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This article explores the connection between the online commentary on the South Korean novel, and later film, Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982 (2016; film released in 2019), and the perception of feminism within South Korea. To capture how Kim Ji-Young’s “meaning” is entangled with popular beliefs about feminism, I analyze audience reception through Kim Ji-Young’s paratexts: (a) tweets and (b) comments responding to newspaper articles mentioning the novel and/or film Kim Ji-Young from the Korean platform Naver. I examine paratexts to reveal that the “meaning” Kim Ji-Young has in online spaces is not determined solely by the novel or film-as-referent. I show that Kim Ji-Young the source text has become inextricable from the mélange of preconceptions regarding what constitutes a “feminist” stance in Korea, ranging from the stereotype of the selfish “feminist” who shirks her maternal duty towards the nation to the discontent of stay-at-home moms. I show that online misogyny has forced those who support Kim Ji-Young’s feminist message to employ what rhetorician Leah Ceccarelli describes as “strategic ambiguity.” This involves simultaneously disavowing Kim Ji-Young‘s feminism while praising the text’s feminist politics, a tactic used to shield themselves from attacks by misogynistic trolls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the South Korean cyberfeminist community Womad, a community currently under fire in South Korea due to its exclusionary politics, i.e., its antagonism towards anyone biologically male and ethnically Korean. In an attempt to go beyond scholarship which focuses mostly on the subversive role played by South Korean cyberfeminism, this paper situates Womad in research on trolling. It also engages in a two-tiered analysis that examines how Womad's origin in trolling was influenced by (a) the South Korean national context and (b) the specific layout of Womad's platform, resulting in a community that endorses identity politics. The analysis reveals how Womad's trolling tactics, its platform, and the specificity of South Korea's national context all interact in ways that results in the counterpublic that is Womad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]