Gender antagonisms have now become one of the most acute social issues in Korean society.
South Korean archer Ansan. Photo/Olympics
Text/Chen Huayizi
She won three consecutive gold medals for South Korea at the Olympics, but was attacked by a cyberattack over hairstyle problems — only because many people thought that her ultra-short hair meant that she was a feminist.
"Female seniors are born and cut their hair short, and ninety percent of them are engaged in feminism."
"If she was, I wouldn't support her again. All feminists deserve to die. ”
For a time, the 20-year-old South Korean archer Ansan fell into the whirlpool of public opinion. The Olympic aura surrounding her seemed to fade, replaced by constant cross-examination and bickering.
As the situation fermented, some netizens found that Ansan had also used words such as "five trillion and five billion" on social media that were accused of demeaning men, which seemed to further confirm the accusations. (Some explanations suggest that the word means that a man has so many sperm but is of no great use.) ）
Ansan's gold medal did not become her shield, but attracted more firepower. Some anti-feminist groups said she did not deserve the honor and even demanded that she return the medal.
"Feminism" has once again become a sensitive word that stirs up Korean society.
What short hair means in Korea
What's wrong with short haircut?
This hairstyle is lightweight, easy to manage, and looks like people are also energetic. But in South Korea, things are not so simple.
It is necessary to draw attention back to the "Escape Corset" campaign launched by South Korean feminists in 2018. Many South Korean women cut off their long hair and posted photos of their plain faces to social networking sites. They hope to liberate their minds and "escape" from male-dominated aesthetic standards.
Since then, women's short haircuts have begun to intertwine with feminism. Feminist groups also deliberately use this image to show their protest stance by performing haircuts or shaving their heads at some demonstrations.
The siege of Ansan made many women angry. In their view, whether it is feminism or not, cutting their hair short is their freedom. Moreover, a few months ago, when asked why he changed his hairstyle, Ansan clearly replied to netizens: "That is very convenient."
The spate of bad reviews has also raised concerns. Psychologist Han Zhiying pointed out that "the atmosphere that men can control women's bodies, or that women should hide their feminist identity, if it continues to spread, will have a negative impact on our society." ”
As the attack on Ansan intensified, on July 25, Han Zhiying launched a solidarity campaign on Twitter, calling on female netizens to post photos of their short hair under the label of "#女性短发运动".
Zhang Baoren. Courtesy of respondents
Along with thousands of South Korean women, Seoul's independent designer Jang Bo-jin joined the movement, cutting the same hairstyle as Andan.
"This is a response to their violence against the Ansan players!" Zhang Baoren said that no one is born with long hair, "It is ridiculous to use hairstyles to define people's gender." ”
"The ultra-short hair was fantastic, and it was over in a minute to wash your hair. It was a pleasure every time I looked in the mirror! Although the age has not changed, somehow I always feel more energetic. ”
The male anger ignited by a gesture
The Ansan incident was not the first "battle" between South Korean men and women. Gender antagonisms in Korean society have a long history, and it's not just hairstyles that are at issue.
The empty pinch of the index finger and thumb has become a symbol of insult to many Korean men.
The trigger came from a poster launched by the convenience store chain GS25 in May this year. Camping has become a trend in South Korea nowadays, and GS25 does not want to miss the opportunity to take advantage of the publicity. But it was this poster that set off a series of public opinion tsunamis.
Two versions of GS25's promotional ad "Go Camping!" ”。
There are two things that displease many men: hands and grilled sausages.
Some netizens pointed out that this gesture is very similar to the logo of the radical feminist forum "Megalia", which seems to imply that the genitalia of male consumers are too small; and if the last letter of each word of "Emotional Camping Must-have Item" is read backwards, it is the community's user name "Megal".
Prominent politicians have also joined the debate. "Camping with a hot roast dog grabbing food in your hand is not emotional camping, it's crazy." Lee Joon-seok, head of the National Power Party, said this and questioned the way the English copy was written.
GS25 makes immediate changes. However, it was also found that the poster was updated with a longer frame and an additional three-star ring moon pattern - which is believed to be related to the "Guanyue Feminist Society" of the feminist organization of Seoul National University. Public opinion frying pan again.
Since then, from posters of fried chicken chain Genesis BBQ to photos released by Starbucks, wherever finger pinching occurs, it has become a battlefield for South Korean men to protest. And it is not only the private sector that is being "hunted", but also the government. The male protesters were so aggressive that all the mentioned motifs were either modified or removed.
South Korea's Ministry of National Defense previously posted a "Military Life Encyclopedia" chart through its official Facebook account. Netizens criticized the cartoon image salute action as not standard, and there is a suspicion of deliberate creation.
The Pohang Municipal Government released two versions of the new crown vaccination poster, informing residents that they need to make an appointment in advance for vaccination.
The Seoul Local Police Department removed the finger pinch gesture from road traffic ads, saying it wanted to avoid misunderstandings. South Korea's Ministry of National Defense held a press conference on the suspicion that the salute gesture of the comic was "suspected", claiming that it would "pay attention" in the future. The Pohang city government also quickly revised the poster of the hand-held vaccine bottle and apologized to those who felt offended.
