Abstract
This study investigates the ideological implications of Real Men, a Korean reality show that portrays the experiences of celebrities who join the military as new conscripts. We situate the popularity of Real Men in the context of the changing gender geography of Korea. Through an analysis of the official Real Men online bulletin board, we explore how the male audience’s discourses regarding the authentic military experience and ideal soldiers are related to their desire to restore hegemonic masculinity. Our findings suggest that Real Men became a vehicle that was used to demand women’s appreciation of the difficult work of men in the military. A desire to be symbolically remunerated for military service involved the positioning of women as primary caregivers who fulfill traditional female roles. By calling for the restoration of traditional gender roles, the male viewers attempted to recover the hegemonic masculinity that they perceived to be under threat from changing gender relations.
Introduction
Real Men (Jinjja Sanai in Korean) is a Korean reality show that debuted on Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) in 2013 and portrays the experiences of celebrities who join the military as new conscripts. Six to eight regular cast members are assigned to a camp where they receive military training and complete several tasks over five nights and six days. The narrative revolves around the physical and mental challenges that the participants undergo. Each episode lasts for approximately 90 minutes, and the sense of continuity is facilitated by a voice-over narration (normally by a celebrity). According to the program website, Real Men aims to portray (often humorously) the way that the participants relinquish their celebrity status to learn co-operation and to feel a strong sense of comradeship as ‘real men’. Further, special episodes wherein a group of female celebrity participants join in the military training sessions have been featured over four seasons of Real Men. While a number of shows that deal with actual soldiers and the military experience such as The Stage of Friendship (MBC, 1989–1997) and The Youth Report (Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), 2003–2007) have been broadcast, no military-related show in the history of Korean television has enjoyed widespread popularity as much as Real Men.
It is intriguing that the popularity of Real Men did not wane as a result of the recent military scandals that shocked the Korean public (Choe, 2014) including the suicide of the female military captain Oh in 2013 after 10 months of sexual harassment from her superior officer. In 2014, 23-year-old Private First Class Yoon died after abuse and habitual beatings from senior colleagues, and a sergeant named Lim, who was routinely humiliated by his comrades, killed five soldiers and wounded many others during a shooting spree. While Real Men has been criticized by critics and scholars as a glamorization of military culture (Bae, 2014; Cho, 2015), it has consistently achieved an average rating of between 10% and 11% (once it reached an astonishing 19.8%), leading to its ranking in the Korean Gallup’s ‘Top 10 Most Loved Television Shows’ list for the entire period it has aired.
In this study, the popularity of Real Men is situated in the context of the changing gender geography of South Korea. Due to the economic crisis, many of Korea’s men have experienced a crisis of masculinity that has revealed a heightened sense of anxiety over the loss of the privileges that men enjoyed in the past (Um, 2011). Although the gender gap of Korea is wide in areas such as labor-force participation, pay rates, child-care costs, maternity rights, and senior-job representation (Economist, 2016), the increasing media discourse regarding the rising social status of women is used as the strong evidence of reverse discrimination that is allegedly suffered by Korea’s men (Lee and Park, 2012).
In Korea, compulsory military service is for men only and has long been a source of male resentment against women. We are claiming that in contemporary Korea, where males perceive a weakening of the traditional gender hierarchy, a military-based show like Real Men is able to gain unprecedented popularity, particularly among post-conscripts, because it serves as a vehicle through which to recover men’s damaged masculinity and express their desire to be compensated for their loss. We conducted a qualitative analysis of the official Real Men online bulletin board to explore how the male audience’s discourses regarding an authentic military experience and ideal soldiers were related to their desire to restore hegemonic masculinity. We consider the Real Men bulletin board as one of the online communities that recurrently display discourses of gender relations, reverse gender discrimination, and misogyny.
