Twitter/@KNKNOKU
Image caption Kim Jayeon could not have expected that a tweet would have cost her her job.
Gamergate in Korea. Every bit as bad, and I’d say worse.
On the face of it, the slogan “Girls do not need a prince” doesn’t seem that controversial.
In many parts of the world, it would pass as the kind of thing any young woman might wear without prompting a second look.
But when the actress, Kim Jayeon, tweeted a photograph of herself wearing the garment, she generated a storm and lost herself a job.
She was the voice of one of the characters in a South Korean online game called “Closers”. Gaming is very big in South Korea, as much a part of the culture as football.
Fans of “Closers” inundated Nexon, the company which produced the game, with complaints. Many of the complaints, according to female activists, were offensive and anti-women.
Nexon quickly bowed to the protesters and sacked the actress. It told the BBC that she would be paid in full for her work but her voice would not be used on the game.
It issued a statement saying it had “recognised the voices of concern amongst the Closers community”, adding that “we have suddenly decided to seek a replacement in the role”.
The full story is at BBC.com.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU*buries face in pillow*
I want a shirt like that.
I am so disappointed in the company. I don’t understand how they could have taken anyone seriously over complaining about a shirt like that. And they couldn’t even bother coming up with a decent excuse, they just go straight to listening to the misogynists. Way to be welcoming.
I naively hope Kim Jayeon will be alright and will not be receiving internet harassment (any more than usual) over this,
rq:
I’m guessing the execs (heck, most of the employees?) at the company agree with the assholes on this issue.
Clearly there’s something else that’s also part of the culture.
The article is in-depth, and goes on about how the shirt is printed by a specific feminist organization in Korea, and boy, the menz do not like them, at all.
A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
The Lofty family junior who studies Asian politics would not be surprised to hear this story about Korea.
Great shirt.
Paying someone in full for the work they’ve done, then later choosing not to use the product they’ve created, is not “sacking” in any meaningful sense. The bald facts of the story don’t require that level of creative embroidery. Why do journalists do that?