I traveled to Pangyo, South Korea’s Silicon Valley, to meet a woman who had worked in the game industry for 20 years. After Darim’s case, her company began editing all its games, removing the fingers from the characters’ hands, turning them into fists, to avoid complaints.
“It’s exhausting and frustrating” to work like this, she said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The idea that a hand gesture can be taken as an attack on men is absurd and companies should ignore it.”
When I asked why they didn’t, she told me that many developers shared the players’ anti-feminist views. “For all those shouting on the outside, there are those on the inside who also believe things are bad.”
Then there is the financial cost. The men are threatening to boycott the games if the companies don’t act.
“Gaming companies think that anti-feminists are their biggest source of income,” Minsung said. After Darim’s company, Studio Ppuri, was targeted, it said it lost nearly two-thirds of its contracts with gaming companies.
Studio Ppuri did not respond to our questions, but Nexon, the game’s developer, and Renault Korea told us that they oppose all forms of discrimination and prejudice.
There is evidence that the authorities are also capitulating to the demands of anti-feminists. When Darim reported her abuse to the police, they refused to take over her case.
They said that since finger pinching was taboo, it was “logical” that she, as a feminist, was attacked. I was amazed, she said. “Why wouldn’t the authorities protect me?”
After outrage from feminist organizations, the police gave up and are now investigating. In a statement, Seocho County police told the BBC that their initial decision to close the case was “insufficient” and that they were “making every effort to identify the suspects”.
The case left Darim’s lawyer, Yu-kyung Beom, stunned. “If you want to say you’re a feminist in South Korea, you have to be very brave or crazy,” she said.
