Women’s organization “Stop the ‘pincer hand’ controversy…it drives misogyny in games.”
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Controversy is spreading over the inclusion of a hand gesture symbolizing feminism in game animations and videos such as Nexon’s ‘MapleStory’. Women’s organizations criticized the forced controversy over the “claw hand” gesture, which is a collective misunderstanding of some users.
On the morning of the 28th, the Korean Women’s Association United held a press conference in front of Nexon Korea headquarters in Pangyo, Seongnam, and announced this.
The Korean Women’s Association United emphasized that “within the game industry and game culture, which have been pointed out as serious problems since 2016, there is still rampant ‘feminist ideology verification’, misogyny, and exclusion of women.”
It also pointed out that even Nexon Korea, the most influential game company, is irresponsibly tolerating and promoting such behavior.
It continued, “We oppose the ‘witch hunt of feminists’, ‘exclusion of women’, and ‘misogyny’ that are being promoted like another game, while tolerating the collective misunderstanding of the existence of ‘anti-social feminist forces’ in game culture. We strongly condemn Nexon Korea’s irresponsible and ignorant policies that have caused this situation.”
Prior to the press conference, a post threatening the participants of the Nexon protest rally with weapons was uploaded on internet communities such as DC Inside.
In response, police officers were deployed throughout the scene to prepare for any potential incidents, and the police launched an investigation.
Criticism of Nexon has also been raised in the political sphere. Representative Jang Hye-young of the Justice Party wrote on her Facebook the day before, “The game industry’s censorship of feminist ideology and forced witch hunts against men have gone too far. Instead of apologizing for unjustified male-bashing, Nexon should have firmly prohibited unfair discrimination against workers.”
On the early morning of the 26th, Nexon Korea received a complaint that the “claw hand gesture” performed by a female character in their MapleStory promotional video was intended to insult men and subsequently made the video private.
Nexon stated, “We are opposed to all discrimination and hatred that undermine the positive values of our society. We have taken measures to make the controversial work inaccessible, and we are currently conducting a thorough investigation of the resources for each game that includes these works.”
