The good, the bad, and the forgiven: The media spectacle of South Korean male celebrities’ compulsory military service

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yezi Yeo
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Military Establishment ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Compulsory Military Service ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Military

For almost 70 years, South Korea has upheld the principle of universal male conscription, and the military has been a potent force in post-war South Korean political, economic, and social development. The role and significance of male conscription and the military establishment in South Korean society have been explored from the perspective of political, social, and gender/post-colonial studies. However, there is a considerable lack of academic research assessing the social meanings behind the highly publicized conduct of male celebrities’ negotiating the issue of their compulsory military service, which has turned increasingly into media spectacles since the mid-1990s. This study attempts to provide an insight into the political and social ramifications of such media events by tracing the military service and male celebrity discourse through several major conscription scandals in the South Korean mass media. By simultaneously policing and exploiting the ‘sacred’ duty to serve, these media scandals reinforce what it means to be a true ‘Korean man’.

The Perpetuation of Gender Norms and White Hegemonic Patriarchy in the South African Defence Force as Represented in André van der Merwe’s Moffie (2006)

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Nolen Fortuin
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
White Family ◽  
White Children ◽  
White Masculinity ◽  
Party Government ◽  
Compulsory Military Service ◽  
The Military

With the institution of compulsory military service in South Africa in 1948 the National Party government effected a tool well shaped for the construction of hegemonic masculinities. Through this, and other structures like schools and families, white children were shaped into submissive abiding citizens. Due to the brutal nature of a militarised society, gender roles become strictly defined and perpetuated. As such, white men’s time served on the border also “toughened” them up and shaped them into hegemonic copies of each other, ready to enforce patriarchal and racist ideologies. In this article, I look at how the novel Moffie by André Carl van der Merwe (2006) illustrates hegemonic white masculinity in South Africa and how it has long been strictly regulated to perpetuate the well-being of the white family as representative of the capitalist state. I discuss the novel by looking at the ways in which the narrator is marked by service in the military, which functions as a socialising agent, but as importantly by the looming threat of the application of the term “moffie” to himself, by self or others.  

scholarly journals From civilian service to military service: what led policy-makers to remove nursing care from field units of the Israeli defense force (IDF) and return it later?

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronen Segev
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Care ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Ministry Of Health ◽  
Military Nurses ◽  
Military Hospitals ◽  
Compulsory Military Service ◽  
Israeli Defense Force ◽  
Health Demands ◽  
Mandatory Service ◽  
The Military

Abstract Background From the very onset, Israeli military nurses served in supporting positions on the front lines, shoulder to shoulder with men. When the IDF was established in 1948, nurses were sent to serve near areas of conflict and were not included in compulsory military service in field units. Once the military hospitals were closed in 1949, nursing in the Medical Corps lost a clear military purpose, and its main contribution was in the civilian arena. From 1949 until 2000, most recruited military nurses operated their mandatory service mainly in a civilian framework according to the integration agreement between the ministry of defense to the ministry of health. Between 2000 to 2018, military nurses served at home front military clinics and in headquarters jobs at the Medicine Corps. In2018, the Medical Corps decided to integrate military nurses into the Israeli military service in order to cope with the shortage of military physicians, among other things, and ensure appropriate availability of medical and health services for military units.. This study examines, for the first time, the considerations that led to the closure of military hospitals and the transfer of the military service of nurses in the IDF to the Ministry of Health in 1949 and the decision in 2018 to return the military nurses to the field’s military battalions. Methods The study was based on an analysis of documents from the IDF archives, the Israeli parliament archive, the David Ben-Gurion archive, articles from periodical newspapers, and interviews with nurses and partners in the Israeli Medical Corps. Results During almost 70 years, Israeli military nursing’s main contribution was to the civilian hospitals. The return of nursing care to the IDF field units in recent years intended to supplement the medicine corps demands in field units by placing qualified academic nurses. Conclusions The removal of nursing care from the IDF field units was provided as a response to the needs of the health demands of the emerging state. Until 2018 there was no significant need for military nurses except in emergency time. This is in contrast to other military nursing units.

