“The denigration of Korean men’s genitals”

Abstract

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.