Is a Woman’s Life Worth 43.7 Dollars? Misogynistic Korean YouTuber Who Threatened to Murder is Charged A Mere 43.7 Dollar Fine
Date of Creation: 8/10-8/13.
A misogynic bias-motivated crime that happened in South Korea on August 10th, 2017. Four to five male YouTubers harass a female YouTuber and threaten to murder her, one of them ultimately going to her (supposed) address on a live broadcast. He was caught by the police but was freed with a mere 50,000 KRW (=43.7 USD) fine.
Motivation for creating this post/blog
I’ve exerted substantial time and effort into this post - so many hours of unpaid labor - and I did not do this for fame, or for the honor. Actually - fame in this field can get me killed.
I did this to pay my part in this world, to do what I can as another female in South Korea. This is not news that is far away from me, literally, and figuratively. I or anyone I know could easily be the next victim…
Things need to change; misogyny in South Korea should not be taken lightly. If you haven’t heard about anything of the sort - lucky you! Start with this article. If you want to learn more and prompt change, please read through everything, or read through the important parts.
When I say “Hannam,” I am talking about “한남” - a slang for a group of misogynic and sexist Korean men that are unaware of their privilege as men in South Korea and of the South Korean society in which females are threatened on a daily basis and not protected by law against misogynistic crimes. “한남” is a slang that shortens “한국 남자” (literally translates to Korean men).
I am not addressing all Korean men, neither am I addressing all men.
The Korean Twitter hashtag related to this is #살인예고남_여혐유튜버_검거해 if you want to find more information.
There is a list of YouTube videos from the offenders at the end of this post (section ‘ 8. How You Can Help: Report, Share, Discuss’), so please, PLEASE, report these videos and reblog this post. Share the link to this article with the people around you. Follow my blog if you want to be informed of misogyny in South Korea. Spread awareness. Contribute to the world.
A handy Table of Contents: 1. A Note Beforehand 2. The Whole Story 3. Sources/Evidence 4. She Deserved It? 5. Victimization of a Third Party 6. The Influence of These YouTubers 7. Reactions from Hannams… Ongoing Misogyny 8. How You Can Help: Report, Share, Discuss
Basically, about 4 to 5 male YouTubers, mainly Shin Tae Il (신태일) and Kim Yoon Tae (김윤태), verbally/sexually harassed and threatened to kill female YouTuber God Gun Bai (갓건배) in YouTube videos and on YouTube live streams, and Kim Yoon Tae actually went to her supposed address to murder her during a live stream on August 10th, 2017.
Through the relatively new YouTube live streaming function in which a viewer can directly sponsor the YouTuber with money, Kim Yoon Tae made a “bet” with his audience. His “bet” that considered a woman’s life as a means of profit was the following. If the audience pays him 100,000 KRW (= around 87.5 USD) he’ll go to her (supposed) address after he sleeps and then kill her, but if the audience pays him 200,000 KRW (= around 175 USD) he’ll immediately go and kill her.
And they actually paid him. Paid him to go and kill her.
Threatening to murder a woman was entertainment to them.
How did he get her address?
Prior to this live stream, Shin Tae Il uploaded a handful of YouTube videos on his channel that verbally abused and sexually harassed God Gun Bai and her mother/family and disclosed the victim’s supposed personal information such as her address, face, and KakaoTalk ID (go to 8. ‘How You Can Help: Report, Share, Discuss’). There was no way for the men to prove that the information was correct, but that didn’t matter to these criminals and their subscribers (read sections ‘5. Victimization of a Third Party’ and ‘6. The Influence of These YouTubers’ for more).
Because she is a she. Because of misogyny. Because of their contempt towards women. Because they want to feel superior towards women. Because she is a she.
How can we be sure? Because during the live stream in which they went to find and kill the victim, Kim Yoon Tae said “그 주소에 갓건배가 살지 않아도 여성이라면 목 졸라 죽이겠다”, meaning “Even if someone else lives on that address, I’ll kill the person through suffocation if it’s a woman.” A women’s life to him is simply a disposable means to obtain a sense of superiority.
Hannams have a history of killing women because they are women. I am not joking. On July 5th, 2017, there was one called Waxing Shop Murder (왁싱샵 살인사건) in which a live streamer said, on camera, that a female waxing shop boss lives alone, describing her in a sexual way. A guy went to the place, attempted rape, and killed her.