Creating a “Home Away from Home”: Korean Women’s Performances of the Imaginary American Home at US Military Clubs in South Korea, 1955–64

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-236
Author(s):  
Yu Jung Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States Army ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Us Military ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Occupied Zone

Abstract This article considers the proliferation of Korean native camp shows and the roles of Korean women entertainers at the military service clubs of the Eighth United States Army in Korea in the 1950s and the 1960s. The role of the “American sweethearts” in USO camp shows—to create a “home away from home” and boost the morale of the American troops during wartime—was carried out by female Korean entertainers in the occupied zone at a critical moment in US-ROK relations during the Cold War. The article argues that Korean entertainers at military clubs were meant to perform the entertainment of “home” and evoke nostalgia for American soldiers by imitating well-known American singers and songs. However, what they performed as America was not simply the reproduction of American entertainment but often a manifestation of their imagination; they were constructing their own version of the American home. Their hybrid styles of American performance were indicative of how the discourse of the American home itself was constructed around ambivalence, the very site where women entertainers were enabled to exceed the rigid boundaries of race and gender, transcend their roles as imitators, and exercise their agency by productively negotiating this ambivalence.

scholarly journals Dual Citizenship

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Escobar
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
Compulsory Military Service ◽  
Dual Nationality ◽  
And Gender

Dual or multiple nationality/citizenship is a status that grants an individual membership in two or more states. This status was repudiated and fought against legally and culturally, but it has been normalized since the end of the 20th century as a result of various changes that occurred in the aftermath of World War II: (1) decrease in international conflict and a reduction of compulsory military service; (2) development of human rights and gender equality, allowing women to transfer their nationality to their offspring; (3) increase in international support for the prevention of statelessness; and (4) increase in international migration and intermarriage. An individual can become a dual/multiple national/citizen by birth or by naturalization. In international law, nationality and citizenship are used interchangeably, however, some countries draw legal distinctions between them; moreover, various social scientists insist on distinguishing between these two closely related concepts. While countries may legally accept or reject dual nationality/citizenship, the reality is more complex because there is formal and informal tolerance of this status. This tolerance can also be differential (e.g., restriction of dual nationality/citizenship via naturalization and tolerance of this status when individuals are born in the territory and inherit a second—or more—nationality/citizenship from their parents). Dual or multiple nationality/citizenship can also diverge in its origins and consequences depending on whether it involves immigration or emigration states and in the degree to which dual nationality/citizenship is granted (e.g., acceptance of the retention of nationality when emigrants nationalize abroad while restricting their access to citizenship rights, such as political rights). The increase in dual nationality/citizenship since the late 20th century has promoted a normative debate (more intense, initially) about its consequences in terms of military service, state loyalty, diplomatic protection, equality of rights among citizens, and so on. However, thanks to the proliferation of comparative and single studies of dual nationality/citizenship around the globe, we may now analyze not only the reasons that brought about the acceptance, rejection, or tolerance of this status but also its practical consequences. Scholars have studied the effects of dual nationality/citizenship in many areas, such as international relations, nationalism and the state, migrants’ integration in countries of reception, membership and rights extension to migrants in countries of emigration, political participation, instrumental use of this status, and so on. While the causes and consequences of dual nationality/citizenship vary widely, some regional patterns around the globe have been identified.

Making military and Veteran women (in)visible: The continuity of gendered experiences in military-to-civilian transition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Eichler
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Women Veterans ◽  
Military Women ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Civilian Life ◽  
Gender Biases ◽  
Care And Support ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Military

LAY SUMMARY This study explores how gender and sex shape the military-to-civilian transition (MCT) for women. Thirty-three Canadian women Veterans were interviewed about their military service and post-military life. MCT research often emphasizes discontinuities between military and civilian life, but women’s accounts highlight continuities in gendered experiences. Military women are expected to fit the male norm and masculine ideal of the military member during service, but they are rarely recognized as Veterans after service. Women experience invisibility as military member and Veterans and simultaneously hypervisibility as (ex)military women who do not fit military or civilian gender norms. Gendered expectations of women as spouses and mothers exert an undue burden on them as serving members and as Veterans undergoing MCT. Women encounter care and support systems set up on the normative assumption of the military and Veteran man supported by a female spouse. The study findings point to a needed re-design of military and Veteran systems to remove sex and gender biases and better respond to the sex- and gender-specific MCT needs of women.

