— Overview
The notes introduce a book of six authors, and they stop at Eom Gi-ho’s critique of human rights used without exception.
— Contents and key concepts
A book of six authors
Analyzing Korean Men, the notes begin, looks at “Korean men” who, even as the boundary of roles divided between men and women has blurred, try to keep an older male status, and it does so from several angles. One important aim is to offer, through gender studies, a method and an epistemology for analyzing masculinity.
The authors, they write, do not take the culture, psyche, and body of masculinity as simply real; they see them as norms and as myths. If feminism is a thought that helps women step out of social constraint and live fully as themselves, they agree that the same thought applies to men. The book is a discursive practice meant to intervene in how “maleness” is made. To that end the authors cross culture and history, and draw on a wide background in literature, philosophy, and anthropology. Six authors in all, each using their own material, pose questions to theories of masculinity and try a new reading of Korean men.
After Gangnam Station, two new masculinities
Eom Gi-ho, the notes write, set out to explore the background and meaning of two masculinities that had not been there before: the “man who has declared himself a feminist” and the “pathetic” man. The essay sets the public women’s voices that, after the Gangnam Station murder, began to speak out, against the voices of men who mutter, behind them, that they too are victims, and against the men who scold and criticize those men and declare feminism as a new civic norm.
Human rights used universally
The new weapon used by the civilized male citizens who have declared themselves feminists, Eom writes, is “human rights,” the most universal value in human history. He pays attention to the fact that these men use that universal language universally. That is, they say there is no exception to universal human rights; and if context and exception are taken into account, he argues, there is a risk of harming those very rights, which would prove a kind of backwardness. He criticizes that claim.
The notes leave the book at that critique. In this stretch they do not take up the other authors by name. CampusDown has the same Korean report at fuller length.
Sources
- The notes, a student reading of Analyzing Korean Men: a book of six authors that treats masculinity as norm and myth, and Eom Gi-ho’s essay, after the Gangnam Station murder, on a declared feminist and on human rights used without exception.
Last updated: 15 November 2026
Frequently asked questions
How do the notes present the book?
Analyzing Korean Men looks at “Korean men” who try to keep an older male status even as the boundary of gender roles has blurred. One important aim, they write, is to offer a method and an epistemology for analyzing masculinity through gender studies. The authors treat masculinity’s culture, psyche, and body as norms and myths, not as simply given. If feminism helps people live as themselves, they agree, it applies to men too. Six authors each pose questions to theories of masculinity.
What essay by Eom Gi-ho do they keep?
He explores two masculinities that had not been there before: the “man who has declared himself a feminist” and the “pathetic” man. The essay sets the public women’s voices that grew after the Gangnam Station murder against the men who mutter, behind those voices, that they too are victims, and against the men who scold them and declare feminism as a new civic norm.
Where do they stop?
The self-declared, civilized male citizens who call themselves feminists, he writes, take up “human rights,” the most universal value in human history, as a new weapon. He notes that these men use that universal language universally, and criticizes the claim that human rights admit no exception: if context and exception are considered, he says, universal human rights themselves may be harmed, which would prove a kind of backwardness. The notes stop there. They do not, in this stretch, take up the other authors by name.
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