All posts tagged: Misogyny

Korean Feminism Reins In the Collective Power of the Internet

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, Korean feminism takes advantage of the country’s telecommunications infrastructure and satiric humour to combat misogyny An emerging Feminist movement finds power in the collective power of the Internet Founded on August 6th, 2015, the independent website Megalian.com brands a new type of feminism – one that uses the country’s world-class ICT infrastructure to promote gender equality and to humorously bash misogyny on the Korean web. The name, currently filed for trademark registration by one of its users, is a neologism combining ‘MERS gallery’, the web forum where the movement was born, and ‘Egalia’, of Gerd Brantenberg‘s satiric novel ‘Egalia’s Daughters‘. Megalian.com operates strictly on an anonymous basis, with all members posting under the same nickname, except for notices regarding server maintenance by the site’s administrators, who nevertheless remain anonymous (As of December 2015, the few interviews conducted with its members or admins have not revealed any personal information). The collective movement began in June 2015, when women began to ‘mirror’ the misogynic comments made by male members on DCInside.com, a popular web forum. What was conceived as a minor page dedicated to sharing …

From Joseon to Today: Koreans Women’s sexuality, repressed

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Cruise-themed party at a club in Gangnam Image source: Club Octagon Thought there’d be no slut culture in Korea because of the Neo-Confucianism and the Protestants? Think again! See the clubs at Itaewon, Hongdae and Gangnam lined up with girls wearing dresses barely covering their crotch area! See the couples make out in dark alleys shamelessly! See my neighbour dry-hump by the security gate on the first floor! (No, actually, don’t, it’s painful enough for the other residents as is) I live in a university area. Most students live in “one-rooms”, studios as they are called here. Since the students who live alone mostly do so because their home is far away, it means that for the first time in their lives, they are free to run their lives as they see fit. And this is when people sometimes go crazy, especially women who are sexually suppressed and taught to “be discreet” for the first 19 years of their lives. Story 1: A girl in my building (we took some courses together at university) lives with her …

Seoul And Its “Tourists”

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“Madame Butterfly” (Image source: Movieposter.com) I have very little respect for Puccini, simply because of this opera.   My friend once met a marijuana-selling Frenchman in Seoul who said: I want to stay here forever. In France I would never, ever get laid, but here, girls are hitting on me just because I am French. Being a foreigner means many things in Korea. You’re “different”. This “being foreign” status entitles you to many advantages as well as prejudices. For instance, it you are a Caucasian-looking woman, men will assume you are readily available for sex. But on the other hand, if you are a Caucasian-looking man, your mother-in-law-to-be won’t grill you with “What do your parents do? “Where is your hometown?” “Do you own an apartment in your name?” “How much do you make?”, like she would a Korean son-in-law-to-be. Korea attracts a very wide array of migrants. There are the English teachers. The businesspeople. The Korean Studies students. Or, those passing by, on exchange student programs, on a Korean government (NIIED) scholarship, on an …