Renault Korea backlash: carmaker embroiled in misandry row over finger gesture in video
Carmaker Renault Korea Motors is embroiled in a misandry backlash online sparked by promotional content, which has drawn attention to a particular pinching gesture in South Korean society deemed offensive.
The episode underscores deepening gender conflict among the country's young men and women, a phenomenon blamed on high unemployment and the widespread men-only online communities hostile to the opposite sex.
The Korean unit of French automobile group Renault S.A. has apologised and suspended a female employee who sparked the controversy by making the hand signal in a commercial clip.
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Multiple videos reportedly showed footage of the employee placing her thumb and index finger close to each other, a gesture in Korean society used to mock the size of male genitals.
"We sincerely apologise once again to everyone who felt discomfort due to our recent internal promotional content," Renault Korea wrote on its YouTube channel's community bulletin board on Sunday.
"Based on the findings of the investigation, we will take appropriate follow-up actions. Until the committee reaches its conclusion, the individual in question has been suspended from her duties."
The employee in question posted a personal statement on the YouTube channel's community bulletin board over the weekend, saying she "was aware that a certain hand gesture was considered problematic and seen as a hateful move".
But she said she had not expected the hand gesture to be interpreted in that particular way. Her statement was later removed. The company also blocked access to the videos that had been uploaded on Renault Inside, one of its corporate YouTube channels.
Renault Korea said it had launched an internal investigative committee and was also preparing measures to improve content production and review processes to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
The offensive gesture had taken root in South Korea years earlier in response to men's sexist jokes about women's small breasts.
"This incident highlights the severe gender conflicts among the young generation in this country," Consumer Science Professor Lee Eun-hee at Inha University told This Week in Asia.
Such resentment stemmed from women believing they were being discriminated against and passed over for jobs because of their gender, even if they graduated from schools with better grades than their male counterparts, she said.
But men also deal with stress because of perceived heavier responsibilities at work and home, on top of the obligatory military service of between 18 and 21 months in the country, Lee added.
"Preference for boys is still strong in this country, fuelling the gender conflict among young people, as the innumerable male-only online communities where women-hating comments are abundant are also to blame."
Gender conflict in South Korea came under the spotlight in 1999 when the Constitutional Court ruled that extra points on job exams given to men who had completed military service were unconstitutional.
Social awareness of women's rights also grew in the 2000s, paving the way for confrontations.
Last month, a conscript who had joined the military just 10 days before died during a punishing corrective training exercise in which he was forced to run laps in full military gear weighing over 20kg.
When it was reported that the company leader, who was arrested for imposing the excessive corrective measure on the conscript, was female, young men were enraged.
"Only men must serve the military service. We find it harder to get jobs because of the quotas for women. We also have to pay for all our dates, and when we get married, it's our responsibility to find the house," a male user wrote online, as reported by the Chosun Daily newspaper.
"And when we get married ... we are treated like ATMs [by women]," he said. His post drew hundreds of supportive comments from men in a few hours.
But a 31-year-old online user only quoted as Ms Choi by local media countered that in the corporate world, being a man was a "privilege".
"Female employees are subject to daily sexist comments on their looks and harassment, and they are being discriminated against in work assignments and promotions. We are second-class citizens," she told the Chosun Daily.
Renault Korea is not the first company in South Korea to be red-faced over the particular misandry controversy.
Convenience store franchise GS25 in 2021 also came under fire over a similar theme in a promotional poster. Last year, large game companies, including Nexon and Kakao Games, faced backlash for using such imagery in promotional material.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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