I have watched too many idol dramas in recent years, and some questions have been lingering in my mind: Why is "boss" the standard male protagonist's occupation in idol dramas? What is the importance of the career choices of male and female protagonists in idol dramas? It seems that he doesn't have the right career and is not qualified to fall in love in an idol drama. The elders say: "If you choose the wrong major, you will regret it for the rest of your life." Idol drama is like, "If you choose the wrong career, you will have a single life."
First of all, the career choice of the male protagonist of the idol drama is very particular.
In early idol dramas, the heroine could be a thief ("My Girl"), a scumbag ("Prank Kiss"), or a commoner girl with no sense of existence ("Bad Laughter", "Destined to Love You" ""The Prince Turns into a Frog" and "Meteor Garden")... But the male protagonist must be a tyrant, a chaebol, or a rich second generation. This is one of the key points of the male protagonist’s career in idol dramas: financial strength.
Stills of "The Prince Turns into a Frog"
Just imagine, how could an affordable man who squeezed the bus every day and worried about his salary be able to play the male lead in an idol drama 20 years ago? They couldn't provide the kind of sweet love scenes in idol dramas where people spend a lot of money to fall in love, and they couldn't provide fantasies for the female audience at that time. To put it bluntly, idol dramas in the early years focused on the appearance of men and women in the traditional East Asian society's concept of marriage and love. The word "cai" refers to either the "talent" of talent or the "wealth" of wealth. In terms of social status, men occupy the upper position and women occupy the lower position. This is a conventional combination, even an ideal combination. It conforms to a certain narrative of women changing their fate and crossing classes through marriage and love. It is full of feudal flavor, but very effective.
If you don’t have the financial resources of a chaebol hegemon, then you must have a stable income, be respected, and have an elegant lifestyle. At least you must be an elite middle class. For example, doctors, lawyers, scientific researchers, etc. are the representatives of the elite middle class in idol dramas.
In 2001, in "It's All Angels' fault", the male protagonist played by Ren Quan, although he is a commoner, has a promising future and is unparalleledly handsome. He is the dream of all the unmarried girls in the hospital. The profession of doctor is so popular in the creation of idol dramas, and the popularity of creation continues to this day. "Healing Lovers" aired this year is another drama in which the male protagonist is a doctor. No matter how hard and tired medical students are, how tired and hard doctors are, and how many difficulties they have to face in real life, in idol dramas, doctors all look handsome, ascetic elites, and live a leisurely and respectable life. You can hold a cup of coffee and chat with the heroine at any time.
Stills of "Healing Lovers"
Lawyers are also the benchmark for middle-class professions in idol dramas, because this profession in idol dramas sounds like high income, high status, and high IQ. In 2015, "Why Shengxiaomo" was broadcast and became the ratings champion of Jiangsu Satellite TV that year. The barrister He Yichen played by Chung Han-liang is not a real boss, but better than a boss, warm-hearted and cold-faced, doting on his wife and abusing his wife, which really makes many female viewers unable to stop. The character of a lawyer has also become the character of the male protagonist in idol dramas.
Still photos of "Why Shengxiaomo"
Scientific researchers are the "upstarts" of idol drama male protagonists in recent years. "You Are My Glory" and "Exclusive Memory" all have the setting of a highly educated elite male, which is consistent with In recent years, there has been an aesthetic trend of "sapiosexuality", but while being sapiosexual, your face should also be delicate and handsome. Idol dramas have no reference value for real researchers who mock themselves as "scientific research dogs". Life is full of endless experiments and papers. "Talk about love in an idol drama", I'm afraid. Most likely, this is the desire to put it after "the paper is published" and "the experimental results are accurate." I believe that friends who are engaged in scientific research, if they want to make a cyber wish under the Internet's various "Repost this xx and you will have good luck for the whole year", the wish must be: "Believe in men/believe in women and wish that the mother and child will be single for the rest of their lives." Post a few sci-fi articles."
Stills of "You Are My Glory"
Stills of "Exclusive Memory"
In addition to the boss with amazing money making ability and the stable and respectable highly educated elite middle class, what other professions can be qualified to be an idol drama actor? Where is the Lord? The next thing that came to us was the "establishment" and "arts and sports students" teams.
In recent years, firefighters, special police officers, and soldiers have begun to play the leading roles in idol dramas, and they have received a lot of praise. They have a tall appearance, strong skills, love the motherland and the people, are responsible and ambitious, and have eight-pack abs, which gives the female protagonist a sense of security. And dramas such as "You Are My Fortress", "He Came from the Fire" and "Illuminate You" also take into account the reality of the profession, while allowing female audiences to have something to dream about, while at the same time highlighting the profession. attributes and expressed respect for these professionals who have made outstanding contributions to society and the people.
