\n<\/p>\n
O<\/span>n a November evening in 2023, in the South Korean city of Jinju, a woman called On Ji-goo was working the late shift at a convenience store when a young man stormed in, aggressively knocking items off the shelves. When she asked him to be careful, he turned to her, saying, \u201cI\u2019m angry to my bones right now, so don\u2019t touch me.\u201d<\/p>\n The situation escalated. When On tried to call for help, he seized her phone and threw it in the store\u2019s microwave. She tried to stop him and he grabbed her by the collar and arms, dragging her several metres while slamming her into display shelves. It was the start of a brutal assault. Throughout it, he repeatedly said he \u201cnever hits women\u201d but feminists \u201cdeserve to be beaten\u201d.<\/p>\n When an older male customer tried to intervene, the attacker turned on him, too, demanding, \u201cWhy aren\u2019t you supporting a fellow man?\u201d When the police arrived, he announced he was part of a men\u2019s rights group and called for male officers to handcuff him. He later admitted he had singled out On because of her short hair.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore this, I had only the most basic understanding of feminism \u2013 the kind any woman might naturally have,\u201d says On, an aspiring author who uses a pen name.<\/p>\n We meet on a sunny afternoon in a coffee shop in Jinju, where she still lives, just blocks from the shop. It\u2019s a sleepy provincial city of under 350,000 people, four hours from Seoul by high-speed train. On\u2019s face is hidden behind a face mask, a beanie pulled low. Having endured insensitive questioning from local media in the aftermath of her assault, she takes a while to drop her guard. \u201cI didn\u2019t fully grasp the discrimination women face, or rather I had accepted it as normal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The attack left her with permanent hearing loss and severe trauma. The perpetrator received a three-year prison sentence. In a landmark ruling, the appeals court recognised misogyny as the driving force behind the assault, the first time a South Korean court had acknowledged such hatred as a criminal motive.<\/p>\n On\u2019s story is not unique in a country where systemic inequality and virulent online misogyny have pitched mainly gen Zs and millennials into a bitter battle of the sexes. While similar fights over gender and feminism are playing out across the world, from the US to Europe, South Korea has become ground zero for gender wars, its highly connected, digitally literate population amplifying this trend at a pace not seen elsewhere.<\/p>\n In male culture, you can\u2019t speak up to those above you. So where does that frustration get directed? Sideways, at women<\/p>\n On the surface, South Korea appears a hypermodern society, defined by its positive contributions to global pop culture, cutting-edge technology and sleek urban landscapes. But beneath this veneer lies a widening gender divide that seems to belong to another era. Among nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the country ranks first for women\u2019s tertiary education attainment, yet maintains the bloc\u2019s largest gender pay gap. Women remain largely excluded from leadership roles, and South Korea consistently ranks last in measures of workplace gender equality. While the country leads the world in internet connectivity and hi-tech innovation, these same digital spaces have become breeding grounds for some of the most toxic anti-feminist communities, turning virtual hatred into real-world violence.<\/p>\n The most horrifying manifestation of this came in 2016, when a 23-year-old woman was brutally murdered in a public bathroom near Seoul\u2019s Gangnam station, in the heart of the business and entertainment district. The killer, who waited hours for a random female victim, told police he did it because \u201cwomen have always ignored me\u201d. The case became a watershed moment, sparking massive protests, yet the digital targeting of women continued. By 2018, it had become so normalised that it was routine to see signs in public toilets confirming they had been checked for hidden cameras, and thousands of women protested over an epidemic of spy cameras and \u201crevenge porn\u201d. The crisis deepened in 2020 with the notorious \u201cnth room\u201d case of digital sexual slavery, in which users of a network of Telegram chatrooms blackmailed women and underage girls into producing sexually explicit material at home. In 2024, a new threat emerged: deepfake pornography targeting schoolgirls, with perpetrators, often minors themselves, using AI technology to superimpose women\u2019s faces on to sexually explicit content and distribute the images through Telegram channels, some with hundreds of thousands of members.