Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Mediating Misogyny pp 151–169Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Misogyny for Male Solidarity: Online Hate Discourse Against Women in South Korea

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

Kim explores how misogynistic discourses have been constructed and reproduced in a male-dominated online community Ilbe (http://www.ilbe.com/) in South Korea. First, the chapter examines how the Ilbe community excludes female users and controls its male-dominated atmosphere. Second, by focusing on the figure of the kimchi-nyeo (girl/woman), the chapter investigates how online misogyny in South Korea develops a social discourse that reinforces gender stereotypes and justifies gender discrimination. Kim further demonstrates how hate speech toward Korean women is often accomplished through racialized comparisons with foreign, especially Japanese, women. Finally, the growth in online misogyny is analyzed in relation to a crisis in hegemonic masculinity; specifically, Kim argues that consistent production and distribution of misogynistic discourse serve to restore male bonds and hegemonic masculinity in South Korea.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Since military service is compulsory for all able-bodied adult men, the issue is often read as gendered in Korea. A telling example is the controversy surrounding the army veterans’ advantage system, which privileged veterans in terms of the civil service exam and hiring and was declared unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violated the equal rights of women and the disabled, in 1999, though the topic remains highly controversial online.

References

  • Ahn, S. (2011). Emergence of loser culture and reconfiguration of masculinity in Korea. Seoul: Seoul National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahn, S., Kim, I., Lee, J., & Yun, B. (2015). Basic research on Korean Men’s life (II): Focus on the conflict in values of young men concerning gender equality (No. 30). Seoul: Korean Women’s Development Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anahita, S. (2006). Blogging the borders: Virtual skinheads, hypermasculinity, and heteronormativity. Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 34(1), 143–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • boyd, d. (2011). White flight in networked publics? How race and class shaped American teen engagement with Myspace and Facebook. In L. Nakamura & P. Chow-White (Eds.), Race after the internet (pp. 203–221). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cho Han, H.-J. (2000). “You are entrapped in an imaginary well”: The formation of subjectivity within compressed development – A feminist critique of modernity and Korean culture. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 1(1), 49–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/146493700360999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Citron, D. K. (2014). Hate crimes in cyberspace. Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W. (2005). Masculinities (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Filipovic, J. (2007). Blogging while female: How internet misogyny parallels real-world harassment. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, 19, 295–303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gender Ministry Says Controversial Kakao Account is Fake. (2013, July 31). The Korea Herald. Retrieved from http://khnews.kheraldm.com/view.php?ud=20130731000898&md=20130803004155_AT

  • Hwang, S., & Kang, J. (2014). A qualitative study on the discourse of on-line woman interpellation. Korean Journal of Broadcasting and Telecommunication Studies, 28(4), 356–388.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jane, E. A. (2014a). “Back to the kitchen, cunt”: Speaking the unspeakable about online misogyny. Continuum, 28(4), 558–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2014.924479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jane, E. A. (2014b). Your a ugly, whorish, slut. Feminist Media Studies, 14(4), 531–546. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2012.741073.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kendall, L. (2002). Hanging out in the virtual pub: Masculinities and relationships online. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, E. H. (1998). Men’s talk: A Korean American view of South Korean constructions of women, gender, and masculinity. In E. H. Kim & C. Choi (Eds.), Dangerous women: Gender and Korean nationalism (pp. 67–118). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, H. M. (2001). Work, nation and hypermasculinity: The “woman” question in the economic miracle and crisis in South Korea. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 2(1), 53–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649370120039452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, S.-A. (2012). Digital technology and young women’s political participation. Issues in Feminism, 12(1), 193–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, H.-A. (2013, September 30). Ilbe member picketing in front of Ewha Womans University “You are sluts, betraying comfort women.” Donga Newspaper. Retrieved from http://news.donga.com/3/all/20130930/57920510/2?ref=false

  • Kim, S.-A. (2015). Misogynistic cyber hate speech in Korea. Issues in Feminism, 15(2), 279–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, J. (2017). #iamafeminist as the “mother tag”: Feminist identification and activism against misogyny on Twitter in South Korea. Feminist Media Studies, 17(5), 804–820. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1283343

  • Kim, S.-A., & Choi, S.-Y. (2007). Construction and re-production of masculinities in Korean cyberspace: Comparative study on the difference between community board and discussion board. Media, Gender & Culture, 10, 5–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, S., & Kim, Y. (2008). A study of gender discourse and gender characteristics in cyber public sphere. Media, Gender & Culture, 10(0), 5–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krim, J. (2005, July 7). Subway fracas escalates into test of the Internet’s power to shame. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/06/AR2005070601953.html

  • KwonKim, H. Y. (2000). Veterans’ extra point system and cyber terrorism. Women & Society, 11(1), 133–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, K.-H. (2012). We are the DC: Gift, war and power in cyberspace. Seoul: Imagine Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mantilla, K. (2013). Gendertrolling: Misogyny adapts to new media. Feminist Studies, 39(2), 563–570.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mantilla, K. (2015). Gendertrolling: How misogyny went viral. Santa Barbara: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, D. (2005). Class and masculinity. In M. S. Kimmel, J. Hearn, & R. Connell (Eds.), Handbook of studies on men and masculinities (pp. 165–177). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Orgad, S. (2005). The transformative potential of online communication. Feminist Media Studies, 5(2), 141–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680770500111980.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sedgwick, E. K. (1985). Between men: English literature and male homosocial desire. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shohat, E. (1999). By the bitstream of Babylon: Cyberfrontiers and diasporic vistas. In H. Naficy (Ed.), Home, exile, homeland: Film, media, and the politics of place (pp. 213–232). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Song, J. E. R. (2014). The soybean paste girl: The cultural and gender politics of coffee consumption in contemporary South Korea. Journal of Korean Studies, 19(2), 429–448. https://doi.org/10.1353/jks.2014.0026.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spender, D. (1995). Nattering on the net: Women, power, and cyberspace. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turton-Turner, P. (2013). Villainous avatars: The visual semiotics of misogyny and free speech in cyberspace. Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, 2013(1), 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Um, K. (2011). (Im)possibility of new masculinity after neo-liberalism. In H. Y. KwonKim (Ed.), Masculinity and gender (pp. 147–166). Seoul: Jaeum & Moeum Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Um, J. (2016). Strategic misogyny and its contradiction – Focusing on the analysis of the posts on the internet community site Ilgan best Jeojangso (daily best storage). Media, Gender & Culture, 31(2), 193–236.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Zoonen, L. (2001). Feminist internet studies. Feminist Media Studies, 1(1), 67–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680770120042864.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wakeford, N. (1997). Networking women and grrrls with information/communication technology: Surfing tales of the world wide web. In J. Terry & M. Calvert (Eds.), Processed lives: Gender and technology in everyday life (pp. 51–66). London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yun, B. (2013). Ilbe and misogyny. The Radical Review, 57, 33–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuval-Davis, N., Anthias, F., & Campling, J. (1989). Woman, nation, state. Houndmills: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radio-Television-Film, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Jinsook Kim

Authors
  1. Jinsook Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Media Arts, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Jacqueline Ryan Vickery

  2. Mayborn School of Journalism, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Tracy Everbach

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Kim, J. (2018). Misogyny for Male Solidarity: Online Hate Discourse Against Women in South Korea. In: Vickery, J., Everbach, T. (eds) Mediating Misogyny. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72917-6_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation