What is it?

It's Judy and today will be a cultural and language lesson for the Gmama followers. Since my very first Kdrama (Mr Sunshine) I have noticed an unusual garment worn by women in the Joseon Period. In addition to the iconic hanboks made of beautiful, colorful silks there is a particular piece of clothing that Americans are not familiar with.

It's the item that appears to be a jacket that is draped over the women's head when they're out and about. I assumed it was, in fact, a jacket that they were covering their head with... until I saw this same thing repeatedly in many of the historical Kdramas. It was too odd that women would wear their jackets in the same way so I figured it was actually a special piece of clothing. It took me some digging but I learned it is called either a Neoul 너울 or a Jang-ot 장엇. (I hope my Korean Language teachers are noticing how I am using Hangul so effortlessly...)

See? It looks like a jacket draped over one's head but it's not!

I learned this information not from Google but from Paul Woo! Paul (I feel like I'm close enough that I can call him by his first name..) is from South Korea and I ran across a Threads post whereby he encouraged asking questions about Korean culture. Just to see if there really are live people out there on the internet, I asked him about this clothing item and he responded with an explanation and photo. (Wikipedia uses the term Jang-ot but since Paul responded to me personally I'm using the term Neoul.) Apparently they were worn to provide modesty and protection to the woman while out in public. I suppose it's kind of like Hijabs in Muslim culture, isn't it?

And for my good friends who poo-poo using Social Media this just goes to show you can actually learn something from it! It's not all pouty lips and provacative photos out there after all!