‘촛불 소녀’에서 ‘메갈리안’까지, 2000년대 여성 혐오와 인종화를 둘러싸고

Abstract

This article sheds light on the use of hate speech of women as a strategy, instead of the phenomenon of hatred of women itself. The hatred and hate speech against Korean women in the 2000s has been moving toward racialization, as reflected by the expression ‘Kim-chi girl.’ According to 2015 indicators, the majority of victims of violent crimes were women. In those circumstances, the target age group of women in their 20s and 30s have been embracing the “Megalian” phenomenon, according to which they actively carry out hate speech. These women claim to employ a mirroring strategy by parodying the misogyny of men. In other words, the existing patriarchal gender discourse is materialized in reverse on a narrative level, emphasizing its sexual discrimination and contradiction. However, when criticizing the uncivility of the so-called “Kim-chi men,” the setting of Western men as the representation of civilization or the description of KOPINO as a child can be considered a problematic racist symptom. The women involved are the so-called “Candle Light Girls,” who were praised as bearers of democratic hope in the 2000s. They were cited as an example of sympathy toward others and solidarity with minorities. However, they were above all agents of self-improvement, as inspired by the popular culture of the 90s. Therefore, after becoming “the educated women” in a neo-liberalistic system that was particularly intense for them as they were women, they displayed vigilance against Asia as a place of dispatch for immigrants, contradicting their other progressive agendas. Moreover, they were dissatisfied with the fact that Korea’s multi-cultural policy and support in the 2000s focused on families with married Asian immigrant women. Of course, this was aggravated by the fact that women’s policy centered on child-care, excluding single or unmarried women. In short, they opposed multi-cultural policies supporting male-centered families as perpetuators of the prolonged political rule of men by securing support from the labor force and winning a future electorate. Moreover, they cast a hostile look at the Asian women involved in this process. In conclusion, “Megalian” results from the prevailing hatred against women in Korean society, the absence of a discourse on racism, and the focus on the encouragement of patriarchal family and child-care in women’s policy. The hate speech has been used as an intensifying and enlarging strategy by these women. Opportunities should be provided to reconsider the way Korean women should accept women of different races, and how the Candle Light Girls’ aspiration for democracy, which was extremely radical in its early stage of development, can be developed into another form.