Militarized masculinity and gendered citizenship
Hegemonic masculinity is ‘the configuration of gender practice which … guarantees (or is taken to guarantee) the dominant position of men and the subordination of women’ (Connell, 1995: 77). Military service is seen as a crucial practice of hegemonic masculinity in Korea (Kwon, 2001). The current conscription law, enacted in 1965, requires all Korean men that are aged between 18 and 35 years to serve in the military (the length of service varies from 21 to 24 months) of a country that is threatened by North Korea, whereby young Korean men can be instilled with the importance of national identity and security. The government ideologically constructed military service as a critical element of masculinity and something that is the national, civil, and sacred duty of all Korean males (Kwon, 2001; Moon, 2002). The exempt women of Korea were relegated to domestic spheres, and they were only marginally represented in political and economic spheres. Korea has constituted gendered citizenship by assigning men and women into public and private sectors, respectively, where their sacrifices for the nation-state are different (Moon, 2002).
In the post–Cold War era, young Korean men have become increasingly reluctant to undertake military service in a context where they believe women do not necessarily make any sacrifices for either family or nation and can solely pursue their private desires (Moon, 2005). The 1999 elimination of the military service extra-points system that gave post-conscripts advantages in certain public-employment tests further heightened male perceptions of unfair treatment. The high unemployment rate that is a result of the economic crisis also modified the perceptions of young Korean men, who saw military service as a wasting of the prime of one’s life (Moon, 2005); because they think it is a waste of time, 44.9% of male high-school students are disinclined to serve in the military (Chungnam Institute for National Defense, 2011).
Crisis of masculinity and misogyny in Korea
For a long time, the Confucianism that was adopted as the state ideology of the Chosun Dynasty (1392–1897) has informed the gender hierarchy of Korea; however, a reconfiguration of gender relations has occurred over the last two decades (Moon, 2002). The Ministry of Gender Equality (renamed The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in 2005) was established in 2001 to promote women’s participation in society, to prevent domestic and sexual violence, and to plan women’s policies (Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 2016). During the Roh Moo-Hyun administration (2003–2008), an unprecedented number of laws were established or rewritten to rectify the gender inequality that had become deep-rooted in Korea (Kim and Kim, 2011). The Anti-Prostitution Law (2004) and the abolition of the Family Head System (2005) represent legal achievements that symbolize a shift in the nation’s gender relations because the prevention of prostitution and the abolition of a patriarchal family law had been the key agenda of the women’s movement in Korea for several decades (Kim and Kim, 2011).
While the broader socio-political transformation resulted in a crisis of masculinity, the fierce competition caused by economic instability in Korea further heightened the anxiety over the loss of the male privilege (Kim, 2015; Um, 2011). Korea’s hegemonic masculinity has been based on the earning power of males, so ‘unemployment symbolized the loss of their potential … and threatened their sense of manliness’ (Moon, 2002: 93). The youth unemployment rate hovers around 12% (Cho, 2016), and male job seekers must compete against women for jobs and resources that men had exclusive access to previously. Korea’s men now find themselves doubly oppressed by the economic crisis and the Confucian legacy that dictates male obligations such as a filial duty and financial responsibility (Um, 2011; Yoon, 2015). According to a report by the Korean Women’s Development Institute, men are substantially more likely than women to believe that men suffer from reverse discrimination due to policies for women’s rights (Ahn et al., 2015).
Despite the numerous changes regarding Korea’s gender relations, the achievement of gender equality remains a long-term aspiration. Korea languished at number 115 out of 145 countries in the global gender gap index of the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Gender Gap Report. The labor-force participation rate of Korea’s women is substantially lower than that of Korea’s men because married women stop working to fulfill family-related obligations (Cho, 2014).
A puzzling gap exists between public perception of increasing gender equality and the persistent gender inequality. The role of the media in the fostering of a false impression of gender equality continues to be critical (Douglas, 2010; Taft, 2004). In Korea, where men perform substantially less housework than women (Ock, 2015), television shows that portray fathers undertaking housework and child care such as Dad! Where Are You Going (MBC, 2013–2015) and The Return of Superman (KBS, 2013 – current) create an impression that men are equally involved in domestic labor. Lee and Park (2012) discovered that the male viewers of Nambowon (a Korean comedy sketch show that humorously portrays the exploitation of men by women in dating situations) found the portrayals of reverse discrimination realistic and believable, but that they could not substantiate their claims about male victimhood with real-life experiences. Their study suggests that media representations of the rising social status of women can serve as misleading evidence of reverse discrimination.
