Megalia

메갈리아
Megalia
Type of site
 Textboard
Website www.megalian.com
Alexa rank Decrease 167,893 (January 2017)[1]
Commercial Yes
Registration Optional
Launched 2015

Megalia (Korean: 메갈리아) is a controversial[2] website based in South Korea for feminists.

Overview

In the spring of 2015, the South Korean Internet forum DC Inside started "MERS Gallery" as a forum for sharing information on the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak.

When a false rumor spread that two women who may have contracted the MERS disease refused quarantine to go on a shopping trip to Hong Kong, it prompted bashing in this forum. These supposed health code violators were derided using the term "Kimchi Woman" (김치녀; kimchi-nyeo), a stereotype for the female gender who only has shopping on her mind.[3]

As the misogynistic atmosphere escalated, an influx of feminist users went on the counter-offensive, coining "kimchee man" (김치남; kimchi nam) a counterpart male-bashing term which mocks the Korean man for the money he lavishes on paid sex. DC Inside intervened by instituting a language policy, forbidding use of "kimchee man". The feminist users regarded the measure as discriminatory,[lower-alpha 1] and finding these rules too constraining for posting their rhetoric, moved to other forums at DC Inside, and eventually, launched their own website, "Megalia". The name "Megalia" is a portmanteau of "MERS Gallery" and "Egalia's Daughters", a feminist novel by Gerd Brantenberg.[5][4]

Culture

In Megalia, there are several boards, including the "best" board, "new posts" board, "Menyeom" (meaning suitable for Megalia) board, "news" board, "data" board, "lecture" board, "capture" board, "humor" board, and "free" board.[6]

When it was founded Megalia claimed that it was a feminist website and that its goal was to "promote women's rights and remove misogyny widespread in the Korean society."

Megalia began a movement to halt the porn-sharing site SoraNet (소라넷)'s practice which permitted uploads of privacy-violating secretly photographed video content,[4] and has moved on to petition the shutdown of the site itself, which notorious for various types of illicit pornographic content.[5][7] Eventually, SoraNet had been shutdown.[8]

Controversies

Megalia itself has been shut down several times since its inception, and rebuilt again.[5]

On October 17, 2015, a Megalian, as a term referring to users of Megalia, who was a kindergarten teacher, uploaded a salacious post declaring a desire to have sex with a jotlini 좆린이, which is slang for a very young male child. This caused an uproar, especially after her identity was outed, even though she had posted anonymously. The poster (referred to in the media as "Ms. A") later addressed this, and while admitting the gravity of her message which caused serious concerns, explained that she was merely trying to bring awareness to the fact that male-dominated boards such as Ilbe Storehouse routinely discuss sexual desires for underage girls (referred to as lolini 로린이 ("Lolita girl").[lower-alpha 2][7]

Megalia is controversial. Users of this website often post gory images of sliced penis and mocked war heroes who died in Korean War to express misandry.[9]

Criticism

In connection with the case of Ms. A (kindergarten teacher), a considerable number of netizens have reacted rejected Ms. A's rationalization as an act of "mirroring", arguing that "mirroring" can serve to excuse any bad behavior, even copycat crime. Many also critique "mirroring" generally, saying it has taken on the nature of acts of misandry using "mirroring" as a pretext, rather than the parodying of misogyny it purports to be.[7]

And stooping to the same levels of name-calling as the men-dominated forums does little to bridge the rift between the sexes, writes one magazine piece.[5]

Derived websites

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ One news source describes "Compared to DC Inside's track record thus far of never handing out any sanctions whatsoever against seriously misogynic statements, this [measure] was hard to comprehend (이해하기 어려운)".[4]
  2. ↑ In news coverage, the offensive word may be replaced with eolini 어린이, the ordinary word for a child, or the first hangul letter of jotlini has been blotted out to read "O린이". The Megalian's uncensored posting is the following: "아 좆린이 먹고 싶다" [Oh I want to have a jotlini to eat]. Megalia. 2015-10-17. Archived from the original on 2015-12-27.

References

  1. ↑ "megalian Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
  2. ↑ "South Korea gaming: How a T-shirt cost an actress her job". BBC. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  3. ↑ Steger, Isabella. "An epic battle between feminism and deep-seated misogyny is under way in South Korea". Quartz. Retrieved 2017-05-24.
  4. 1 2 3 Kim Jae-hui (김재희) (2015-06-23). "일베도 서럽게 만든, '메갈리아의 딸들'" [Even Ilbe was made to feel contrition by the 'Megalia sisterhood']. OhmyNews. Archived from the original on 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2017-01-27. (in Korean)
  5. 1 2 3 4 Lee, Yeji (2016-09-01). "Megalia: South Korea's Radical Feminism Community". 10 Magazine. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
  6. ↑ "게시판 소개 및 이용자 준수사항 [Guide to the boards and user rules]" - Megalia (in Korean)
  7. 1 2 3 Ku Ja-yun (구자윤) (2015-12-28). "메갈리안 유치원 교사 "어린이와 하고 싶다" 논란" [The Megalian kindergarten teacher's 'I want to do it with a child' controversy]. The Financial News (파이낸셜 뉴스). (Naver News) (in Korean)
  8. ↑ Cho Eun-ae, Sohn Guk-hee, Esther Chung (April 8, 2016). "Korea’s biggest porn site gets shut down". JoongAng Daily.
  9. ↑ Park Hye-song (박혜성) (2016-01-15). "여성 인권' 외치던 '메갈리아'의 정체는?…"소라넷보다 더한 막장 사이트" [Real identity of Megalia who cries for women's rights? Site more extreme than SoraNet]. Archived from the original on 2016-01-15. (in Korean)
  10. 1 2 Kim Seo-yeong (김서영) (2016-07-08). "‘메갈리아’ 성향 따라 워마드·레디즘 등으로 분화" [Megalia splits off Womad and Ladism that are of a different flavor]. Kyunghyang Shinmun. Archived from the original on 2016-07-24. (in Korean)
  11. ↑ Shinyun Dong-uk (신윤동욱) (2016-01-13). "어떤 입으로 말하고, 누구의 귀로 들을까?" [Whose mouths, whose ears?]. The Hankyoreh. Archived from the original on 2016-10-07. Retrieved 2017-01-27. (in Korean)
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