Nexon, a publisher of free-to-play games from South Korea, is replacing voice actress Jayeon Kim in MMORPG Closers after controversy over a T-shirt erupted online.
[Image: Nexon]
On Monday, Kim tweeted a photo of herself in a T-shirt that reads, “Girls Do Not Need a Prince.”
“I don’t need a hero. I need a friend.”
Star vs. the Forces of Evil EP08 pic.twitter.com/79CeIBGVSt— 김자연 (@KNKNOKU) July 18, 2016
As tipster Sang notes, the shirt is apparently connected to feminist Korean website Megalian. (Over on Real Koreans, there’s an explainer on Megalian, detailing its supporters and detractors.)
The shirt caused a ruckus online in South Korea, and today, Nexon announced that it was replacing Kim. The only reasons Nexon gave were, as tipster Lively Duly notes, “relating to the matters under controversy at this moment.” Tipster Sang adds that Nexon carefully uses the word “replacing”, adding that it will be in the process of replacing her character’s voice over the next few weeks.
The shirt, as Sang notes, is apparently for a Megalian spin-off site called Megalian4, and that site says it’s not directly related to Megalian.
On Twitter (via Sang), Kim wrote how she didn’t really have strong feelings about Megalian either way, writing that she simply thought it was a site that fought misogyny. She added that she’s not a member of Megalian and that if she did something wrong, she’s willing to accept responsibility.
The controversy over the shirt doesn’t stop with Nexon and Closers. Another game, Hero Warz, also announced that it would be replacing the voice actress.
[Thanks subtly_stunning for the tip!]
Comments
20 responses to “Korean Voice Actress Replaced Over T-Shirt Controversy”
I eagerly await the comments from the usual weebs on here about how this is a travesty, nothing illegal has been proven, and how universal human freedoms have been destroyed.
“The hand has five fingers, capable and powerful, with the ability to destroy as well as create. Open your eyes, open your mouths, close your hands and make a fist”
Wrong person*
Well be we didn’t have to wait all that long for the anti-weeb who goes the other direction and dismisses the entire situation.
If one appears, the other is always close behind.
I think you need a prince… >.>
Edit: jeffreychl thinks that there is evidence to show that the Megalian members are scum.
That being said it is sad if she was merely not aware of the fact she was buying a shirt from radical leg beards.
Do you know what a weeb is? Your comment suggests you don’t.
By the looks, it now includes anyone who doesn’t have an irrational dislike of Asia.
Plenty of basement dwelling, *feminazi* hating, waifu-pillow clutching examples on this page.
I’ll take that as a ‘no’. Weeb is short for weeaboo, a word from PBF that was turned into a filter on 4chan to replace the word ‘wapanese’, a reference to someone obsessed with Japanese culture (nothing more, nothing less).
So for one, you’re using a term created on a site filled with sexism and racism that you claim to be opposed to (good job); and for two, you’re using the word incorrectly since it has nothing to do with Korea or women or ‘feminazis’.
You really are a fool. Not only are you attempting to pre insult people, in an article that you probably read just so you can throw out an insult in the comments, but more to the point, weebo refers to people obsessed with integrating into Japanese culture. This article is about a Korean voice actress who may have been fired for having feminist views which is just generally wrong. Your use of the internet is dropping the value of humanities collective intelligence exponentially, so please go away; another planet or plane of existence preferably.
As far as I understand (as Korean), Megalian4 was selling those T-shirts to pay for legal council which Megalian members received to defend themselves from charges laid against them, accusing them of various crimes involving assault, defamation and conspiracy, which rose out of hate against the male gender.
The thing is, the voice actress, Kim, had told via Twitter that she had already known of this motive of the T-shirts, but went ahead and purchased it anyway as she thought it was supporting Feminist values.
As you might have noticed by now, Megalian is widely considered a “Femi-nazi” group in South Korea. And this is why there is this controversy happening now. Defenders of Megalian argue their actions merely ‘mirror’ the misogyny to demonstrate the hate women receive in Korea, but critics of Megalian point out it is not mirroring, but more of expression of bandwagon hatred and tribalism forming within their own echo chamber.
Information sorely lacking in the article. Thanks, Jeffrey.
Following what you posted here, I had a look at some stuff to do with them. They sound positively fucking awful and proud of it. I think it’s a shame this woman loses her job over this, but IDK, I wouldn’t want to be associated with that group either as the employer.
thank you for doing Bashcrafts work for him
Poor girl, all this for a t shirt.
I quite like Megalian’s mirroring campaign. These men are just upset because they are unattractive slobs who can never win in life or in relationships. Too bad they are so ugly. Better luck next time fellas! Don’t hate women just because you disgust them. Keep your heads down, stay at home and keep off the internet. 🙂
Not sure if trolling…
I wonder if these companies decided to drop the voice actress on their own volition, or due to a letter writing campaign from people who didn’t like the tweet?
The reaction seems a bit disproportionate, given that you can have people like Eddie McGuire effectively getting away with joking about murdering a female journalist.
I don’t watch anything that has McGuire in it, or I’d probably be petitioning for him to be dropped too. Can’t stand the guy.
I don’t find him that entertaining either, but I’m a bit sick of the PC nature of the world when a joke (even a bad one) gets blown up like it did.
it’s not even because of the shirt. It’s because of the people she bought it from, a radical feminist group that does more harm than good.
http://www.koreabang.com/2016/features/the-rise-of-radical-korean-feminist-community-megalia.html
But then again, Kotaku is a garbage website that never researches what they write about. So I’m honestly not very surprised.