Young Korean men who regard themselves, rather than women, as victims of gender relations often seek symbolic compensation for their damaged masculinity through attacks against women and feminism. They are unable to perceive the true character of gender inequality and the social structures that generate it. In 2008, the anti-feminist organization Man of Korea was established to address a perceived institutional oppression of men. The organization proposed the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the revival of the extra-points system for post-conscripts. In 2015, a 17-year-old boy fled to Syria to join Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) after his Twitter account displayed the following tweet: ‘I hate feminists, so I like ISIS’ (Kwon and Park, 2015).
Scholars attribute a recent spread of hate speech against Korea’s women to male anxiety regarding the rising status of women and the crisis of masculinity (Kim, 2015; Yoon, 2015). In the early 2000s, the wide circulation of the term ‘doenjang-neyo’ (meaning ‘soybean-paste woman’), whereby women who are ‘full of vanity’ and who crimp on essentials to purchase conspicuous luxuries are mocked, commenced (Fisher, 2012). The recent term ‘kimchi-nyeo’ (meaning ‘kimchi woman’) has recurrently appeared on Ilbe, an Internet community for conservative young males, and represents male disdain for young Korean women in general. In contrast to their mothers, who are perceived as selfless due to the sacrifices they presumably made for their families, young women are seen as selfish, irresponsible, incompetent, materialistic, and ‘gold-digging’ types who use sexual attraction to take advantage of men (Kim, 2014; Yoon, 2015). Kim (2015) warns that even though a relatively small male population might use misogynic expressions, online hate speech can disseminate contempt throughout society that perpetuates prejudicial attitudes against women. A recent survey indicates that 54% of Korean men and 66.7% of Korean adolescents sympathize with misogynic expressions such as kimchi-nyeo (Kwak, 2016).
Real Men emerged in a context where the media discourses about changing gender roles had increased and male resentment toward reverse discrimination had heightened. In the current era, where men feel a strong sense of anxiety over a loss of privilege, Real Men brings the traditional notion of masculinity to the forefront of the audience’s attention. The show can arguably serve as a vehicle for men to attempt a recovery of their damaged masculinity and for the expression of the frustration from perceived experiences of reverse discrimination under changing gender relations.
Method: online-bulletin-board analysis
The goal of this study is to discuss the social implications of the popularity of the military-based reality show Real Men in the context of the situation described above. To identify the types of discourses that male audience members 1 generated about the show, we investigated their postings on the official Real Men online bulletin board (http://www.imbc.com/broad/tv/ent/sundaynight/realman/board). On the online bulletin board, the audience members brought up a variety of issues regarding both Real Men and beyond, including what they liked or did not like about the show, the degree to which they found the show’s representation of a situation or the characters as realistic, and other issues such as male-only conscription and the gender relations of contemporary Korea.
Online bulletin boards offer advantages in social research. First, compared to face-to-face interviews, online-bulletin-board discussions occur in a natural setting (Ikunaga et al., 2013) and the participants can post, read, and respond to comments at times and from locations that are convenient to them. Second, the relative anonymity and relative comfort provided by the forum can lead to the involvement of participants who do not feel self-conscious regarding their contributions (Malik and Coulson, 2008). Third, the analysis of online bulletin boards provides access to populations that are geographically or socially removed from the researcher (Hessler et al., 2003). Lastly, online bulletin boards provide a publicly available, low-cost archive of considerable amounts of data. Just as blogs are used for social research, online bulletin boards help researchers with investigations of ‘social processes across space and time, together with their insight into everyday life’ (Hookway, 2008: 92). Despite the potential risks that arise from a sole reliance on online-bulletin-board data such as a limited access to non-computer-using populations (McKenna and Bargh, 2000), an increased verbal hostility (Ikunaga et al., 2013), and an element of inaccurate information (Suzuki and Calzo, 2004), the strengths of the method, we argue, outweighed the potential weaknesses for the purposes of our study.
