“The denigration of Korean men’s genitals”
Precision grip gestures and the multimodal construction of “taking offence” in media discourse surrounding anti-feminism
in South Korea
This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of metapragmatic commentary in online news surrounding the
emergence of a new offensive gesture in South Korea. This new offensive hand shape is a “precision grip” gesture whereby the thumb
and index finger are pursed together to represent small size. In May 2021, male-dominated online communities started to take
offence at the prevalence of this gesture in advertising campaigns, viewing it as a misandrist emblem mocking them for the size of
their genitals. Conservative media sources ratified their stance of “taking offence”, which they treated as part of an ongoing
“gender conflict”. Although this view drew opposition from progressive sources, I argue that male communities backed by the
conservative media were able to utilise the stance of taking offence to redirect gender politics and further their misogynistic
agendas. The results advance our understanding of “taking offence” as a social action in populist, multimodal and post-digital
discourses.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 2.1Taking offence
- 2.2Precision grip and rude gestures
- 2.3Anti-feminism in South Korea
- 3.Current study
- 3.1The incident
- 3.2Data
- 3.3Analysis
- 4.Data presentation
- 4.1Overview of articles
- 4.2Critical discourse analysis
- 4.2.1Intentionality
- 4.2.2Misandry
- 4.2.3Bilateral gender conflict
- 4.2.4Businesses as victims
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References