Type of site Textboard Alexa rank 167,893 (January 2017) Registration Optional | Website www.megalian.com Commercial Yes Launched 2015 | |
Megalia (Korean: 메갈리아) is a controversial website based in South Korea for feminists.
Contents
Overview
In the spring of 2015, the South Korean Internet forum DC Inside started "MERS Gallery" as a forum for sharing information on the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak.
When a false rumor spread that two women who may 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; kimchi-nyeo), a stereotype for the female gender who only has shopping on her mind.
As the misogynistic atmosphere escalated, an influx of feminist users went on the counter-offensive, coining "kimchee man" (김치남; kimchi nam) a counterpart male-bashing term which mocks the Korean man for the money he lavishes on paid sex. DC Inside intervened by instituting a language policy, forbidding use of "kimchee man". The feminist users regarded the measure as discriminatory, 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.
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.
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 (소라넷)'s practice which permitted uploads of privacy-violating secretly photgraphed video content, and has moved on to petition the shutdown of the site itself, which notorious for various types of illicit pornographic content. Eventually, SoraNet had been shutdown.
Controversies
Megalia itself has been shut down several times since its inception, and rebuilt again.
On October 17th, 2015, a Megalian, as a term referring to users of Megalia, who was a kindergarten teacher, uploaded a salacious post declaring a desire to have sex with a jotlini 좆린이, which is 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 Storehouse routinely discuss sexual desires for underage girls (referred to as lolini 로린이 ("Lolita girl").
Megalia is controversial. Users of this website often post gory images of sliced penis and mocked war heroes who died in Korean War to express misandry.
Criticism
In connection with the case of Ms. A (kindergarten teacher), a considerable number of netizens have reacted rejected Ms. A's rationalization as an act of "mirroring", arguing that "mirroring" can serve to excuse any bad behavior, even copycat crime. Many also critique "mirroring" generally, saying it has taken on the nature of acts of misandry using "mirroring" as a pretext, rather than the parodying of misogyny it purports to be.
And stooping to the same levels of name-calling as the men-dominated forums does little to bridge the rift between the sexes, writes one magazine piece.