We investigated the online postings using the following procedures. From the beginning of the show (11 April 2013) until the time of our analysis (31 October 2015), 23,630 comments had been posted on the online bulletin board. The postings were first divided into two sections (postings from April 2013 to May 2014, and postings from June 2014 to October 2015), followed by a thorough, respective review of each section for the attainment of a familiarity with the material and to prepare it for a thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Every keyword (or phrase) that consistently appeared on the bulletin board was identified. After a series of meetings and discussions, the keywords that run throughout the postings were listed as follows: ‘fake’, ‘fulfilled (not fulfilled) military service’, ‘make light of (or insult) the military’, ‘female writer’, ‘special episodes on female celebrities’, ‘women lieutenant or officer’, ‘reverse discrimination’, and ‘gender inequality’.
Next, all of the postings were examined again to collect the ones that contain the keywords, while the others were discarded. Through this process of selection and elimination, we collected 334 postings for a discourse analysis. While both the male and female viewers of Real Men posted comments on the online bulletin board, the majority of the postings that were gathered were written by male viewers. 2 Many of the male viewers who had fulfilled Korea’s military service mentioned their rank (e.g. ‘first lieutenant’, ‘staff sergeant’) and the name of the troop unit that they worked for (e.g. ‘the Artillery Unit 95 of the 8th Division’) to establish their expert status. One viewer commented that he served with the 6th Marine Division and that he ‘doesn’t want to be misunderstood for a man who has not yet fulfilled the military service’. It appears that the male audience members of Real Men who have completed their military duty endow themselves with eligibility or entitlement to speak about true and authentic military experiences.
While the official Real Men online bulletin board requires viewers to log into the website to write a post, anyone can view all of the postings without being logged in; therefore, we concluded that bulletin-board postings are publicly available data and did not seek individual consent (Flicker et al., 2004; Malik and Coulson, 2008). But because all of the writers’ real names are also open to the public, we did not reveal their names in order to protect their privacy and confidentiality. The quotes included in the following analysis indicate only the month and the year of a posting (e.g. 2013.04.) rather than the precise posting dates. We also believe that the Korean-to-English verbatim translations minimize the potential risk regarding the retrieval of the original postings through search engines such as Google (Eysenbach and Till, 2001).
Analysis
Questioning authenticity
Real Men highlights humorous performances that are unpredictably generated as the celebrity cast experiences military life. The producers have stated that ‘Real Men does not intend to depict the military itself; but it rather portrays how celebrities with different personalities behave in a controlled and strict organization like the military’ (Bae, 2014). The male audience members of Real Men found that many aspects of the show resonated with their own experiences and that it was therefore broadly realistic in many of its aspects (e.g. tearful separations from family, strict drill instructors, tough training sessions).
While the male audience members related to Real Men, however, they still constantly compared and contrasted the actual reality of military service with ‘fake’ entertainment. As Hill (2002: 324) notes, reality-TV audiences are ‘looking for “the moments of truth” in a highly controlled and constructed television environment’. We noticed that the male audience members were keenly concerned about the authenticity of the show’s depiction of the military. Their primary concern was that Real Men could potentially mislead women and mipilja (meaning pre-conscripts and those who have been exempt from the draft due to medical reasons) to assume that the military life is quite easily endurable and not highly demanding. Here, the criticism was centered on the low intensity of the training on Real Men that was in contrast with the high intensity of the real military, as follows: The training on Real Men was so basic. I am worried that women may take what they see on the show for the actual situation in the military. (2014.08.) The guerrilla training on Real Men was just a joke. What I received in the military was like a hell … As a former staff sergeant, I must say, ‘Stop ridiculing the Korean army’. (2015.07.)
This concern over authenticity reflects the male audience’s desire to earn symbolic remuneration for their military duties. The male audience members seemingly felt rewarded when the viewers (especially those without a military service obligation) recognized the sacrifices of Korean males that had been made for their nation, as shown in the following comment: ‘I truly appreciate our real men (soldiers and post-conscripts) who overcome their limits in the army and devote themselves to the nation’ (2015.05.).
