Megalia

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

메갈리아
Megalia
Logo of South Korean feminist website Megalia.png
Web address www.megalian.com[dead link]
Commercial? Yes
Type of site
 Textboard
Registration Optional
Launched August 6, 2015
Current status Shut Down (2017)

Megalia (Korean: 메갈리아) was a radical feminist online community based in South Korea. It was launched in 2015 to protest the language policy of the South Korean Internet forum DC Inside, which some users deemed discriminatory against women.

Overview

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

When a false rumor spread that two women who might 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; gimchi-nyeo), a stereotype for the female gender who only has shopping on her mind.[1]

As this situation continued, an influx of feminist users started using offensive terms, coining "Kimchi man" (김치남; gimchi-nam) a counterpart male-bashing term which mocks Korean males in general. DC Inside intervened by instituting a language policy, forbidding use of "Kimchi 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.[3][2]

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.[4]

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 (ko)'s (소라넷) practice which permitted uploads of privacy-violating secretly photographed video content, and has moved on to petition the shutdown of the site itself, which was notorious for various types of illicit pornographic content.[5] Eventually, SoraNet was shutdown.[6][7]

Controversies

Megalia is widely perceived as an extremist, feminist community, which consciously mirrors the misogynistic language deployed in male-dominated forums like Ilbe.[8] To critics, Megalians’ mirroring tactic is hateful and misandrist; to supporters, they are reclaiming a male-centered language that threatens and diminishes women.[9]

Many, including some feminists, say Megalia's tactics have opened the group up to accusations of misandry, and exacerbating the gender war.[10] Some Megalia posters have outed gay men who are married to women.[11][12][10]

On October 17, 2015, one user, who was a kindergarten teacher, uploaded a salacious post declaring their desire to have sex with a Jonnini (좆린이), which is Megalia 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 routinely discuss sexual desires for underage girls (referred to as lolini 로린이 ("Lolita girl").[lower-alpha 2][13]

Users of Megalia have posted gory images of men whose penises have been severed or severely damaged and publicized explicit photos obtained in confidence.[14] One of Megalia's activities is the manipulation of public opinion. Megalia users share news articles' URLs and manipulate comment sections led by their administrative team with a suggested guideline.[15] Since December 2015, administrators and financial backers of the website have continuously received criticism on their lack of transparency, but no official statement has been released.[16]

In October 2018, following the Isu Station assault case, more than 129,500 Koreans signed an online petition asking for the presidential office to take measures against the extremist feminist communities, including Womad and Megalia.[17]

Derived websites

  • Womad (Korean: Korean: 워마드) is a website derived from Megalia on January 22, 2016. It is a splinter group that formed when Megalia issued a ban on use of certain explicit slurs against gay men.[18][19]
  • Megalia 4 is a Facebook page that derived from Megalia in 2016.
  • Ladism (Korean: 레디즘) is a website that derived from Megalia in 2016.[18]

See also

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)".[2]
  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 Jonnini has been blotted out to read "O린이". The Megalian's uncensored posting is the following: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ "게시판 소개 및 이용자 준수사항 Archived 2018-12-06 at the Wayback Machine [Guide to the boards and user rules]" - Megalia Script error: No such module "In lang".
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (Naver News) Script error: No such module "In lang".
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Megalia&oldid=726188158"