Mapping the Landscape of the Manosphere within the Analytical Framework of Wave and War

Abstract

In this paper, I aim to adopt two conceptual frameworks as a latticework of perception to read the complex and multifaceted situations in contemporary Korean society. First, I will explore whether the metaphor of feminism as a fluid wave is a suitable analysis for understanding feminism as a complex of various bodies, forces, energies, materials, desires, and thoughts, and how the anti-feminism backlash counters the fluidity of the fourth wave of feminism with the territoriality and solidity of macho tribalism. Second, I will examine whether the spread of material-discursive practices based on misogyny within the male-centric online ecosystem (manosphere) in the backlash against feminism can be read as a gender war. Considering that war is a network of human and non-human assemblages and an entanglement of material and symbolic elements, I will analyze the technologies of the gender war based on misogyny and female antagonism through Michel Foucault’s war model. Through this analysis, I aim to map the current landscape of feminist movements and theories in Korea confronted with the frontlines of misogyny.