The male audience members criticized the women who enjoyed the show uncritically without any anxiety about Real Men’s misrepresentation of the military; for instance, the female viewers mentioned their experiences of pleasure when they watched the celebrity singers Henry and Hyungsik, both of whom repeatedly made inadvertent mistakes during their training. The male viewers quickly dismissed the female viewers’ comments as ‘silly’, claiming that such mistakes are not a laughing matter as they can cause major problems in reality. Male audience members argued that the female viewers laughed about such mistakes because of their ignorance of the military. Overall, they exhibited a strong tendency to deprive the women of a platform to express their views regarding the military on the bulletin board; that is, they only expected the female viewers to understand the hardships of males in the military, to respect the national duty of males, and to fulfill the female roles of caring mothers or romantic partners for their boyfriends, sons, and husbands (Kwon, 2001; Moon, 2005).
The mostly female TV writers who were used for narrative development and commentary 3 on Real Men were blamed frequently for undermining the integrity of military service, a key theme of hegemonic masculinity. After the discovery that female writers were involved in the construction of the show, inauthentic representations of the military that were perceived by the male viewers were often attributed to the ignorance of writers who had not fulfilled military service. The underlying logic is that the female writers for the show inevitably failed to ‘describe the essential and real experience that only post-conscripts are able to do’ (2015.05.), and they could consequently ‘mislead audiences to believe that the training in the Korean military is a piece of cake’ (2015.07.).
We found two examples where the criticism of the female writers is associated with the protection of a traditional notion of masculinity. First, the male viewers criticized the soldiers becoming objects of female sexual desire. When an episode depicted blurred images of soldiers taking showers, along with the subtitle ‘Oh! We must see this’, the resentment among the male audience reached its peak (over 300 critical comments were posted). The male audience members forcefully blamed the female writers for using the self-sacrifice of the young men in the pursuit of their sexual desires. Second, they severely criticized the female writers for distorting male comradeship as a homosexual romance. When actor Geon-Hyung Park helped the singer Henry to adjust to military culture, the show humorously characterized them as a couple. Since homophobia is a central element in the maintenance of male bonding and masculinity (Pascoe, 2007; Sedgwick, 1985), the male audience members policed the Real Men’s discourse of ‘bromance’ due to its perceived threat against hegemonic masculinity.
The male audience members also created discourses regarding the ideal soldier. For the male viewers, the ideal soldier must cultivate adult manhood and develop traits such as self-discipline, co-operation, and a respect for authority, all of which constitute a militarized masculinity (Moon, 2002). It is the demanding training of the military that enables a man to overcome human weaknesses and become a ‘real man’; accordingly, they complimented the episodes that portrayed the Recruit Training Center and the Ship Salvage Unit (SSU), wherein the cast members received harsh training that pushed the limits and taught discipline. Moreover, the male viewers complimented actor Hyuk Jang because he excelled at various tasks and outperformed the much-younger soldiers. At first, his appearance was controversial because he had previously manipulated his medical records to avoid the draft. Some even condemned the show by stating that ‘Real Men should be entitled Fake Men instead’ (2013.05.) and that ‘Jang’s appearance would lower the morale of ordinary conscripts’ (2013.05.). As the show proceeded, the male viewers changed their negative assessment regarding Jang because he redeemed himself as the ideal soldier.
