The Spread of Feminism and the Silence of Gendered Militarism in the Neoliberal Era: Controversy Over Military Conscription Among Members of the Young Generation in South Korea

Abstract

Male military conscription is situated at the center of the dispute between feminism and anti-feminism in South Korea, most notably among young people. This article aims to explain why concrete attempts to transform the conscription system have yet to appear in respect to neoliberalism, which constitutes the condition of life for the young generation. With the precarity of the young generations future, the period of compulsory military service came to be perceived as a disadvantage for job preparation or career management. As a consequence, the traditional gender norm that men should serve in the military has weakened. However, young peoples anxiety over the future as escalated by neoliberalism forces them to comprehend gender not as a social structure but as an individual identity and reinforces self-protection strategies such as calling for women to go through the same suffering caused by fulfilling ones military service or maintaining identity politics exclusively for women. As a result, substantive criticism of the gendered military system and militarism, which construct gender, continues to be impeded.