Fighting COVID-19 like a war: The role of hegemonic masculinity in Taiwan’s responses to the pandemic

Using a case study of Taiwan, this lecture investigates the extent to which hegemonic masculinity mediates an unrecognized sovereign state’s combat of the pandemic but also its reinforcement of gender hierarchies. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities. However, insufficient in the growing body of work on hegemonic masculinity is its role on and responses to state policies in the context of a pandemic. 

Using a case study of Taiwan – one of the few countries in the world to have successfully eradicated domestic outbreaks throughout most of the pandemic – Dr Liu investigates the extent to which hegemonic masculinity mediates an unrecognized sovereign state’s combat of the pandemic but also its reinforcement of gender hierarchies. 

This lecture will argue that China’s alienation of Taiwan in the international community is a form of hegemonic masculinity and subsequently leads to Taiwan’s war-rhetoric to become COVD-free. Dr Liu also contends that such hegemonic masculinity at the international level is mirrored at the domestical level through the collective conceptualization of which patients are legitimate and which citizens are loyal. 

Yet, the domestic societal responses to COVID-19 are gendered, classed, raced, and aged, further marginalizing those with protected characteristics. The study offers implications for how hegemonic masculinity shapes who belongs as members of society and how citizenship is tied to individuals’ contributions to collective nationhood.