The Resurgence of the Protestant Right in the Post-Hypermasculine Developmentalism Era

Abstract

Chapter 1 discusses the resurgence of the Protestant Right as a unified social and political force in the context of post-hypermasculine developmentalism that signals both the “after” and the “aftermath” of hypermasculine developmentalism. Hypermasculine developmentalism characterized not only the “miraculous” economic growth but also the explosive expansion of Korean Protestant Christianity from the 1960s until the late 1980s. The resurfaced Protestant Right has, wittingly or unwittingly, engaged hegemonic masculinity by redefining, reasserting, or reaffirming it. By linking the contested hegemonic masculinity with three notable phenomena—Father School, anti-LGBT movement, and Islamophobia—this chapter demonstrates how deeply the Protestant Right is invested in maintaining kyriarchal church and other social institutions that operate based on gender binarism and gender hierarchy in relation to other modalities of power, such as class, race, ethnicity, and sexuality.