Troll feminism: the rise of popular feminism in South Korea

This dissertation explores a new form of feminist movement in South Korea that has emerged online. The movement, which I refer to as the ‘Megalia phenomenon’, was catalysed by ‘man-hating trolling’ in 2015, which distinguishes this new digital feminism from extant feminist movements. The dissertation interrogates how South Korean digital practices have shaped a specific form of popular feminism – which I term ‘troll feminism’. In this dissertation, I ask: how the digital venues on the South Korean web have interacted and intertwined with the Megalia phenomenon; how Megalian trolls devised their activist practices based on the digital habits; and how Megalians’ digital discourses were materialised through forms of practical activism. I trace how the participants in the Megalian movement appropriated the practices of online misogynists (such as aggressive and offensive trolling acts) in order to respond to prevalent online misogyny, which led them to develop a feminist movement. The fun entailed in trolling altered how people ‘do’ feminism in this movement, making participants experience it as game playing, hence ‘gamifying’ the activism. As the activism of ‘chasing fun’ through ‘man-hating’ enabled many women to question the gendered reality of their world, the politics of trolling provided a feminist critique of South Korean society that made women’s lives intelligible and made social oppression recognisable, resulting in their involvement in political resistance. I analyse the materialist orientation of feminist politics in the Megalian movement, arguing that its inclination to prioritise what is actual and material, practical and pragmatic derives from Megalians’ nature as digital users, and as gamers, who seek out direct and immediate reactions to their actions – which they experience as ‘triumphs’ in the gender war they are involved in.