Last week, a series of anonymous complaints allegedly made by the same bride-to-be who used the name “K” in the “roadside wedding banquet chaos” furor in January once again sparked controversy on social media.
“K” first caused a backlash when she wrote on Facebook that she found roadside banquets to be “low-class,” and insisted on holding her wedding at a hotel. Many Internet users accused her of having a bad case of “princess syndrome.”
The recent complaints revealed a similar profile to “K” — a gold digger who is self-centered, jealous, deluded and suffers from “princess syndrome.”
However, as media outlets could not secure interviews with the mysterious “K,” and no one else involved in the story chose to come forward to corroborate the story, “K” could very well be a fictional character, involving a classic case of misogyny.
It would have been easy for Internet users to tap into existing social stereotypes and incite conflict using a fictional story filled with bigotry in a bid to encourage engagement and gain users on certain platforms or social media pages, then exploiting them for other benefits. This is not an uncommon approach.
As misogyny is one of the most common forms of discrimination, it gives people the opportunity to create a stir among misogynists using a fictional story.
The word misogyny is formed from the Greek words misos (“hatred”) and gune (“woman”). Women have been scapegoats throughout human history. Men have blamed them for major political or military failures. Some think women should be subjected to a subordinate role or that they should give up competing with men because of how their bodies are built. Some even accuse women of using their bodies as an excuse to evade responsibility. In short, women have to “pay” for being women.
The prevalence of this kind of ideology has spawned misogynists who think of their values as the norm instead of being offensive to women. They could be henpecked husbands or mama’s boys, allowing only their wives and mothers to spoil or oppress them, assuming they behave like this because they are women.
Following this logic, it is understandable why misogynists fail to comprehend their flaws, because they do not think they are being discriminatory or being disrespectful to women. After finding an echo chamber with like-minded people on the Internet, misogynists and others have given birth to terms like “the sow cult” — a catchphrase for misogyny that originated from an online bulletin board — or “misogyny chef” — a derogatory word to refer to those who support misogyny. These words have shone a light on the mentality of misogynists.
At the housing justice rally on July 16, a woman was quietly holding a placard with a list of former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) sexist remarks. She was afterward harassed and “trialed” by misogynist Internet users and Internet celebrity Holger Chen (陳之漢), while Ko called the remarks “mudslinging,” and asked: “What has it [the incident] got to do with me?”
As Ko’s infamous misogynous remarks can all be verified by looking at video clips online, his response was apparently modeled after former US president Donald Trump’s playbook of lie, deflect and deny.
Whenever Trump and Ko get into tight spots, they lie first, and when lies do not work, they accuse the accusers of lying. As for his response to misogyny, Ko must have thought there was no need to apologize or reflect as no misogyny had occured in the first place.
Even though Ko started out as a political neophyte, his denial of his gaffes and off-the-cuff remarks has started to take a toll on the public. Ko could risk losing support if he fails to see the problems with his gender-biased mindset.
Chang Yueh-han is an adjunct assistant professor in Shih Hsin University’s Department of Journalism.
Translated by Rita Wang
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
Since being re-elected, US President Donald Trump has consistently taken concrete action to counter China and to safeguard the interests of the US and other democratic nations. The attacks on Iran, the earlier capture of deposed of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and efforts to remove Chinese influence from the Panama Canal all demonstrate that, as tensions with Beijing intensify, Washington has adopted a hardline stance aimed at weakening its power. Iran and Venezuela are important allies and major oil suppliers of China, and the US has effectively decapitated both. The US has continuously strengthened its military presence in the Philippines. Japanese Prime
RSS