The Unbelievable Outcome…
Eventually, Kim Yoon Tae was caught by the police, but the scariest thing is that he was freed with just a small fine of 50,000 KRW (=around 43.7 USD). A mere 43.7 dollar fine! No imprisonment. No jail time at all. No suspended sentence.
Is a woman’s life worth 43.7 dollars?
Translation: “Under the Minor Offenders Act, he will pay 50,000 KRW for causing possible uneasiness.”
(below) August 10th, 2017: YouTuber Kim Yoon Tae “Going to God Gun Bai’s House”: video of him threatening to murder the victim and verbally and sexually harassing her (The uploader isn’t Kim Yoon Tae himself, so do not report the video).
(below) One of MANY news articles reporting this incident:
Translation: “Killing (God Gun Bai) would feel like being freed from Imperial Japan” / “Seongbuk-gu, Seoul.. Wonmi-gu, Bucheon.. I’m going to go kill her”
Links to several source videos from Twitter (do not report these videos):
Kim Yoon Tae threatens to kill the victim by calling this a “chase” and telling her to run away (김윤태: ”밟아 죽어버릴 거야 오늘”): video
Kim Yoon Tae saying that he will go to her house if the audience pays him 100,000 KRW (= around 87.5 USD): video
Kim Yoon Tae telling his audience that he will go kill the victim if the “bet” is met on a live stream (if they hit the target amount of money). The audience is urging on the murder: video
Lee Byeong Wook threatens the victim by saying he won’t easily let her go if she’s caught by him (이병욱: “내 손에 잡히면 너 진짜 가만 안 둬”): video
Lee Beyeong Wook says that even if the address he’s driving to right now is not her address, he’ll keep looking for her. The live streaming is titled “God Gun Bai The Real Chase,” which shows that he is selling this as entertainment… (이병욱: 찾아가는 집이 피해자네 집이 아니더라도 계속 찾아가겠다): video
Read section ‘8. How You Can Help: Report, Share, Discuss’ for a list of YouTube videos by Shin Tae Il to report.
One point that is frequently brought up by Hannams is that God Gun Bai deserved all of this because she was misandrous towards men. Facts do tell us that she has said derogatory things such as how short men should all die as “mirroring” (a term that means copying the Hannams’ words and actions to show that they are misogynistic. This angered a large number of Hannams who obviously do not want to be treated how they treat women, yet they treat women how they don’t want to be treated…) HOWEVER, this certainly does not justify these 4-5 men persecuting and harassing her verbally and sexually, promoting cyber bullying, threatening to go to her house and murder her, and live streaming their way to her (supposed) address.
There is absolutely no justification for that.
5. Victimization of a Third Party
The misogynistic perpetrators disclosed the victim’s (supposed) KakaoTalk ID online along with other personal information, and this caused third party people to be harmed. People with the same name as God Gun Bai had strangers messaging and verbally harassing them. These third party victims stood up to show how this incident had even victimized and hurt people who were entirely unrelated through anonymous Twitter accounts.
6. The Influence of These YouTubers
These YouTubers (/criminals) who verbally abused, sexually harassed, prompted cyber bullying, disclosed personal information and encroached upon privacy, and threatened murder do not have a small fan base. Shin Tae Il currently has 826,000+ subscribers. Lee Byeong Wook has 47,000+. Kim Yoon Tae has had his YouTube Channels deleted multiple times already for varying reasons, but this site shows that his previous channel had 443,000+ subscribers.
Such numbers may not seem big to you, and the extent may be hard to grasp. Let me give you a comparison: former president Park Geun-Hye provoked 1,000,000+ people to be gathered at Gwanghwamun alone to protest for her impeachment. The number of subscribers these YouTubers possess is comparable to the protestors of a president’s impeachment. Now, that is terrifying…
Shin Tae Il’s current subscriber count (below):
Kim Yoon Tae’s previous channel’s subscriber count (below):
Lee Byeong Wook’s current subscriber count (below):
The live stream on August 10th, 2017, in which Kim Yoon Tae went to the victim’s (supposed) address had a maximum of 7,000 viewers. (Yes, there were people who opposed this crime watching the live stream, but there were also a lot of Hannams who URGED ON and even PAID this criminal.)
