discrimination related to her identity, especially in her native South Korea. Hwang’s claim partly omits the reality for transgender entertainers in the country; as of 2025, three openly transgender women have tried to pursue a career in the country’s entertainment industry, with short-lived results. One of them, Harisu, reported facing backlash despite her initial success (Chang, 2008).

Major production companies in the recent years have already featured queer artists and stories in time where LGBTQ+ characters and performers have been mostly excluded from the mainstream media waves around the world. South Korea has recently joined the trend with an upsurge in the release and production of BL ("boys' love") dramas, but it seldom resonates with the mainstream public and tends to still cater to a niche audience. With the show's entrance and the introduction of a transgender storyline in what it deems as the most anticipated show of the year, its creators may have been able to secure a ripple effect in terms of public perception towards queer people in South Korea and the rest of the world.

Current research studies have emphasised and been based on Western media and audiences and it was only in the past few years that Asian researchers have also started to investigate the correlation between overcoming LGBTQ+ prejudice and media representation within their respective national contexts.

A United States-based study by Bond and Compton (2015) found that heterosexual and/or cisgender people who are exposed to portrayals of queer identities in fictional stories end up exhibiting a more supportive attitude to LGBTQ+ rights and greater empathy towards queer people. A similar research project was carried out by Thai researchers in 2021, focusing specifically on the attitudes of young people towards the LGBTQ+ community and media representation, and reached similar conclusions to Bond’s study (Sookpornsawan et al., 2021).

However, mere exposure to queer and transgender storylines may not be enough to foster the overcoming of prejudice in heterosexual and cisgender audiences. A study conducted by Galdi et. al. (2023) showed that, at first, pre-existing bias in cishet viewers may be confirmed when shown content that explicitly counters the stereotypes commonly associated with the LGBTQ+ community as they may be inclined to reinforce a perceived distinction between themselves and a group they are not part of.

Related research shows that this effect is overturned by long-term, repeated exposure to queer storylines. In general, engaging with fictional stories allows viewers to develop a bond with the characters; Bond (2021) attempted to show the link between parasocial bonds and prejudice reduction by surveying respondents’ reaction to episodes of Queer as Folk, an early 2000s sitcom explicitly focused on LGBTQ+ themes. Survey respondents who self-reported a non-heterosexual orientation were excluded from the sample, so that the study could focus on heterosexual reactions to queer stories. An important finding of this research study showed that respondents who reported the highest level of queerphobic prejudice before watching the show eventually made the greatest progress in overcoming their bias (Bond, 2021).

Luckily, Cho Hyun-ju is here to stay. The ending of the second season of Squid Game confirmed her presence in the upcoming sequel, which will be aired in June 2025. With the show's release, some worries regarding cliché characterisations were dispelled and the audience, particularly those queer and cishet viewers alike, appreceiated the emphasis on her skills as a former Special Forces solider and role as a leader which allowed her to support fellow players during the games of the show. Arguably, the choice to depict her as a character with a mix of stereotypically feminine and stereotypically masculine traits has led a broader audience to appreciate her role in the show’s storyline and identify with aspects of her personality.

"Arguably, the choice to depict her as a character with a mix of stereotypically feminine and stereotypically masculine traits has led a broader audience to appreciate her role in the show’s storyline and identify with aspects of her personality."

A particularly poignant portion of her character arc involves an older teammate overcoming her prejudice and taking back offensive statements about Hyun-ju’s identity, showing that change is possible, even for those with deeply ingrained biases. It is particularly notable that the shift in her teammate’s behaviour towards Hyun-ju did not happen because she was told to change said behaviour, but entirely due to empathy and a stronger bond between the two characters. The said particular moment adds an emotional deepness yet at the same time serves as a microcosm of the more extensive societal transformation media representation can inspire.

As audiences worldwide await its next chapter, the series have shown its potential to spark meaningful conversations about trans rights and representation, in South Korea and beyond.

This article represents the views of contributors to STEAR's online digital publication, and not those of STEAR, which takes no institutional positions.

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Bibliography

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Bond, B. J., & Compton, B. L. (2015). Gay on-screen: The relationship between exposure to gay characters on television and heterosexual audiences’ endorsement of gay equality. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59(4), 717–732. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2015.1093485

Chang, M. (2008). Other transsexual celebs in Korea. AsiaOne.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20090227224756/http://www.asiaone.com/Just+Woman/News/Celebrities/Story/A1Story20080131-47571.html

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Lee, H., Park, J., Choi, B., Yi, H., & Kim, S. S. (2018). Experiences of and barriers to transition-related healthcare among Korean transgender adults: focus on gender identity disorder diagnosis, hormone therapy, and sex reassignment surgery. Epidemiology and health, 40, e2018005. https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2018005

Moon, K. (2024, December 17). Squid Game director says it was “near impossible” to cast a trans woman as Season 2 character. TVGuide. https://www.tvguide.com/news/squid-game-director-trans-season-2-character-casting/

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Sookpornsawan, R., Kiatrungrit, K., Seree, P., Korpaisarn, S., & Arunakul, J. (2024). Association between exposure to gender and sexual diversity in media (GSDM) and Thai adolescents' attitude towards LGBT individuals: A cross-sectional study in Bangkok schools. BMJ Open, 14(12), e089390. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-089390

Yi, H., Luhur, W., & Brown, T. (2019). Public opinion of transgender rights in South Korea. UCLA Williams Institute. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Public-Opinion-Trans-South-Korea-English-Dec-2019.pdf