<\/p>\n T<\/span>hese digital crimes didn\u2019t emerge in a vacuum. In the darkest corners of South Korea\u2019s internet, young men gather anonymously to share their rage. While the west has 4chan and Reddit, South Korea has Ilbe \u2013 \u201cdaily best\u201d \u2013 which at its peak in the mid-2010s ranked among the top 10 most visited websites in the country. The forum\u2019s influence reaches far beyond the digital realm. Its users pioneered derogatory terms such as kimchi-nyeo<\/em> (\u201ckimchi girl\u201d, often translated as \u201ckimchi bitch\u201d) to mock women as materialistic gold-diggers. These terms soon infiltrated mainstream discourse, with media outlets adopting –nyeo<\/em> suffixes in headlines to critique any woman behaving badly in public.<\/p>\n As its influence grew, Ilbe began to radicalise, aligning itself with far-right politics and orchestrating provocative offline stunts. In 2014, an Ilbe user detonated a homemade explosive at a progressive activist\u2019s talk, claiming the speaker was pro-North Korea \u2013 a common rightwing accusation in a country where the left-right divide remains shaped by cold war divisions \u2013 while others taunted families of those who died in 2014\u2019s Sewol ferry disaster by gorging on pizza in front of bereaved parents on hunger strike as part of their demand for new legislation following the tragedy.<\/p>\n While Ilbe\u2019s popularity has waned, its legacy endures in online communities known as namcho<\/em>, short for namseong chogwa<\/em>, meaning \u201cexcess of men\u201d. These manospheres have spread across forums and messaging apps, allowing young men to share grievances about feminism and what they see as reverse discrimination.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018Men don\u2019t know why they got into this place\u2019: Kim Min-sung, founder of the Korean Game Consumer Society.<\/span> Photograph: Jun Michael Park\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cIf you get access to the open internet before you get formally educated, your worldview will be fucked,\u201d says Kim Min-sung, speaking at his office in Guri, a city on Seoul\u2019s eastern edge. The 22-year-old activist, once an anti-feminist himself, speaks with an infectious energy, punctuating serious points with bursts of laughter.<\/p>\n Like many Korean boys, Kim encountered these forums at a young age. He recalls searching for innocent content, such as funny videos, only to be gradually exposed to misogynistic material. He admits he repeated anti-feminist rhetoric without understanding it, simply because it was what everyone around him did.<\/p>\n Kim\u2019s turnaround came via an unlikely source: fantasy role-playing games. Here, he found a community that was predominantly female and progressive. At first, he says, \u201cI kept my mouth shut and just played Dungeons & Dragons. But listening to them, you just naturally have casual conversations and you realise the worldview you had from these online forums was just exaggerations, caricatures and fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, Kim runs the Korean Game Consumer Society, fighting the same online hatred he once participated in. He now receives regular death threats he says he finds oddly validating. All the same, \u201cI\u2019m just battling symptoms. I don\u2019t think what I\u2019m doing is solving the core of the problem. Men don\u2019t know why they got into this place, they don\u2019t know why they became unhappy.\u201d<\/p>\n According to professor Seungsook Moon, a sociologist and gender studies expert at Vassar College in the US, the anger exploding online reflects deeper societal shifts. She traces young men\u2019s discontent to South Korea\u2019s embrace of neoliberalism. \u201cBefore democratisation, when military regimes ruled Korea, the government could create stable jobs,\u201d she says. \u201cUp to the late 80s, men with only a college education could get jobs in good companies. The economy was expanding rapidly.\u201d But by the mid-90s those men were being laid off and \u201cwhen social hierarchy changes, groups used to more powerful or privileged positions will respond with intense emotional reactions to their loss of status and respect\u201d.<\/p>\n This resentment is acute around military service \u2013 a mandatory 18 months for able-bodied men that many view as an unfair burden in today\u2019s precarious economy. It\u2019s not a new grievance: in 1999 the constitutional court ruled against the military service bonus point system, which had granted veterans additional points in public sector job applications. The court found it discriminated against women and people with disabilities, intensifying many young men\u2019s sense that they were losing traditional privileges without gaining new protections.<\/p>\n The sense of male victimhood is widespread: a 2021 Hankook Research survey found that while only 38% of men in their 20s believed women face serious discrimination in society, 79% believed men do. Seventy per cent of men in their 30s saw themselves as victims of gender discrimination.