This paper analyzes the way in which Korean newspapers, situated in a society characterized by consumerism as well as heterosexist patriarchy, encourages the creation of images of “new men.” As a medium that wields public authority, newspapers report on new male images, highlighting the fact that men’s bodies are also being incorporated into physical capitalization. As
grooming is increasingly common among heterosexual men, men’s grooming
is being portrayed as natural and as a form of behavior that conforms to
“human instinct” rather than as a deviant behavior among homosexual men.
However, new male discourses incessantly emphasize masculine vitality, suggesting that it has no intent to disturb the heterosexist social order, nor to
abandon the structural privileges that men and heterosexuals have collectively
held.