This T-Shirt Got a Video Game Actress Fired

South Korea dealing with its own GamerGate
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 20, 2016 7:30 AM CDT
This T-Shirt Got a Video Game Actress Fired
The controversial Twitter photo.   (Twitter)

A South Korean actress' voice won't be heard in two video games after people complained about a T-shirt she wore bearing an offensive slogan: "Girls do not need a prince." Not offended? Neither is the feminist network Megalia. Splinter group Megalia4 sold the shirts to fund lawsuits brought by female abuse victims, reports NPR, but the country's male-dominated gaming industry had a different take. Nexon tells the BBC that it "suddenly decided to seek a replacement" for Kim Jayeon's voice work on its game Closers, after gamers complained about the shirt the actress was wearing in a photo she tweeted July 18—and about her allegedly being a Megalia sympathizer. (Her tweets made clear she's not a member, reports Kotaku.) Nexon says it paid Kim in full; her voice also won't appear in game Hero Warz, reports Fusion.

Why such an uproar? Megalia—Korea Expose has a detailed explainer on the "movement"—has plenty of critics. Some members outed gay men who were married to women, a move that even many Megalians opposed, and its logo—depicting the hand sign for small—is seen by some as a reference to Korean penises. Some 300 women protested Kim's firing, with one telling the BBC they were ultimately intimidated by a group of men who called them "pigs." NPR quotes a South Korean columnist as saying more than 80 people in the entertainment and gaming industries "were badgered into issuing public apologies" because they publicly sided with Kim. "It's basically the South Korean Gamergate," said the head of the Game Developers Guild. (A veteran had a perfect response to this misogynistic note.)

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