Being a woman is rough. I havent even turned 18 yet at the time of this review and yet the only guys who have shown romantic interest in me are over 30 and would cat call me in the street or hit on me when I was at work. I had to sit and take it when my social anxiety prevented me from standing up to my male classmates who would go on sexist tirades about how women were inferior to men. I even had a classmate who genuinely believed women didnt deserve rights. I can only imagine how women must have suffered in a time when this behavior was even more normalized than it is now. That is the focus of Her Tale of Shim Chong a retelling of an old folktale from a female perspective. Chong is a beggar girl having to provide for her blind father by begging and stealing living with the stigma of her poverty. One day in a twist of fate she saves a drowning woman from the river a young girl who is about to marry the elderly Chancellor Jang not of her own will but for her family. Both women wish to die and leave the cruel world behind but instead they form a friendship that could lead to a romance. However they are still women in a world controlled by men. https://pbs.tw.com/media/EPz1JYXsAQC7JR.jpg This manhwa hit so close to home even in modern times. While misogyny isnt as prevalent where I am as it was in oldtimey Korea where this fantasy world is based on I recognized some all too familiar characters namely Sunim the monk. Almost all the men in this manhwa are outright terrible with the best being a literal child who is an extremely minor character in the story. And honestly I wouldnt expect many men to be decent people in a time where patriarchal institutions were so deeply ingrained into their culture. A character who you expect to be a major antagonist is revealed to have been made the way she was by the society she grew up in. She isnt the real enemy but the system that made her that way. Chong initially views the wealthy women in this series as having complete freedom since they have the money to live their lives comfortably. However she learns that its not the case as wealthy women have their own sets of rules to follow as their very livelihoods can only be maintained as long as they are loved. The only way to survive as a woman is to become a gentle model of femininity who no one could possibly hate. In order to be loved one must become the perfect woman always kind always submissive always doing what the men in her life ask of her. The consequences of failing to live up to perfection are abuse and gossip. When Chong emulates this behavior that Lady Jang has to do in order to make allies she learns that tiptoeing around isnt foolproof. Becoming the perfect woman is impossible. No matter what she does someone will always be displeased with her or Lady Jang. If Lady Jang wears bright colors shes being frivolous and failing in her duties while her husband lies ill. If she looks a bit disheveled shes not worthy of being a noble lady. Lady Jang isnt safe by any means and is struggling in a new place with no allies. When she becomes a proper lady Chong becomes someone worth pitying again. Someone who fits the idea of a proper lady now that she is clean and properly clothed. It feeds into the idea that women are not worth caring about unless they are conventionally attractive. https://pbs.tw.com/media/EPz1KUPX4AEXi2X.jpg Once Chongs physical appearance improves the way the town views her completely changes. She can earn money and food for her father but only if she maintains the facade of perfection. And she also has to deal with the unwanted advances of older men who sexually harass her. No one will help her when that happens and shes blamed for fighting back and being improper and violent. Shes blamed for attracting their attention with her looks. Its really awful. I remember times where I had to dress more modestly than my sister because of how my body looked and I remember my former school would get on the girls for how their uniforms fit. I couldnt wear pants because the style we had to buy fit my legs too tightly and I had to hope they wouldnt get on me for my skirt being too short and make us measure each others skirt lengths to make sure it wasnt even a centimeter too short. The boys didnt deal with any of this naturally. Even today women are constantly blamed for being assaulted which is horrible and disgusting. I have to talk about Sunim to get more of the points across. Hes a monk and regarded as a kind wise and virtuous man. However hes also more than a little misogynistic and creepy. He acts as though hes better than everyone else and views becoming a man as the closest to becoming enlightened. Sunim has this idea of virtue and purity being divorced of feminine things. He hates Lady Jang and views her suffering and the suffering of those around her as her own sins playing her up as a terrible person. He actively manipulates Chong using religion and shaming which reminded me of another personal experience when I went to my friends youth group which was actually a cult. The pastor was preying on the fears and insecurities of myself and the other kids who were almost entirely comprised of young girls. There was a lot of emotional manipulation going on and Sunim really reminded me of that with how he was basically grooming Chong to become his ideal woman. Chong is a dutiful daughter in the beginning. Shes annoyed with her father and his vanity but she has been supporting him ever since she was a tiny child. Shes incredibly strong fighting to survive even though she wants to die. Dying would be a catharsis from all the pain and false pity she receives from everyone around her. She knows people only care about her when its convenient and Lady Jang showing her kindness is too good to be true even though theres some sort of catch. And living freely with Lady Jang is giving her a zest for life a reason to live. Living for love is much more appealing than living for her useless father. While shes strong shes just as weak and fragile as you would expect someone who only knew hardship to be. https://pbs.tw.com/media/FMdDgEOXMAA6mnn.jpg Lady Jang is Chongs opposite in every way. Shes wealthy and should have everything but doesnt. Shes the wife of a bedridden and sickly old man with stepchildren older than she is who take advantage of her. Shes kind demure gentle and a proper lady. She strives to be a master of manipulation in order to stay in favor because thats all she can do to live. However like Chong shes fighting to stay alive even though she wishes for death. She will do anything she can to stay alive and that includes not going as far for Chong as Chong would for her which is a point of contention in their relationship. Its easy to dismiss her but theres a lot more to Lady Jang than she lets on. Another character I would like to highlight is Mother Ditchdeok. Shes a very powerful woman and is as free as a woman can be in this society. However she has a lot of stigma attached to her due to circumstances involving her son. Her lover didnt marry her and she raised her son as a single parent which is incredibly risky at that time. While out working while he was asleep as a young child a fire started and he almost died and is now disabled. Many villagers blame her for not being there for her son despite how hard she works for him and how much she cares for both him and Chong who she sees as her own daughter. She directly contrasts Chongs father who is praised as a good parent because he occasionally goes out begging with her even though he never does anything else to help her only caring about his own happiness. Any status she has is all due to being a fortune teller with great abilities. She has a strong will and motherly instincts and she is the one to serve as a voice of reason in this manhwa while being a flawed character. She was probably my favorite. The women in this story are only able to find happiness with their relationships with other women both romantic and platonic. Chong and Lady Jang fall in love and give each other a reason to live and continue to fight to survive within the system that oppresses them. I did have a hard time connecting with their relationship and I felt like there wasnt as much romance there as I would have liked as I didnt care much about their relationship just about the story and the themes. I guess I feel like their romantic feelings werent as fleshed out as I would have liked though it never made me not enjoy the story. I can live without romance in my stories I just want it to be executed well. They are cute though and I liked the side story towards the end. The daughterinlaw only becomes happy when she can leave her life of abuse behind and befriends Mother Dichdeok who is able to find peace in her life when she meets and becomes a surrogate mother to Chong. I have hope that her son Dok will become a good person like his mother and protect those who have less power than he does. https://www.ps4wallpapers.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/10/PS4Wallpapers.com5bbeac37ef8deHSChByMireya1056x594.png The art is very pleasing. It isnt the most detailed or unique manhwa art Ive seen or even my favorite but it does the job. The fancy outfits that are shown are very beautiful despite being very simple. The character designs are all very distinct in terms of overall design and color pallets. This was a very interesting manhwa with a lot to unpack due to its themes of life love true happiness and systematic oppression. I kind of wish there were more retellings of fairy tales and folktales from the female perspective like this because of how beautifully it was written. It isnt perfect since I wish the daughterinlaw and the main romance were developed more. Though that doesnt take away from my enjoyment in the slightest as this is a fantastic feminist folktale retelling. If you want a story about women surviving in a patriarchal society with a lot of commentary and well written characters I wholly recommend this.