Why Could Joseon Men Have Concubines While Women Were Expected to Remain Faithful?
In The Scandal, men and women do not seem to live under the same rules.
A married man could keep a concubine.
A widow could be condemned for loving again.
A husband’s sexual life might be tolerated.
A woman’s could become a family disgrace.
To a modern viewer, that can look like a contradiction.
But in Joseon Korea, it was not treated as a contradiction.
It was part of the social system.
Joseon was officially monogamous — but concubines were allowed
Joseon marriage was based on the principle that a man had one legitimate wife.
That wife had a clearly recognized legal and ritual position within the household.
But this did not mean a man could have only one sexual or domestic partner.
Men, especially elite men, could also take concubines.
Korean historical sources describe Joseon marriage as basically monogamous while still permitting concubinage. The state distinguished one legitimate wife from other women in the household rather than treating all partners as equal wives. 우리역사넷
So the system was not:
one man + one woman
It was closer to:
one legitimate wife + possible concubines
And those women did not hold the same status.
A wife and a concubine were not equal
The legitimate wife occupied the formal position in the family.
She was connected to household rituals, lineage, inheritance, and the production of the legitimate family line.
A concubine could live within the household and bear children, but her social and legal position was lower.
Historical records describe concubines as occupying a status beneath the legitimate wife, and their children could also face social disadvantages. 우리역사넷
So when a drama shows tension between a wife and a concubine, that tension is not simply romantic jealousy.
There is a hierarchy built into the household itself.
Then why was the rule so different for women?
Because Joseon society connected female sexuality much more directly to lineage.
A family needed to know:
Whose child is this?
In a patrilineal system, that mattered enormously.
A husband could have children with more than one woman and those children could still be identified as his descendants.
But if a married woman had a sexual relationship outside the marriage, the certainty of paternal lineage was threatened.
That is one reason female chastity became so heavily emphasized.
Joseon moral culture increasingly defined women in relation to husbands, sons, and family lineage, and promoted chastity as a core female virtue. 우리역사넷
So male and female sexuality were not judged by the same standard.
The double standard was built into the system
This is the part modern viewers often notice immediately.
A man could have a concubine and still remain socially respectable.
A woman could face severe consequences for sexual behavior outside the accepted relationship.
Historical scholarship on Joseon explicitly describes this as a double sexual standard: male extramarital relationships were tolerated to a degree, while women were subjected to much stricter expectations of chastity. 우리역사넷
That does not mean every man freely kept concubines.
Nor does it mean every family welcomed them.
Money, status, household conflict, inheritance, and social rank all mattered.
But the system itself allowed a possibility for men that women largely did not have.
Why would a wife accept a concubine?
This is where The Scandal becomes especially interesting.
To a modern viewer, the idea of a wife tolerating—or even arranging—a concubine can seem impossible.
But marriage in an elite Joseon household was not understood only as a romantic partnership.
It was also a family institution.
Producing descendants, especially maintaining the male line, was extremely important.
If a legitimate wife did not produce a son, the household could look for other ways to secure succession.
A concubine could become one of those solutions.
That does not mean the wife had no feelings about it.
It means her personal feelings existed inside a system that placed lineage above romantic exclusivity.
And this changes how you watch The Scandal
When men in The Scandal appear to move more freely through sexual relationships while women face danger, shame, or punishment, the difference is not just there to make the male characters look powerful.
It reflects a real structural imbalance.
The system protected:
male lineage
more strongly than:
female autonomy
And that is why the same society could accept a man’s concubine while demanding that a widow remain faithful to a husband who was already dead.
From a modern perspective, that feels deeply unequal.
From the logic of Joseon society, however, both rules served the same goal:
protecting patriarchal lineage and household order.
Beyond the Subtitles
The subtitles told you what they said.
We explain why it mattered.
The Scandal Companion explores the cultural, historical, and social rules behind the drama — from concubines and widowhood to lineage, chastity, inheritance, and family honor.
Explore the full The Scandal Companion → https://agewellkoreanstyle.com/beyond-the-subtitles/