Gender, Feminism and Masculinity in Anti-Militarism

Abstract

By employing a feminist analysis of the conscientious objection movement in South Korea, this study reveals the close causal dynamics between masculinities and anti-militarism. This, in turn, shows links between feminist politics and effectiveness of anti-militaristic campaigns. The conscientious objection movement in South Korea is one of the most distinctive and controversial anti-militaristic movements launched in the country since 2000. In this movement, the explicit contestation of dominant militarized masculinities has become a major factor in the formation of activists' identities, relationships and perspectives, as well as the building of the movement's popular legitimacy. Despite South Korea's male-only conscription system, women activists and feminist ideas have played important roles in helping young male conscientious objectors as they face or are motivated by pressures to act according to widely held and state-fostered militarized masculinities. These women activists and their feminist ideas have helped create a new dimension in both the conscientious objection movement and in the political culture of national security.