Abstract

Drawing on in-depth interviews, this paper shows how study abroad men with upper-class backgrounds manage their image as enviable others, particularly in the context of their military experiences and understanding of military service. They view military service as a useful way to secure militarized masculine citizenship and launder their contaminated image as enviable others in order to live and work in South Korea. This understanding of military service as an individualized benefit deviates from the dominant construction of military service as a patriotic duty expected of all male citizens; at the same time, the meanings and values study abroad men attach to militarized masculine citizenship reveal the powerful workings of the triangular relationship between men, military service, and citizenship in Korea. The findings here complicate the commonly understood association between Korean men, military service, and citizenship, revealing the highly classed as well as gendered nature of military service and the meanings/values of militarized masculine citizenship. Furthermore, the role of American education and English skills within the military and beyond also reveals the ongoing effects of US imperialism and the American military presence in Korea.