Lonesome women : A visual discourse analysis of North Korean propaganda posters between 1951-1991

North Korea is one of the world’s most secluded countries. The country has been the interest for several studies throughout the years. Few, however, have studied the many propaganda posters produced inside its borders since the dawn of the Korean war. Even fewer have studied them from a gender perspective, and never before have the shift in hegemonic gender patterns within the propaganda posters been studied. In this essay I analyze North Korean propaganda posters in order to decide how hegemonic gender patterns have shifted from the Korean War through 1991. Furthermore, I analyze how male and female access to different social arenas changed throughout the period. I found that female access to different social arenas throughout the period slightly increased, but regardless remained limited. Male access to different social arenas was initially limited but increased greatly in propaganda posters after the Korean War. Furthermore, I found that women were exclusively depicted alone or in company with a group of men, which indicates a male monopoly on power of action. Thus, an important part of hegemonic masculinity is the monopoly on power of action, making the lack of it a significant quality in hegemonic femininity.