Brothers in Arms and Brothers in Christ?: The Military and the Catholic Church as Sources for Modern Korean Masculinity

Abstract

locate problems of gender inequity in these institutions in an authoritarian ism that results from years of Confucian ideological inculcation. Similar to locating the current problem of unjust gender structures in the West in an cient dualisms, locating the origins of this reality in any context requires a multipronged approach for discovering the source of its perpetuation and working toward equity. Many institutions share culpability in this regard, including families, schools, workplaces, religious groups, and the media. While recognizing the importance of these factors, I focus on the ways in which compulsory military service and the Roman Catholic Church in South Korea play major roles in upholding an authoritarian notion of masculinity. Drawing from personal experience and research by others, I argue that mil itaristic and Catholic definitions of masculinity are two major culprits in the Korean insistence on an authoritarian gendered hierarchy, and that such re ceived definitions of masculinity are neither helpful nor Christian for women and men. In pursuing this research, I have the modest objective of proposing readjustment education at or near the end of compulsory military service to foster the process of differentiating the military milieu from society at large, including Korean Roman Catholic settings. Ultimately, my hope is to con tribute to the denouncement and rejection of unjust treatment based on gen