Men With Backpacks At Work = FAIL

A tangential post to my earlier tribute to the two ugliest male wardrobes in all of K-dramas (Joo Ji Hoon in Goong and Rain in Full House), I hereby bring you another male atrocity I’ve recently re-encountered.

If it happened just once, I would consider it an aberration. To see it twice makes me worried that someone in the wardrobe department thinks grown male schlepping backpacks to work is a good idea. The answer is an unequivocal NO!

I first saw the male backpack phenomenon in What Happened in Bali, where Jo In Sung’s character (who was a shoo-in for worst male wardrobe but lost out) carried backpack after backpack around to work. The self-same work where he slept all day and did no discernable work. So the backpack served no purpose, he clearly wasn’t carrying work stuff in there, other than as a fashion statement. Which was a big giant fail.

Recently I watched the SBS drama OB/GYN, which was surprisingly better than its ratings would indicate, but nothing I would write home about. However, I will write home about what the male lead, Go Joo Won, was forced to do, which was carry a backpack to and from work. And it wasn’t just any old backpack – it was a forest green leather fashion backpack that even a leprechaun wouldn’t be caught dead carrying.

He even had his big sexy kiss scene in an elevator with the female lead ruined because he was wearing the back-abomination. During the kiss all I could focus on was the green monster attached to his back (and the PD did him no favors by filming from the vantage point behind his head).

Neither Jo In Sung nor Go Joo Won are unattractive men, they are quite good-looking in fact. But the backpack was meant to convey certain attributes of their characters in the respective dramas, and failed in that respect and just made them look ridiculous.

Jo In Sung was supposed to be a rich buffoon in WHIB, and I think his wardrobe accomplished that fine enough, the backpack was overkill. Go Joo Won was supposed to be a orderly, meticulous, gentle doctor, and the backpack was not needed at all to emphasize his personality, a briefcase would be more apt.

Let’s end with some pretty faces and hope the male work backpack trends dies a quick and immediate death henceforth, never to be resurrected again.