Relational masculinities, dependence, and insecurity

Making sense of the 2015 Comfort Women Agreement by unmasking gender

Bibliographic Data

ID12660010
AuthorsJooyoun Lee (0000-0002-3038-4952, St. Edward's University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume26
Issue1
Pages128-149
Publication date2023-03-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Feminist Journal of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-6742 • E-ISSN: 1468-4470
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14616742.2023.2182812
OpenAlexW4361222879
LanguageEN
References cited38

This article critically assesses the 2015 Comfort Women Agreement between Japan and South Korea by employing the lens of gender – an approach that, curiously, has been neglected in making sense of the so-called landmark deal. For this examination, I revisit Connell’s conceptualization of the relationship between hegemonic and subordinate masculinities, defined in terms of complicity and marginalization, and propose two interrelated concepts as a way to capture their interactive relationality. I argue that the Agreement cannot be fully understood without careful attention to a global politics of gendered hierarchical relations between hegemonic and subordinate masculinities, anchored in the mutuality of dependence and insecurity in regard to the United States, Japan, and South Korea. This is seamlessly woven into the gendered domestic politics that resonated with the Japanese government’s apology and the Agreement’s implementation in South Korea. I demonstrate how the allegedly distinct domains of the official/public and the secret/private in fact fundamentally overlap to bolster the artificial domain of masculinity – a critical factor that underpinned the Agreement, in which masculine fears and desires were implicated

Comfort women · Complicity · Conceptualization · Hegemony · Masculinity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Law

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