While recognizing Jang as the ideal soldier, the male viewers reprimanded the other cast members who did not meet the ideal-soldier criteria. The most criticized are the foreign celebrities such as Sam Hammington (Australian) and Henry (Chinese Canadian) who found it difficult to adjust to the Korean military customs and culture. The audience members often called for the elimination of the foreign celebrities from the show when the foreign celebrities seemed to mock the Korean military; for example, Henry lampooned a senior soldier and frequently transgressed the military norms by questioning the drill instructor’s orders. In one episode, Henry kissed the drill instructor’s cheek to express his exultation during the ski training. Henry posed a serious problem to male audiences because he not only failed to comply with military culture but he also disrupted the narrative of hegemonic masculinity whereby one becomes a mature man through military experience. Rather than causing critical reflection on the strict military hierarchy that could potentially cause a violation of human rights, the activities of Henry led male audience members to adhere more firmly to the normative stance that an ideal soldier must learn to be disciplined, responsible, and masculine: Why does Henry not improve at all (like other soldiers)? He has been warned numerous times and he must stop laughing and being naughty in training. (2014.08.)
Tolerable versus intolerable female soldiers
The ways that the male viewers negotiated the meaning of the female soldiers on Real Men revealed their desire to maintain masculinity. Overall, the male viewers were less critical of the special episodes in which female celebrities experienced military life, for two reasons. First, Korea’s women do not have military service obligations in reality, so the special episodes on female celebrities did not cause much anxiety about the ‘burden’ of representing the military as it is. Our analysis suggests that the male viewers were able to enjoy watching the special episodes because they were not concerned about authenticity and did not necessarily empathize with the female soldiers: When Real Men portrays male soldiers, I am too much emotionally involved in the show and can’t really take that as entertainment. To me, special episodes are just entertaining shows. It doesn’t bother me when female soldiers are poor at the close-order drill, or they don’t wear the gas mask correctly and then get a runny nose in the training for chemical and biological warfare. (2014.08.)
Second, the female soldiers’ poor performances in the military did not pose a serious threat to masculinity and they were therefore deemed tolerable. To the male viewers, the female celebrities who suffered during various training sessions served as vivid evidence of women’s physical and mental weaknesses; that is, the female celebrities’ incapacity to reach the military qualities of their male counterparts only attested to the authenticity of male masculinity. Intriguingly, the male viewers hoped that the special episodes provided female audiences with an opportunity to empathize with male suffering in the military. The following comment suggests that a male viewer used the special episodes of Real Men to position women as mothers, wives, and girlfriends who must appreciate men’s sacrifices: I would like the female audiences to understand that a lot of terrible things happen in the military. What you see on the special episodes is just the tip of the iceberg. If you know anyone who fulfilled military service, give them a word of encouragement. They are wonderful people who have overcome the great ordeal. (2014.09.)
When male audience members encountered female celebrities who could possibly disrupt the traditional notion of masculinity that is reserved for men, they negotiated potentially subversive images in such a way that hegemonic masculinity was restored. For instance, tomboy celebrity Amber (Chinese American) successfully completed physically demanding training sessions to the surprise of the drill instructors. Although Amber’s strength and outstanding performance could have destabilized the gender binary, her performance and sincere attitude toward the military were interpreted as a respect for masculine culture and did not create any controversy among the male viewers.
The male viewers were, however, intolerant of high-ranking female officers on Real Men who were superior to the male soldiers. Given that the cast members (and the majority of male viewers) were rank-and-file soldiers, the presence of female officers on Real World meant a reversal of the gender hierarchy that could challenge hegemonic masculinity. Many male viewers expressed a strong feeling of aversion to senior lieutenant Joomi Jang (who appeared regularly on the episodes on the Seongnam Warship) when she reprimanded male soldiers with a loud voice for being 15 minutes late. One male viewer described her as ‘a nagging wife’ (2013.12.), while other viewers regarded her behavior and high-pitched voice as feminine attributes. By defining the senior lieutenant in terms of gender characteristics, the male viewers disapproved of her high position in a male-dominated military, as is shown in the following comment: The woman (senior lieutenant Jang) who performs military cosplay (costume play) causes all this turmoil. I think she keeps yelling at male soldiers because she has weak physical strength and combat power, and doesn’t want to be looked down upon by men. She is so much like a teacher on an elementary school field trip. It is so unfortunate that such an officer is in charge of the security of Korea’s territorial waters. (2013.11.)
