#iamafeminist as the “mother tag”: feminist identification and activism against misogyny on Twitter in South Korea

Abstract

This article explores feminist activism via the hashtag #iamafeminist on Twitter in South Korea. This hashtag became an important platform for feminist identification and activism against misogyny following its start in 2015 as a way to resist prevailing anti-feminist sentiment in Korea. In addition to opposing stigmas regarding identifying as a feminist, #iamafeminist affords an inclusive frame that can promote feminist identification by sharing personal motives for and stories about being a feminist. Although critics dismiss the potential of hashtag activism due to its ephemeral nature, I argue that #iamafeminist—which I call the “mother tag”—was able to persist for three months by continuing to connect with real-time gender issues and by initiating activism against misogyny both online and offline.

Keywords:

• Hashtag activism
• online misogyny
• online feminist protest
• Twitter
• South Korea

Notes

1. Although terms like “flaming” or “trolling” have been used to describe hate speech and violence against women, I prefer the term “misogyny” because they largely fail to communicate structural gendered exclusion since the focus remains on “gendered abuse as the practice of a few, socially marginal individuals” (Tamara Shepherd, Alison Harvey, Tim Jordan, Sam Srauy, and Kate Miltner 2015, 3).

2. There have been other hashtags used together with #iamafeminist, such as #HeForShe or #HowToSpotAFeminist, but these were not spawned by #iamafeminist but used in solidarity with transnational feminist hashtags.

3. Although all tweets are publicly available and accessible, this research will not reveal the identity of Twitter users through an account or username to avoid any potential harm to those who tweeted using the hashtag.

4. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R0ACHJqs2FtYJh42yL436OKUG5ue2tzKvBb-OM5sB7o/htmlview?pli=1&sle=true