How South Korean YouTube star Jaejae pricked the fragile male ego
- Amid a flare up of tensions over gender equality, thousands have demanded the entertainer be banned from TV after she made what some saw as a ‘little penis’ gesture
- Anger and insecurity over adverts featuring Vienna sausages and chicken drumsticks – and the re-emergence of the Man of Korea group – shows how a little gesture can inflate into a big problem
Yet all it took for this bubble to burst was the tiniest of pricks.
Jaejae’s fall from grace came at what should have been one of her proudest moments, when she was being photographed on the red carpet of the prestigious Baeksang Arts Awards in May. JaeJae had been nominated as best female entertainer, but instead of leaving with a trophy she left behind a national controversy as she posed for the cameras.
With what some (mostly male) observers claimed was a knowing glint in her eye, Jaejae – whose real name is Lee Eun-jae – pinched her thumb and index finger together around a small piece of chocolate and lifted it to her lips. Cue wild ejaculations of outrage from angry men on the internet, as it was claimed that Jaejae was in fact mimicking a feminist hand signal meaning “small penis”.
Since then, more than 91,000 people have signed a petition demanding the president’s office ban Jaejae from appearing on television on the grounds that her actions and past speeches reveal her misophallist (literally: a hatred of all things with penises) nature.