The GS incident ended with the demotion of the president and the dismissal of the staff involved.
Zhang Baoren was afraid of the attitude of the government and enterprises.
In her view, these concessions only hope to calm the situation, do not help to solve the essential problem, but boost the interest of men, making them more convinced of their "power".
Over the past few years, there have been many reports of job losses over feminist disputes, and so there have been numerous public figures who have been boycotted. A female voice actress was fired from the game company Nexon for wearing a feminist T-shirt that caused resentment among male players. Bae Joo-hyun, a member of the girl group Red Velvet, was also protested by male fans for reading "Kim Ji-young, Born in 1982," which is regarded as a feminist novel.
In a country where men still hold most of the power, it takes courage to publicly express support for women's rights. "I can't say (to openly identify with feminism) that it's safe and you could lose a lot of things." Zhang Baoren said.
Protests and counter-protests
Why are people so sensitive to words like "feminism," "misogyny," and "male hatred?" Looking back at several key nodes in the rise of feminism in South Korea in recent years, we may find the answer.
On May 17, 2016, a woman in her 20s was killed by an unknown man in a washroom of a building near Gangnam Station of the Seoul Subway, and local people posted memorial notes and placed chrysanthemums at Exit 10 of Gangnam Station. Photo: Hank National Daily
In May 2016, an appalling killing took place near Seoul's Gangnam subway station. The killer stabbed a strange woman several times in the bathroom of a commercial building. The man, who claimed to be often ignored by women in the past. The case has stirred up fear and anger among women across the country. At the time, the police characterized the case as an act of murder by a mentally ill person, which caused strong resentment among the women, who believed that it was a deliberate crime against them, and held several rallies and demonstrations. Others support the police judgment that the case is not related to "misogyny" and reject the claim that "all men are potential criminals" At one point, the two sides clashed at the scene of the protests.
At the same time, there were frequent cases of illegal and secret shooting using miniature cameras in South Korea. Police data shows that such cases have continued to increase since records began, with 80 percent of the victims being women.
In 2018, a case of a man being secretly photographed caused an uproar. In the case of the illegal shooting of male mannequins at Hongik University, the woman who took nude photos and transmitted them to the extreme feminist forum Womad was sentenced to ten months in prison. In another similar case heard in Busan on the same day, the male perpetrator was fined only.
Outraged by the discrimination, tens of thousands of female protesters flocked to Seoul's Hye hwa station. The Hye-hwa station protest became the largest female-led protest in South Korean history at the time.
Stills of "Kim Ji-young born in 82" released in 2019, actor Zheng Youmei was attacked by the Internet for playing the role of Kim Ji-young.
Time pushed back, and the popular Asian novel "Kim Ji-young, born in 1982" was adapted into a movie. Amid the opposition, a 19-year-old South Korean male student petitioned the Blue House to protest the filmization of the novel. Another post-90s creator launched a crowdfunding project to publish "Kim Ji-hoon Born in 90", which focuses on the suffering of men.
The "Me Too" movement is equally vigorous in South Korea. Some patriarchal groups have criticized the movement as a persecutory campaign that has developed into persecution of men. For women, the infamous "Room N" incident corroborates the objectification and misogyny of South Korean men toward women. The antagonism between men and women in South Korea has worsened in a series of social events.
"Have you dreamed?"
South Korea's gender "war" is not only happening at the real level, but the online world is even better.
Megalia, a radical feminist community that keeps men away, was founded in 2015 and is considered the birthplace of the "pinch your fingers" movement.
The logo of the Megalia online community, which declined after two years of operation, spawned multiple more extreme feminist forums such as Womad.
At that time, the South Korean MERS virus outbreak, two South Korean women were mistakenly rumored to enter Hong Kong after unwilling to isolate, insisting on going out shopping, male users-based conservative forums criticized them as material worship of gold "kimchi women" and "big sauce women", causing female netizens to be angry. They decided to build their own positions to fight back.
Megalia was founded on the principle of anonymous posting. This invisibly broadens the scale of speech and provides a disguise for users to make extreme remarks: Hot topics on the site once included a shameful laugh at the size of the genitals of the "Korean male worm".
In the course of the debate with the patriarchal rights, Megalia also developed a set of "mirror reflection" confrontation methods:
Women should stay in the kitchen.
Men have to stay in the kitchen.
Men like virgins.
Women like virgins.
Why are you so sensitive? PMS?
What about you? Have you dreamed?
This simple and crude approach quickly won the support of a large number of feminists. The feminist movement in cyberspace began to turn aggressive, and the community's user "Megal" was increasingly seen as synonymous with "extreme feminism."
In this regard, some scholars have analyzed that the feminist movement that has emerged in South Korea in recent years is different from the West, it is dominated by radical feminism and promoted by "misogynistic" emotions, which inevitably leads to the fact that in South Korea, the word feminism carries a certain stigma.