Title translated as “Going to God Gun Bai’s House,” Kim Yoon Tae’s live stream viewer count (below):
The reason why these numbers cannot be overlooked is that these YouTubers have a big influence on their subscribers and views. For instance, these young viewers, who seem to be no older than elementary students, verbally harass God Gun Bai in a similar fashion to the perpetrators in this video:
Many, many videos similar to the one above were uploaded on YouTube. A news article from Kyunghyang Shinmun portrays the extent (below).
Last August 9-10, 176 (YouTube) videos resulted when one searched “God Gun Bai attack.” Among those, there were 17 videos by children who look like elementary or middle school students. Regarding the fact that there were videos that didn’t have the keyword “attack” in the title, there are probably tens of videos in which elementary or middle school students reproached ‘God Gun Bai’ while revealing their face.
7. Reactions from Hannams… Ongoing Misogyny
Responses to this happening from Hannams were, unsurprisingly, largely aggressive and no better than the perpetrators themselves. If you look at the YouTube comments sections on the videos listed below (read ‘8. How You Can Help: Report, Share, Discuss’), many Hannams believe that God Gun Bai deserved all of this, which is secondary victimization. Many, many other instances of cyber bullying can be found in YouTube videos (read ‘6. The Influence of These YouTubers’), tweets, and comments on other sites.
On one major website that is known as Hannams’ gathering place, Ilbe (short for Ilgan Best), Hannams are continuously scheming to get rid of the victim and to destroy her YouTube live streaming career, sharing and looking for the victim’s personal information, and partaking in the sexual and verbal abuse.
A handful of Facebook pages were created by these Hannams, and these pages are verbally harassing the victim and anyone who (rightly so) views Shin Tae Il and Kim Yoon Tae as criminals who should be imprisoned. These Facebook pages (in the picture below) also keep disclosing supposed personal information of victim and third party victims (read ‘5. Victimization of a Third Party’ for more):
Other responses from Hannams could be seen in news articles. For example, let’s look at a news article from Yonhap News:
“(Seoul=Yonhap News) Lee Hyo Seok journalist = Popular Male BJ (1 person live streamer) live broadcasts himself looking for the self-proclaimed ‘female supremacist’ female BJ’s house to inflict harm upon her, but was caught by the police and fined.”
Yonhap News delivers a wrong message through this summary, romanticizing the criminal as a “Popular” live streamer and demonizing the victim as a “self-proclaimed ‘female supremacist.’” This gives off the wrong impression that the victim deserved the “harm,” which also undermines the atrocity. The news journalist should have explicitly and accurately stated ‘murder threat,’ instead of using a euphemism that doesn’t do justice to the situation.
Numerous cases like this that romanticize the crime can be found while digging for information. So often do news articles focus on the victim rather than the perpetrator: displaying her YouTube name but never mentioning Kim Yoon Tae or Shin Tae Il (in fact, the case is more popularly known as the “God Gun Bai case” than the “Kim Yoon Tae murder threat”), writing about her misandrous remarks but hardly about the criminals’ misogynistic insults. Why? How? Well, many journalists are Hannams, too…
8. How You Can Help: Report, Share, Discuss
Thank you for reading this very long post. Currently, women’s organizations are protesting this incident - denouncing the police who set Kim Yoon Tae free with a mere 43.7 dollar fine. And people informed by the media are also contributing by signing civil petitions. Now it is your turn. Here is how you can help:
List of YouTube Videos to Report… Here is a list of Shin Tae Il’s YouTube videos that abuse the victim. He is using her as a means to gain more views, but apart from that, what he is saying is verbal and sexual harassment. Please report all of these videos:
신태일 [메갈 유튜버 갓건배 적당히 설쳐라]: Him verbally and sexually harassing her for the whole duration of the video.
신태일 [메갈 유튜버 갓건배의 실체]: He shows a cartoon to insult her and even her mother. He fat shames her, calls her a sl*t/b*tch/disabled as an insult.
신태일 [메갈 유튜버 갓건배 엄마를 위한 랩]: A rap for the victim’s mother and the rest of her family. Verbally abusing her is all fun and games for him.
신태일 [메갈 유튜버 갓건배 얼굴 찾았다!!]: Him disclosing the victim’s face on his YouTube channel.
신태일 [갓건배의 현재 심정ㅋㅋ]: Him making fun of her “current state” and verbally abusing her.
신태일 [갓건배야 고소한다고?? 해 X발년아]: Him harassing her even more for trying to sue him.
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