Reimagining Korean Husbands

This chapter examines how cross-border marriage brokers portray their male clients, primarily Korean men seeking foreign brides, in relation to shifting ideals of Korean masculinity. Brokers position these men as grappling with the perceived loss of hegemonic masculinity, responding to their diminished social standing in contemporary Korea. Beyond offering ‘foreign brides who can be Koreanised’, brokers construct narratives that resonate with clients’ desires for recognition and restored masculine authority. By positioning male clients both as victims of a distorted domestic marriage market and as providers and saviours of foreign brides, brokers offer a redemptive narrative that restores their sense of masculine worth. Through discourses that address the risks of cross-border marriage and tailor services to male anxieties, brokers frame marriage migration as a pathway for socially marginalised men to recover both personal and societal validation, thereby reinforcing men’s symbolic power within a globalised and stratified marriage system.