ABSTRACT
Introduction Socially constructed gender roles can be created and upheld in a way that is historically specifi c and politically useful. 2 As an indicator of this, a constructed Ideal Woman fi gure can represent so many things for any given society: a grounded family unit, a man stabilised through marriage, even the nation itself. 3 Over the spring and summer of 2012, two female relatives of Kim Jong-un were seen in offi cial and international media as part of in efforts to discursively construct Kim Jong-un as a leader and a leading social fi gure for the regime. Based on offi cial statements, state media and international coverage, this chapter describes the extent to which Kim Jong-un’s mother and wife have been used in his fi rst year as North Korea’s leader to both ground him as a social member of society and elevate him as leader of the nation.