The implication is that a woman cannot achieve the true authority of male officers due to her femininity and weaknesses, and a high rank is the only tool that women who are inferior to men in terms of physical power can use to overcome their weaknesses. With the notion of ‘military cosplay’, the writer of the above comment devalued Jang’s authority, suggesting that a female officer cannot obtain a true masculinity and can only ‘mimic’ it with controlling, bossy, and domineering attitudes. The ways that the male viewers attempted to reject Jang’s masculinity resonates with Halberstam’s (1998: 1) claim that ‘female masculinities are framed as the rejected scraps of dominant masculinity in order that male masculinity may appear to be the real thing’.
Some male viewers rejected senior lieutenant Jang’s authority through misogynic language. In one episode, Jang severely reprimanded singer Jinyoung Sohn for his mistakes in firefighting drills, whereby she exclaimed, ‘You could’ve killed everyone!’ She terrified Sohn by warning him that she would rebuke his senior who had failed to monitor him. The male viewers criticized the officer’s rebuking of a senior as a problematic military practice since it may result in the bullying and harassment of low-ranking soldiers. What deserves attention here is the presentation of a legitimate critique of an oppressive and hierarchal military culture in the form of misogyny. The hate expressions against Jang included the following: ‘She has an ugly face and ugly personality. The bitch sucks!’(2013.11.); ‘I really wanted to slap the woman on her face when I was watching Real Men today. Watch your back because soldiers’ parents may kill you when they see you on the street’ (2013.11.); and ‘I will smash her face to the ground if I see her in my dream’ (2013.12.). Some discovered Jang’s personal information (e.g. age, college) and disclosed it on the Internet to damage her personal life.
The resentful condemnation of Jang subsided after an episode was aired in which Jang bursts into tears. Jang was concerned that she had hurt Sohn’s self-esteem. We argue that Jang’s display of feminine-attribute stereotypes (e.g. shedding of tears, giving of care to men) mitigated the male viewers’ hostility by assuring them of traditional gender roles.
Male-only conscription as evidence of reverse discrimination
In their comments regarding Real Men, the male viewers frequently discussed the issues of reverse discrimination that they believed characterized Korea’s gender relations. For the male audience members, Real Men offers a glimpse into reverse discrimination in Korea. Several scenes provoked a heated discussion regarding gender inequality. Two of the most controversial scenes are concerned with the objectification of men’s bodies. In one episode, female celebrities enjoyed commenting on a drill instructor’s nice hips, while the other scene presented blurred images of male celebrities taking showers. For male audience members, these scenes are typical examples of what women can do but men cannot do in contemporary Korea: What would happen if male celebrities talk about a female officer’s breasts and hips on Real Men? Would it be acceptable? (2015.09) The female production staff of Real Men must have watched the naked bodies of male celebrities when they edited the footage. The celebrities can file a lawsuit against Real Men. It is so upsetting that the human rights of our people carrying out the national duty are violated, and that they are only treated as sexual objects. (2015.03)
Many male viewers claimed that reverse discrimination exists even within the military because women receive preferential treatment. They pointed out that the tasks given to the female celebrities on Real Men were easier than those given to the male celebrities. Several viewers commented that women take advantage of the military, knowing that ‘they would get the easiest jobs’ (2013.04.). While many male viewers demanded women’s equal participation in the military, others claimed that women cannot be entrusted with national security because they are of no use: The women who choose to enlist themselves in the military start from a high-ranking position such as staff sergeant or second lieutenant. The training sessions that they get are rarely as tough as what men get. They are placed in easy positions but paid the same wage as male counterparts. This is a form of reverse discrimination. (2014.08.)
Not only did the male viewers use Real Men as evidence of reverse discrimination, they also extended their discussion to cover the broader issue of gender inequality in Korea. They expressed sympathy toward Korea’s men, enumerating their burden (e.g. men have a heavy financial burden because their social status is determined by their financial capacity; men must spend more money than women in marriage, and men must support their family and parents); however, male-only conscription is mentioned most frequently as evidence of reverse discrimination. One viewer defined men as ‘contemporary slaves’ (2015.03.), as they only have numerous responsibilities but no rights. A male viewer lamented that ‘women take men’s favor (military service) for women’s rights’ (2015.03.).
