Participants in the Seoul Queer Culture Festival stage a street parade in downtown Seoul on June 1, 2019. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Self-proclaimed ‘feminists’, or radical women advocacy groups, have sparked controversy after criticizing an event for sexual minorities.
Dotface, a media startup, recently organized an ‘online queer parade campaign’ after this year’s queer culture festival was postponed due to the coronavirus.
This year, a new sentiment of self-proclaimed ‘feminists’, apart from extreme Christian groups that used to oppose offline queer festivals held each year, arose to stand against the online event.
Under normal circumstances, feminism has been seen by some to incorporate a sense of solidarity towards other vulnerable social groups, including sexual minorities.
However, the ‘feminists’ participating in the movement to boycott the online queer parade believe that joining hands with sexual minorities undermines their cause of breaking today’s male-oriented society.
“Gender itself is fake, harmful and dangerous,” said Yeolda Books, a local publisher participating in the boycott movement, via social media. “Transgender women wanted to wear skirts and make-up, and be loved by men.”
Kim Bo-mi, head of sexual minority advocacy group Daum, explained that these developments are different from the past, in which Christian groups traditionally used to lead the movement against queer parades.
“The new opposition movement is led by radical feminists,” she said. “But they are similar to the likes of Christian groups since they prioritize aggressive action over thought, without asking where this sense of hatred actually comes from.”
South Koreans who oppose the Seoul Queer Culture Festival for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people protest in Seoul on July 14, 2018. (Yonhap)
The movement reflects the wild reactions when a transgender female student was recently admitted to Sookmyung Women’s University.
Several feminist groups from six women’s universities in Seoul responded to the news by claiming “women’s universities cannot be used as means to recognize men-turned-women,” as they voiced opposition towards admitting the transgender student.
The ‘internal struggle’ observed in this year’s online queer parade is also influenced by the online sphere.
“Never before has there been a case where someone explicitly demonstrated hatred towards transgenders in an offline event,” said Kim. “It’s possibly due to the anonymous nature of the online world.”
Opposition towards certain social minorities only produces a chain of different kinds of hatred, experts say.
“It is wrong to argue that transgenders and women’s rights collide,” said Hong Seong-su, a law professor at Sookmyung Women’s University School of Law.
“Feminism is an essential theory and movement for our society, but that doesn’t justify the hatred and stereotypes that it generates towards other minorities.”
“In order to expand the scope of a feminist movement, it should join hands with other minorities to stand up against male-dominated society,” he added.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