“Conduct of a Nature to Bring Discredit upon the Military Service”

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-55
Author(s):  
Andrew Byers
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Venereal Disease ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
Military Justice ◽  
Enlisted Men ◽  
The Family ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Civilian Women ◽  
The Military ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter examines Fort Riley, Kansas, from 1898-1940. The chapter provides an overview of the military justice system and looks at specific legal cases to explore how the U.S. Army thought about issues related to sexuality: family life and marriage, sexual propriety, venereal disease, homosexuality, and sexual violence. Examining how the army treated what it considered criminal violations of a sexual nature in its court-martial process provides insight into what behaviors the army considered transgressive, how it publicly discussed such transgressions, and how it dealt with offenders. The chapter also reveals how entangled the army’s notions of marriage, the family, and sexual propriety were with social class and gender relations in how it policed contact between enlisted men and civilian women of various social classes.

Settler Military Politics: On the Inclusion and Recognition of Indigenous People in the Military

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Caso
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Organization ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Military Politics ◽  
Settler Society ◽  
The Military

Abstract After decades of refusal, neglect, and tacit admittance, the service of Indigenous people in the national armed forces of settler colonial states such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States is finally gaining acknowledgment. Indigenous people are now integrated in the regular forces and represented in national war commemoration. This article maintains that while inclusion and recognition of Indigenous military service is a positive transformation in the direction of post-colonial reconciliation, it still operates within the logics of settler colonialism intended to eradicate Indigenous stories of connection to land and assimilate Indigenous people in settler society. Using the case study of Indigenous militarization in Australia, this article argues that, under conditions of settler colonialism, the inclusion and recognition of Indigenous people in national militaries advances the settler colonial project intended to dispossess Indigenous people from their land and assimilate them in the new settler society. It highlights that historically, military organization has supported settler colonialism, and positions the present inclusion and recognition of Indigenous people in the military as a continuation of this history.

»Das Weibliche umschließt den starken Mann« (Jer 31,22). Geschlechterkonstruktionen im Jeremiabuch im Licht feministischer Hermeneutik

2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-99
Author(s):  
Christl M. Maier
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Gender Performance ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Trauma Studies ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Gender Aspects ◽  
And Gender

Abstract This essay explores variant concepts of gender in the book of Jeremiah from a feminist perspective that includes insights of post-colonial studies, trauma studies, and queer theory. It discusses the female personification of Jerusalem and Judah, the laboring woman metaphor used in the context of war, the complexity of gendered addressees in Jer 2:1-4:2, and gender aspects in the characterization of God and Jeremiah. At first glance, the Jeremiah tradents use traditional gender stereotypes. A closer inspection, however, reveals an ambivalent gender performance of female and male protagonists. In this context, the enigmatic statement in Jer 31:22 »the female encompasses the strong man« also signifies the ambivalence of gender concepts in Jeremiah.

The Prognosis of Psychiatric Disorders in Young Norwegian Men

1973 ◽  
Vol 122 (567) ◽  
pp. 125-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Sund
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Healthy Men ◽  
Compulsory Military Service ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
Long Term Prognosis ◽  
The Military

The aim of this social-psychiatric and personal follow-up examination has been to illustrate the long-term prognosis of Norwegian youth suffering from psychiatric disorders which initially presented during peacetime compulsory military service. The follow-up examinations were conducted personally, and a control group of presumed healthy men was also followed. Sund (1968, 1970) has made a systematic comparison between the patient group and the control group concerning prognosis. Here, therefore, the main emphasis will be on a comparison of the courses followed by clinically different diagnostic sub-group. Eitinger (1950) showed the necessity of undertaking personal follow-up examinations in order to map out the prognosis for this kind of patient. Prognostic studies outside Scandinavia have been reported by Ginzberg et al. (1959), by Glass et al. (1956) and by Plag and Arthur (1965). However, the periods of observation in these studies have been short; moreover, adjustment to the military system was the objective, and the cases were not personally examined in a follow-up. It has been difficult to find prognostic studies with sufficiently long observation periods and with personal follow-up to serve as an adequate basis of comparison with our material. To a large extent, therefore, we have chosen to see the development of our patients in relation to our knowledge of psychiatric reactions in the rest of the population.

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