<\/p>\n <\/span>Demonstrators outside City Hall in Seoul call for the ousting of South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, December 2024.<\/span> Photograph: Anthony Wallace\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Into this landscape of frustration have stepped new voices claiming to represent young men\u2019s interests. Among them is New Men\u2019s Solidarity, whose influence became clear when On\u2019s attacker proudly declared his membership. The group and its leader, Bae In-gyu \u2013 South Korea\u2019s answer to Andrew Tate \u2013 rack up millions of views on YouTube with content blaming feminism for young men\u2019s struggles. Bae claims it is a \u201cmental illness\u201d and a \u201csocial evil\u201d, and has sparked outrage by declaring the \u201cnth room\u201d victims were \u201cwhores\u201d.<\/p>\n Bae\u2019s rise reflects the shift of Korea\u2019s anti-feminist movement from online anonymity to real-world action. Polished and theatrical, he presents himself in crisp suits, addressing crowds on protest stages or from atop vehicles, blending his rhetoric with broader far-right Korean politics, fervently anti-China, anti-North Korea and anti-communist. Like his western counterparts, he positions feminists as an existential threat, \u201cextreme misandrists\u201d who \u201cadvocate for female supremacy\u201d with \u201cthe specific purpose of causing gender conflict\u201d. Referring to himself as \u201chyung<\/em>\u201d (older brother), Bae cultivates an affectionate bond with disaffected young men, rallying them to fund his activism with donations.<\/p>\n This approach has inspired a broader ecosystem of anti-feminist content creators such as \u201ccyber wrecker\u201d PPKKa, a masked YouTuber with more than a million subscribers who was suspended from making money on YouTube for mocking women\u2019s concerns about deepfake pornography. Together, these digital personalities have built on the legacy of earlier male rights activists such as Sung Jae-gi of the Man of Korea group, whose suicide in 2013 \u2013 jumping from a bridge to raise the profile of his organisation \u2013 created a martyr figure for the movement Bae would later rebrand and radicalise.<\/p>\n T<\/span>hese anti-feminist voices have had a critical influence on the country\u2019s politics. On 27 May this year, four candidates vying to become South Korea\u2019s next president went head to head in a national TV debate. Lee Jun-seok, a 40-year-old Harvard graduate and leader of the relatively minor conservative Reform party, posed a graphic question to a rival: \u201cIf someone says they want to stick chopsticks into women\u2019s genitals or some place like that, is that misogyny?\u201d Lee\u2019s comment sent shock waves across the country. Social media exploded with outrage, university students held press conferences demanding Lee withdraw from the race and women\u2019s groups filed complaints with police.<\/p>\n <\/span>Lee Jun-seok, a presidential candidate whose misogynist comments in a debate in May sent shock waves across the country.<\/span> Photograph: Ahn Young-joon\/AP<\/p>\n Lee first gained prominence as a pundit, arguing that the younger generation \u201chad not experienced gender-based inequality\u201d and that policies such as quotas for women were \u201canachronistic\u201d. As with Jordan Peterson in the west, Lee\u2019s elite credentials and articulate style gave intellectual legitimacy to views that had been confined to anonymous namcho<\/em> forums.<\/p>\n His anti-feminist messaging was adopted by former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who saw how effectively such rhetoric could mobilise young male voters. When running for office in 2022, this ex-prosecutor with no prior political experience claimed there was \u201cno structural gender discrimination\u201d in South Korea. In a move that foreshadowed the Trump administration\u2019s assault on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in the US, Yoon promised to abolish the country\u2019s gender equality ministry, arguing that it focused too much on women\u2019s rights and was no longer necessary. The strategy proved decisive in one of the closest presidential races in South Korean history, with Yoon winning by just 0.73% \u2013 fewer than 250,000 votes. Exit polls revealed a dramatic gender divide among young voters: nearly 59% of men in their 20s supported Yoon, while 58% of women the same age backed his progressive opponent.