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

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities. However, the growing body of work on hegemonic masculinity (HM) has paid insufficient attention to its role in 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–I investigate the extent to which HM mediated an unrecognized sovereign state’s strategy for combating the pandemic but also its reinforcement of gendered hierarchies. I argue that China’s alienation of Taiwan in the international community is a form of HM and subsequently led to Taiwan’s militarized rhetoric with respect to COVID. I also contend that such HM at the international level was mirrored at the domestic level through the collective conceptualization of which patients were “legitimate” and which citizens were loyal. Yet, the domestic social responses to COVID-19 were gendered, classed, raced, and aged, further marginalizing those with protected characteristics. The study offers implications for how HM shapes who belongs as members of society and how citizenship is tied to individuals’ contributions to collective nationhood.