Three South Korean companies and Seoul police this month have had to pull ads and other content after men’s rights groups claimed that “small penis” symbols were used, insulting men.
The offending images?
Hands with the thumbs and the index fingers pinching toward each other illustrating the reaching out for an object, but the gesture is also often used to indicate something small in size and, in South Korea, it is associated with a strident, albeit now defunct, feminist group that used the image in its logo.
Photo: Reuters
Exacerbating the problem, one ad and a menu involved were also advertising sausages.
South Korea’s largest convenience store chain, GS25, saw a handful of members from the men’s group Man on Solidarity protest outside its headquarters after it ran the ad.
The group’s YouTube channel, which posts videos of its protests, has gained more than 200,000 subscribers in just two months.
GS25 withdrew its ad and fried chicken chain Genesis BBQ pulled its menu, issuing apologies and saying that they had no intention to demean men.
Kakao Bank Corp has apologized for a hand drawn similarly in one of its ads, while Seoul Metropolitan Police also removed a hand from a road traffic ad saying it wanted to avoid any misunderstanding.
The controversy is the latest flare-up in long-running tension over gender rights in South Korea that has pitted men’s and women’s groups against each other, and which has also resulted in police looking into whether female comedian Park Na-rae broke any laws with a ribald joke made in March.
The joke on a YouTube video involving a Stretch Armstrong action figure whose arms were brought near his genital area resulted in a storm of complaints that a similar joke by a male comedian would never have been acceptable.
Park, 35, and her agency, JDB Entertainment, issued statements apologizing and her YouTube channel was shut down.
Police are obligated to look into the matter after a complaint was filed on a Web site set up to address the public’s grievances, although it remains unclear if charges are to be filed.
Park and her agency did not respond to requests for comment about the potential police action.
South Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Women’s Policy Division Director Kim Garo said that while the problems of misogyny and misandry are not new in South Korea, the targeting of companies and individuals is.
She said it is difficult for the government to interfere when protests took the form of consumer action, but that it would continue with outreach programs that invite young men and women to discuss issues such as gender equality and jobs.
When South Korean President Moon Jae-in came to power in 2017, he pledged to be a president for gender equality, vowing to do more to fix disadvantages for women in the nation.
South Korea has one of the largest wage gaps of any Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member and low political representation for women, who hold just 19 percent of parliamentary seats.
Since Moon, women have seen some improvement in wages and are also eligible for bigger government subsidies than men when starting a new business.
However, political scientists say that many young men now feel their own needs and rights are not being sufficiently acknowledged, adding to widespread discontent over the lack of job opportunities for young people.
“Anti-feminist sentiment is strong among men in their 20s and early 30s, as well as the generation that is becoming adults,” Hankook Research Co senior fellow Jeong Han-wool said.
Research for a 2019 book he coauthored found that 58.6 percent of men in their 20s said they strongly opposed feminism.
That complicates the outlook for the ruling Democratic Party as it seeks re-election next year when Moon’s five-year term ends.
The party has also lost support among women after multiple sexual abuse scandals involving politicians, contributing to crushing defeats in recent mayoral elections for Seoul and Busan.
Park Jun-young, a 27-year-old engineering graduate school student, says he is among those who think men are now at a disadvantage.
“Feminism in South Korea started with gender equality, allowing women the same access and to break the glass ceiling, but it’s turned into something where the nowadays young men — who are not better off than women the same age — have become a target of criticism,” he said.
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
RSS