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Inside Saturday<\/span><\/p>\n The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Under Yoon\u2019s presidency, budgets were slashed for programmes preventing violence against women and the words \u201cgender equality\u201d were removed from government policies and school curriculums. On the night of 3 December 2024, Yoon made a shocking announcement: he was declaring martial law to combat \u201canti-state forces\u201d and accused the opposition-controlled parliament of being a \u201cden of criminals\u201d. Within hours, troops had surrounded the National Assembly and politicians were seen jumping over gates and pushing past soldiers to convene an emergency vote. The decree was ended just six hours after it began.<\/p>\n This was followed by months of mass protests demanding Yoon\u2019s removal, led overwhelmingly by young women. At Seoul\u2019s ancient Gyeongbokgung Palace, Jeong Yeong Eun of the Seoul Women\u2019s Association helped coordinate the \u201cYoon Suk Yeol out\u201d feminist rallies, where participants took turns denouncing the administration\u2019s attacks on women\u2019s rights. \u201cWhen he declared martial law, it was a natural extension of how his administration had been undermining democracy and excluding women\u2019s voices,\u201d she told me at the time. These demonstrations continued through the bitter Seoul winter. \u201cPeople frame it as if women just appeared for the first time,\u201d Jeong said. \u201cWe were always there in previous protest movements. We\u2019re determined not to let our contributions be erased and to make our voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018We\u2019re determined to make our voices heard\u2019: Jeong Yeong Eun of the Seoul Women\u2019s Association.<\/span> Photograph: Jun Michael Park\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In April, South Korea\u2019s constitutional court unanimously upheld Yoon\u2019s impeachment, finding his declaration of martial law a \u201cgrave betrayal of the trust of the people\u201d. The snap election that followed in June 2025 would see Lee Jae Myung of the Democratic party emerge victorious with 49.42% of the vote.<\/p>\n But it was Lee Jun-seok who would come to symbolise the depth of South Korea\u2019s gender divide. His chopsticks remarks may have cost him votes, but they solidified his appeal among his core supporters. While he got just 8.34% of the vote nationally, the exit poll breakdown revealed yet another stark gender and age divide: nearly one in four men in their 20s voted for him, along with 17.7% of men in their 30s. Dismissive of the mainstream candidates, they had rallied behind a figure who embodied their resentments about feminism, military service and what they saw as reverse discrimination. Even new president Lee Jae Myung seemed to take up this cause in July when he asked his cabinet to research \u201cmale discrimination\u201d and develop countermeasures.<\/p>\n This political divide along gender lines isn\u2019t unique to the country: it\u2019s part of a global pattern where young women lean left while young men drift right. However, nowhere is the \u201cideology gap\u201d more extreme than in South Korea, where the intensity of the divide stems from a collision between economic pressures and changing values, according to political scientist Min Hee Go at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. \u201cIt\u2019s about who gets more of the pie, be it material resources, job opportunities, even good partners,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is very cut-throat, especially in an environment where young people have to compete in an unprecedented way.\u201d<\/p>\n This year\u2019s election also issued a stark warning about the future of women\u2019s participation in South Korean politics. For the first time in 18 years, none of the six candidates for president was a woman.<\/p>\n A<\/span>s the gender war has intensified, even the anti-misogynists have sometimes adopted toxic tactics. What began as \u201cmirroring\u201d \u2013 flipping misogynistic rhetoric to target men \u2013 has spiralled into increasingly extreme forms of resistance. When male forums mocked women\u2019s bodies, the feminists of Megalia \u2013 an online community that emerged in 2015 \u2013 ridiculed penis size. When women were called \u201ckimchi bitches\u201d, Megalians coined terms for men such as hannam-chung<\/em> (\u201cKorean male bug\u201d). Though Megalia has now closed, it has become a convenient bogeyman for those seeking to delegitimise feminist activism.<\/p>\n In the past year, global attention has turned to the fringe \u201c4B\u201d movement, which advocates complete withdrawal from a system it sees as irredeemably patriarchal. Its adherents reject dating, marriage, childbirth and any romantic relationships with men.<\/p>\n Such radical responses have helped fuel a broader backlash against feminism. Even men and women who support gender equality now often distance themselves from the term, which has become akin to a slur. Today, the mere accusation of having feminist sympathies can trigger public apologies from companies.