On the bulletin board, women were constructed as opportunistic types who abandon traditional responsibilities and only pursue their own interests. The underlying rationale is that today’s women do not take responsibility in the area of social reproduction (e.g. giving birth to babies via marriage), yet their rights are fully protected by laws and regulations. Attributing the low birth rate in Korea to women’s selfishness, a few argued that it is the women who do not deliver the children who must serve in the military. At the receiving end of the criticisms were feminists and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, responsible for eliminating the military service extra-points system that gave post-conscripts certain advantages. While the extra-points system had been abolished for over 16 years, the male viewers still considered its absence an indicator of the unfair treatment of men.
We observed that the economic recession and an increasing competition among young jobseekers form a critical context in which the discourse of reverse discrimination was strongly expressed in the online bulletin board. Many stated that post-conscript male jobseekers lag considerably behind women in terms of employment because women’s exemption from military duty enables them to invest time in their careers and personal development: Why should only men have the military service obligations? There are no social benefits for post-conscripts. You would make lots of money for two years if you don’t serve in the military. Even after men complete the military duty, they have a hard time adjusting back to the civil life. Women have a leg up on the competition. (2013.07.)
The male viewers lamented that women are not only exempt from military duty; they are also apathetic toward the men who must suffer in the military. One viewer stated the following: ‘I found Eunhee Hong (a female celebrity on special episodes) extremely hypocritical. She said that she didn’t cry when her young brother enlisted, but cried for herself as a female soldier out of self-pity’ (2014.08.). The criticism of Hong represents men’s resentment against women who they perceive as unappreciative of men’s work for the nation.
Conclusion
We situated a popular Korean reality show Real Men in the context of an apparent paradox. Indicated by numerous factors such as salary, labor-force participation, and the ‘glass ceiling’, undeniable evidence of discrimination against women is evident; however, Korea’s men expressed a heightened sense of anxiety over the loss of male privileges. Through the discourses of the male audience members of Real Men, we examined the way in which these discourses about the authentic military experience and ideal soldiers were associated with the men’s desire to restore hegemony during a crisis of masculinity.
Real Men became a useful vehicle through which to demand appreciation from women regarding the difficult work of men in the military. The male viewers’ desire to be symbolically remunerated for their military service involved the positioning of women as primary caregivers who fulfill traditional women’s roles. Many of the male viewers demanded women’s equal participation in Korea’s military service because they believe women no longer follow the gender norms that are dictated by the Confucian ideology, but that they instead compete with men for limited resources. Women were constructed as selfish people who fulfill neither military service nor domestic responsibilities and only pursue their own self-interests while benefiting from preferential treatment.
Male audience members diverged regarding their views on compulsory military service for women. Men can validate their claim about reverse discrimination by demanding that women equally participate in military service. Alternatively, men can reinforce the traditional gender hierarchy by opposing women’s military service obligations because only men possess the physical strength, responsibility, and maturity to become ideal soldiers.
The male audience members interpreted Real Men as evidence of reverse discrimination that functions both inside and outside of the military, whereby women capitalize on their physical weaknesses, using them as an excuse, to achieve their goals. By criticizing the differential treatment of male and female soldiers on the show, the male viewers validated their claim about reverse discrimination in Korean society. We argue that the strong male-victimhood discourse is detrimental because a false notion of reverse discrimination in the apparent presence of gender inequality can hinder both men and women from recognizing that institutional barriers still influence the lives and experiences of Korea’s women.
We acknowledge that the male viewers in our study do not necessarily represent the sentiment of all Korean men because those who do not watch Real Men were excluded from our discussion. However, we believe that the ways in which the male audience members negotiated the representations of male and female soldiers on Real Men provide an insight into the way that Korea’s men cope with a crisis of masculinity within the changing geography of gender relations. Finally, we note that a broader critical analysis needs to be conducted into these relations and their connections with a range of forms of media portrayal and representations of military life.
Footnotes
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.