Counterpublics emerge as a minority, disadvantaged by the majority, with an exaggerated intensity that makes them unavoidable in the public sphere. Compared to Habermas’ The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Counterpublics emerge because of the failure of a successful public sphere. These characteristics include: (almost) universal access to the space, free of coercion, equality rather than hierarchy, rule of law, and quality participation (“Jürgen Habermas and the Public Sphere”). The rise of the radical feminist movement, embodied by Megalia (메갈리아), showcases what happens when public spheres fail to be successful.
Megalia, which started in 2015 after the combination of the popularity of an alt-right men’s website and the continued, indiscriminate gendered violence that South Korean women experienced, was a radical community–in the same vein as the U.S.’s 4Chan–which emphasized the discrimination and violence South Korean women faced while demeaning men. When opponents of the ‘Megalians’ emerged, they retorted that their extreme tactics were the point in order “…to turn it around so men and women alike can witness it [discrimination] in its honest, raw form…” (Singh). As Nimalan Yoganathan writes in “Black Lives Matter movement uses creative tactics to confront systemic racism,” the “dominant society” tolerates forms that match the status quo and completely dismisses and shames counterpublics that are “too radical”. Megalia has created novel vocabulary and expressions through its mirroring technique, in which they take discriminatory words/phrases about women and make them about men. An example of this is 성괴, which was used as slang for women who became botched through plastic surgery. However, under Megalia, this term became used to refer to men who paid for prostitution, an issue in South Korea (Kim). Other examples are 씹치남 (kimchi-nam) referring to men with small genitals, 꽁치남 (gongchi-nam, lit. mackerel man) referring to men who do Dutch pay which is uncommon in Korea, and 자슬아치 (chasul-achi) for men who sexually take advantage of women (Kim).
Despite Megalia’s mirroring techniques and controversies, the online community participated in many real campaigns. Some of these include crowdfunding for anti-hidden camera adverts to be promoted in the public transportation system in Seoul, the capital of South Korea (Singh). (The spy camera pornography industry is very popular among men and dangerous for women in South Korea.) Megalians also encouraged politicians who led campaigns to shut down Soranet, a South Korean porn hub that was affiliated with spy camera footage and underage prostitution (Singh). They also campaigned against misogynistic, and somewhat dangerous, imagery of men committing violence against women on magazine covers, and have garnered millions of KRW for feminist projects (Singh). Like what Yoganathan argues BLM has done, Megalia has utilized radical tactics to bring the issue of gendered violence and discrimination to the forefront through visible tactics, like mirroring, and invisible tactics such as endorsing candidates and individually donating money to a feminist cause.
In order to build resilience to counterpublics or digital propaganda that disrupts the public sphere is, as Bjola and Papadakis write, “overcoming cleavages” (21). In the case of Megalia, overcoming this barrier between feminism and men in society would dissolve the need for a counterpublic. Not only are South Korean women seen as “misandrists” but one woman stated that “…there’s a certain stereotype and stigma that comes with that title here” (Lee). Bridging the gap between what feminism is and how it applies in the daily lives of South Koreans, would help to lessen the understanding of feminism between young South Korean men and women.
Works Cited
Bjola, Corneliu, and Krysianna Papadakis. “Digital propaganda, counterpublics and the disruption of the public sphere: the Finnish approach to building digital resilience.” Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 2019, pp. 1-29. Accessed 16 February 2023.
“Jürgen Habermas and the Public Sphere.” Media Studies, n.d., n.a., https://www.media-studies.ca/articles/habermas.htm. Accessed 16 February 2023.
Kim, Youngmi. “Mirroring Misogyny in Hell Chosun: Megalia, Womad, and Korea’s Feminism in the Age of Digital Populism.” European Journal of Korean Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, 2021, pp. 101-133. Accessed 16 February 2023.
Lee, Sunny. “Why Korean Women Are Hesitant To Label Themselves Feminists.” VICE, 16 February 2020, https://www.vice.com/en/article/v74zd3/korean-women-feminists. Accessed 16 February 2023.
Singh, Emily. “Megalia: South Korean Feminism Marshals the Power of the Internet.” Korea Expose, 30 July 2016, https://koreaexpose.com/megalia-south-korean-feminism-marshals-the-power-of-the-internet/. Accessed 16 February 2023.
Yoganathan, Nimalan. “Black Lives Matter movement uses creative tactics to confront systemic racism.” The Conversation, 30 July 2020, https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-movement-uses-creative-tactics-to-confront-systemic-racism-143273. Accessed 16 February 2023.
I like your solution of wanting to get rid of the need for a counter-public to even need to exist in the first place. Regardless of the issue, if we can at least agree on the terms of the disagreement, understand and agree upon definitions, and understand our end goals, then counter-publics might not be as necessary. However, these are all ideals. Realistically speaking I think it’s going to be hard to do this because people with differing values might fundamentally disagree with others’ interpretations of problems, definitions, and end goals. Because of this, I have to say that I think it’s more realistic to want to find a middle ground between both sides through appeasement and deal-making rather than having both sides come together in total agreement without the existence of counter publics.