<\/p>\n In 2023, a seemingly innocuous animation in a promo for the game MapleStory sparked a firestorm. It showed a character\u2019s hand gesture transitioning from a fist to a heart, but male gamers claimed one frame resembled a feminist hand signal mocking small male genitalia. Within hours, online forums had erupted. The studio issued an apology, and anonymous users combed through the social media accounts of female employees, searching for proof of feminist sympathies. When they found a female artist who fitted their perceived enemy, they demanded her immediate firing.<\/p>\n The company, initially ready to comply, changed course only after intervention from the Korean Game Consumer Society, which convinced management to stand firm against the online mob. Ironically, it was later revealed that the animation had been designed by a male artist in his 40s. Despite this, the female artist was doxed online and harassed with sexual insults.<\/p>\n S<\/span>ome activists are working quietly to address the root causes of South Korea\u2019s gender divide. In his cosy, cabin-like office near Seoul\u2019s Mangwon market, Lee Han is preparing to travel across the country, leading classroom discussions about gender-based violence. It\u2019s a delicate balance \u2013 schools often tell him to avoid discussing anything deemed controversial. But Lee and his group, Feminism With Him, insist dialogue is the only way forward: \u201cWe need to speak up and share what we\u2019ve learned.\u201d What began in 2017 as a small book club reading feminist texts soon evolved into something more ambitious. Now, with eight active members, they organise discussions, attend political rallies and work to create spaces for honest dialogue about gender.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018Who created this system? Men, not feminists\u2019: Lee Han, an activist at Feminism with Him.<\/span> Photograph: Jun Michael Park\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s approach is shaped by his own journey through military service: \u201cIt was miserable. You can\u2019t even put your hands in your pockets, can\u2019t listen to music, can\u2019t easily drink or smoke. Having your freedoms taken away is traumatic and terrifying.\u201d Now he also teaches gender equality to military leaders and senior officers, arguing that men who channel their resentments at women have picked the wrong target. \u201cWho created this system? Men, not feminists. Male politicians and the establishment thought: men are strong, women are weak, so don\u2019t send women to the military,\u201d he says. Despite pressure for reform, the defence ministry says it has no plans to introduce female conscription.<\/p>\n Efforts to address these issues face fierce resistance, particularly from South Korea\u2019s powerful conservative Christian lobby, which has successfully blocked anti-discrimination legislation for almost two decades. \u201cI\u2019ve been prevented from speaking at schools because they complained I was promoting feminism,\u201d Lee says. Yet he and his colleagues remain determined. While their numbers are small, their work offers hope that dialogue is possible. \u201cYoung men can\u2019t express their fears and anxieties,\u201d Lee says. \u201cIn male culture, especially in Korea, where hierarchy is so important due to Confucian values, you can\u2019t speak up to those above you. So where does that frustration go? It gets directed sideways, at women, the easier target.\u201d By creating safe spaces for men to discuss these issues openly, groups such as his aim to redirect that anger towards constructive change.<\/p>\n B<\/span>ack in Jinju, On is still recovering from the attack \u2013 she recently spent a month in hospital dealing with trauma. After a year dominated by court proceedings, she just wants to get back to normal: \u201cI want to find work, treat my family to meals and buy toys for my cat.\u201d<\/p>\n She has been moved by how many strangers have rallied to her cause. When a petition calling for her attacker to be punished reached 50,000 signatures in less than a month, she created a social media account to thank her well-wishers. Gradually she began posting detailed updates about her court proceedings, drawing so many supporters to the trial that some had to stand. She continues to share news about similar cases, which she sees as a small act of solidarity with other victims.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have survived the year without the people who stood by me,\u201d she says. For On, the solution isn\u2019t about fighting over who suffers more discrimination. \u201cWe need to focus on how to resolve these conflicts and create a safer society for everyone,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On a November evening in 2023, in the South Korean city of Jinju, a woman called On Ji-goo was working the late shift at a convenience store when a young man stormed in, aggressively knocking items off the shelves. 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