On June 20, 2021, the New Men's Solidarity organized an anti-feminist march in the southwestern South Korean city of Gwangju, which was broadcast live on Youtube.
In this battle of public opinion positions, the other side has never stopped. Since registering on Youtube, the New Men's Solidarity Association, which aims to protect men's rights, has quickly gained 300,000 followers. The group saw Megal as an enemy, calling for a boycott of GS25 and even organizing a campaign to "shout 'feminists are mentally ill' in Gwangju, Jeolla Province" during the pandemic.
Male-dominated esports forums are rife with discussions. The younger generation asked: My girlfriend followed Andan's Instagram, how likely is she a feminist? Others have compared South Korea to Afghanistan, where the Taliban have regained power, "invite All South Korean feminists to Afghanistan."
In the virtual public discussion space, the voices of radical male rights and radical feminism are diminishing and diverging. Both sides have reinforced their imaginations in their respective camps, and South Korean society is increasingly divided on gender issues.
The consequences are already being felt
Two different narrative logics accentuate the rift.
Most South Korean feminists believe that women are still vulnerable. In a country with a tradition of male superiority over female inferiority, their living environment is challenged by multiple challenges, but the oppression, discrimination and even life dangers faced by women are ignored and even rationalized.
They will show you a previously published guide to women's pregnancy by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The guidelines recommend that pregnant women take advantage of housework to exercise and prepare meals and clothes for their husbands and children before they go to the pot. This seems to imply that in South Korea, it is the responsibility of wives to run household chores and take care of children – something that government officials recommend.
Other data is even uglier. The "Glass Ceiling Index" compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit ranks South Korea as the least suitable developed country for the development of professional women. According to the World Economic Forum's 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, South Korea, the world's tenth-largest economy, ranks only 102nd out of 156 countries.
The Global Gender Gap Report shows that the gender gap in South Korea is particularly pronounced in the political and economic spheres, and is worsening.
In the eyes of some men, especially young men, the reality is a different story. They see themselves as being discriminated against by the feminist movement and they are the victims. According to a study released in March by South Korea's Ministry of Women and Families, more than half of the more than 10,000 young respondents agreed that "society is unfair to men," while only 18.6 percent agreed that "society is unfair to women."
"In recent years, there have been more and more preferential policies for women, but fewer and fewer for men. If you are a male who is going to be employed, and the woman has extra points in the interview, can you accept this? Lee Sung-joon, who is engaged in the education and training industry, said, "Some feminists in South Korea are too much, they hate men, and their thinking is completely extreme feminist." ”
It's not anti-feminism, it's about fair play, and some people explain it this way.
In South Korea, male citizens are obliged to perform military service. Many men therefore believe that they have made sacrifices for their country – women do not. During their hard-earned military service, women of the same age took multiple qualifications, entered the labor market early, and stole a large number of employment opportunities.
Lee Won-yun, a writer who has long followed the development of feminism in South Korea, said that forced military service is indeed one of the crux of many South Korean men's misogyny. As the job market rolled in, housing prices rose, and the cost of living increased, men began to blame their economic insecurities on women and the rise of feminism.
Another reason is the rise in "vagina prices". She noted that the concept has appeared frequently on the extreme right-wing forum Ilbe. Some men have become accustomed to objectifying women, and women as sexual resources are becoming more and more difficult to obtain, and some losers have become angry and hostile to women. This is also the background for the birth of words that satirize women's worship of gold, such as "kimchi girl" and "big sauce girl".
Men's dissatisfaction with "feminism" may also have cultural motives. S. Thompson, a non-resident researcher at the Sejong Institute, a think tank Nathan Park argues that Koreans seem to have developed a reverence for elitism in a series of exams and internalized the logic of competition. Women are having a bad time? That's because you don't work hard enough, and unfortunate people are responsible for their own suffering.
At present, the consequences of this gender "war" have begun to show.
The younger generation's willingness to marry has fallen to a low point, and the divorce rate has climbed. The latest figures released by the United Nations Population Fund in 2021 show that South Korea's birth rate has been at the bottom for two consecutive years, ranking 198th out of 198 countries.
And the "three throwing generations" have gradually become a climate. Some young people simply decide to give up love, marriage and procreation. Feminists went a step further, proposing the slogan "6B4T" ("6B" refers to not getting married, not having children, not falling in love, not having sex with men, not buying misogynistic products, and single women helping each other; "4T" refers to taking off corsets, taking off religion, taking off otaku culture, and taking off idols. ）
With limited resources in society as a whole, there may be no cure for the anger of the two sexes in South Korea. No one knows how long this high fever will burn and how long the period of pain will be.
"Why do men hate us? I think it's because they think their cake is getting smaller and smaller," said Mr. Zhang, who had short hair. "After all, what harm did that gesture do to them?" The feminist movement in South Korea has only just begun. ”
(The author is a senior media person)
Photo editor: Zhang Xu
Duty Editor: Wan Xiaojun