@article{ART003314689},
author={Nam Kimin},
title={Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men},
journal={The Research of the Korean Classic},
issn={1226-3850},
year={2026},
number={72},
pages={93-121}
TY - JOUR
AU - Nam Kimin
TI - Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men
JO - The Research of the Korean Classic
PY - 2026
VL - null
IS - 72
PB - The Research Of The Korean Classic
SP - 93
EP - 121
SN - 1226-3850
AB - This article critically examines a persistent bias in care discourse that has arisen from understanding care primarily as women’s experience or ethics, focusing on the folktale A Man Who Got a Government Position after Sleeping with a Beggar Woman. It also reconsiders the male protagonist’s caring practices in terms of relational ethics and the circulation of care. While care discourse has contributed to revealing the unequal and gendered realities of care that have long been disproportionately imposed on women, it has at the same time continued to confine care to women’s distinctive experience and to marginalize men’s care.
This study analyzes the male protagonist’s actions in the tale as caring practices that recognize another’s vulnerability, offer concrete responses grounded in empathy, and sustain and extend relationships. In particular, by tracing care as it unfolds within the relationships the man forms, the article demonstrates a cyclical structure in which care expands and circulates from care for the other, to mutual care, and further to self-care. Such care is enacted within egalitarian relationships, unrelated to domination or control, and functions not merely as an individual virtue but as an ethic of relationships.
By restoring the figure of the “caring man” already present in premodern narrative, this article seeks to reflect on the tendency to limit care to a gendered role or ethic and to suggest the broader possibilities of care as a universal ethical practice grounded in relationships.
KW - A man who got a government position after sleeping with a beggar woman;care;caring masculinities;the circulation of care;relational ethics
DO -
UR -
ER -
Nam Kimin. (2026). Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men. The Research of the Korean Classic, 72, 93-121.
Nam Kimin. 2026, "Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men", The Research of the Korean Classic, no.72, pp.93-121.
Nam Kimin "Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men" The Research of the Korean Classic 72 pp.93-121 (2026) : 93.
Nam Kimin. Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men. 2026; 72 : 93-121.
Nam Kimin. "Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men" The Research of the Korean Classic no.72(2026) : 93-121.
Nam Kimin. Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men. The Research of the Korean Classic, 72, 93-121.
Nam Kimin. Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men. The Research of the Korean Classic. 2026; 72 93-121.
Nam Kimin. Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men. 2026; 72 : 93-121.
Nam Kimin. "Beyond Another Bias in Care Discourse : Recovering Caring Men" The Research of the Korean Classic no.72(2026) : 93-121.