"In-system boyfriends" are irresistible. In the past two years, Xiaohongshu has popularized "in-system boyfriend style" outfits, which shows that female audiences also highly recognize the profession of civil servants. However, because of the seriousness and seriousness of this profession, Due to the peculiarity, I am afraid that the creators of idol dramas would not easily write about a civil servant boyfriend.
Stills of "You Are My City Fortress"
Posters of "He Came from the Fire"
Stills of "Illuminate You"
As for the "art and sports students", it can be said that the "sports students" have completely defeated the "art students" . In the early years, there were "MVP Lover" and "Tornado Girl". In the past two years, there have been "Blazing Road", "Only Love" and "Snow Pear Stewed with Rock Sugar". Various athlete male protagonists dazzled everyone with their handsome figures. However, apart from the profession of actor, it is relatively difficult to find an "art student" among the male protagonists of idol dramas. It is rare to find a designer who works in advertising, and may also be a poor boy ("Sunshine With Me").
It can be seen that the creators of idol dramas may have some stereotypes: although artistic men are good at romance, they either have no money or no skills, so they are not suitable for being male protagonists; athletes are different, and anyone who can become a top athlete can He is hardworking and talented, has a good figure and has great energy. Medals and honors can bring wealth and blessings. It is best to be a male protagonist!
Stills of "It's Just Love"
In idol dramas in recent years, the male protagonist's profession has been innovating: cultural relic restorer, dubbing master, e-sports master... There is even a freelance job of stock trading at home. "Male" ("The Twenty-Eight Laws of Love") also reflects social changes and the rise of new professions to a certain extent.
Stills from "The Twenty-Eight Laws of Love"
As for the heroines of idol dramas, even twenty years ago, the popular character design was "ordinary women". The heroines in idol dramas were usually beautiful and hard-working. Nowadays, "big heroine" and "double strong" are popular, and the heroines of idol dramas work extremely hard. They often roll out the style and level, with 360 lines, and a heroine can be found in every line, a female domineering one. In short, there are female artists. The female protagonist can do the professions that the male protagonist can do. The female protagonist can also do the professions that the male protagonist cannot do.
Therefore, instead of talking about the professions that the heroine of idol dramas can do, let’s start from reality and talk about the professions that the heroine cannot do. Judging from the author's observations and the cases of friends... Teachers are not good, and we teachers are suffering. The middle school teacher is from 6 to 10, and the class meeting is held to approve homework. Which one is not a headache? Who has time to fall in love with the boss? Neither can civil servants. Just think about it - the boss said: "Take this black card, dear, and spend it." The female lead was angry: "Hey! I am a public servant that a capitalist brat like you can corrupt?!"
Readers are welcome to add other professions that are not suitable for idol dramas.
Over the past few decades, the careers of the male protagonists in idol dramas have diversified from elite bosses to athletes, voice actors, SWAT, and freelancers, while the career diversity of the female protagonists has always existed, but in recent years, there are obviously elites cultural trend, and unlike the situation in which "in the early years, the career was just an embellishment for the heroine of idol dramas", in today's idol dramas, the heroine's career often has a complete career line, serving the heroine's personality. This is actually in line with the current situation. Social reality has echoed, and it reflects the awakening of female consciousness. When female audiences are no longer satisfied with a single narrative of strong men and weak women, and expect dual strengths, or even strong women and weak men, more and more people will appear on the screen. The warm man who is willing to wash his hands and make soup, and the "strong woman" who works hard to make money outside.
Generally speaking, career choices in idol dramas serve the audience’s love and marriage fantasies. Changes in the audience’s love and marriage fantasies reflect changes in social life, ideological trends, economy and other aspects. At the same time, it is worth noting that in the era of online dramas, as the types of idol dramas are subdivided, the male and female protagonists in idol dramas are also subdivided according to the audience. The mature urban white-collar workers aged 25-35 in first-tier cities, and the male and female protagonists in idol dramas aged 18-25 The creators and creators all have a clear idea of what kind of male and female protagonists they like, including college students, newcomers to the workplace, and the lower-tier markets.
It is worth noting that no matter how vertically subdivided, "Boss" and "Cinderella" are still the most popular "configurations" among the public. As I write this, I realize: Idol dramas are the eternal utopia of the "overlord".
