The finger pinching conspiracy theory is an antifeminist conspiracy theory that originated in South Korea. It claims that there is a deliberate plot to spread and promote misandry through symbolic hand gestures, and that radical feminist groups have propagated these hidden messages to humiliate men with small penises.
The conspiracy theory first gained prominence in May 2021 when convenience store chain GS25 published an advertisement with a hand gesture, which faced accusations of allegedly disparaging penises and aggrandizing the defunct fringe group Megalia. The company retracted it and issued an apology. Since then, numerous organizations were met with similar protests from theorists and announced apologies.
Despite contradictory claims and a general lack of evidence, the theory persists; notably in the video game industry, where Nexon led a public allegation against its collaborators. It is viewed as an online harassment tactic employed by antifeminist backlash movements. The theory has been a source of misinformation circulated by internet-based communities and news media.
Claims
According to authors who consider it false, the finger pinching conspiracy theory is based on a belief among South Korean men that feminists are planning covertly to worsen their lives or harm them. The conspiracy theory argues numerous entities have started to plant a specific hand gesture, commonly referred to as the "finger pinching" gesture, with an index finger and thumb facing each other. The hand gesture belongs to a family of handshape known as "precision grip gestures" that involve prehensile motions that depict holding small objects. The conspiracy theory claims this hand gesture, discovered in various South Korean media, is implicitly signaling Korean men's penises are small. The hand gesture is also reminiscent of the website logo of Megalia, a defunct radical feminist movement website. The conspiracy theory claims this is an intentional reference.
Proponents of the conspiracy theory usually claim that radical feminists were successful in infiltrating various organizations. The conspiracy theorists assume a feminist deep state controls the Korean government, especially the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which they claim is an independent agency that implements policies favoring women and encourages misandry. The finger pinching incidents are cited as a proof to this argument.
The place where the finger pinching is spotted as well as the extent to which they can be considered offensive varies between cases. Incidents included theorists associating the finger-pinching symbolism with depiction of hands pointing at mundane items, such as a credit card, a can of Starbucks espresso, or a COVID-19 vaccine. One anonymous conspiracy theorist argued they could differentiate the problematic finger pinching gesture from ordinary hand gesture, because they thought the former contained explicit intentions.
History Background South Korea in the 2020s has been described as having gender inequality in a number of aspects. Multiple authors noted the country has a gender pay gap among the widest in the OECD. In 2021, women made up only 5.2 percent of the board members of publicly listed businesses, compared with 28 percent in the United States. In a 2021 report, World Economic Forum ranked South Korea as 102nd in gender parity. To curb this trend, the Korean government rolled out programs to bring more women into the workforce.
The country is also known for severe gender conflicts. A 2021 survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family found that among the age range of 19 to 34 years, 74.6% of women and 51.7% of men both felt discriminated against in South Korean societies. Around 2020, South Korea saw a rise in feminist campaigns by women, including MeToo movement, the abolition of abortion law, and the claim to short haircuts. Since the 2020s, there has also been an increase in antifeminist Korean men who argue they are victims of reverse discrimination. Reasons given for this belief include: the compulsory military service exclusive to men; dwindling job opportunities; and refusal to take responsibility for the toxic masculinity of older generations. These factors made the men assume they are falling behind their female peers. This phenomenon reportedly led to street rallies organized by antifeminist movement communities, such as men's-rights group New Men's Solidarity. One rally participant argued "[this movement is] about fair competition." In addition, the gender war sparked interest from politics, making attempts at representing these antifeminist men.
In 2015, a radical feminist movement website named Megalia was founded. The website focused on antagonizing men. It became infamous for its logo that depicted an obscene hand gesture, with an index finger and thumb in a pinching motion; this was intended to mock alleged small penises. Megalia shut down in 2017, although criticism of the group and its symbolism has reportedly persisted.
Origin and spread On May 1, 2021, GS25's local retail firm GS Retail sent a digital notice letter to its customers via mobile messaging app KakaoTalk, announcing future promotional events in that month. The message contained a poster for camping-related items, which had a pictogram of hands grabbing a sausage. That same day, a rumor emerged that the picture was an intentional reference to the Megalia logo. There is disagreement on the origin of the rumor. News outlets reported it first appeared on a website called at 10:15, while scholars claimed it started in other website, FM Korea. Regardless, the rumor reached other communities quickly. GS25 responded to the incident before 13:00.
GS25 reacted by issuing apology letters and altering the poster twice that day. Each alteration was reportedly met with more allegations of radical feminist symbolism. Many other elements in the poster were accused of promoting radical feminism or disparaging men's penises. These accusations include: the crescent being the logo of a feminist club in universities, its tagline having an acronym of Megalia's name, the tent resembling a penis, and the campfire resembling a sperm cell. These claims were dismissed by news media as a falsehood. For example, the claim that the pinching hand stands for tiny penises was considered unfounded because the gesture has common and universal use for small objects. In other instance, conspiracy theorists claimed GS25 added the crescent in the poster's second iteration, suggesting it was a new hidden message planted by Megalia user. This argument was debunked because the object was already present in the advertisement's first iteration, only cropped out in certain versions. After going through multiple revisions, GS25 removed the poster altogether and issued another apology on social media on May 2.
Protests continued after GS25's announcement. On May 2, a petition on National Petition to the Blue House was launched to remove the GS25 business chain from the Korea Armed Forces; it received 42 thousand signatures in a day. A boycott movement spread, with supporters comparing it to the 2019 boycott of Japanese products. One GS25-affiliated store owner put up a signboard that supported "equality of outcome and opportunity" and denounced feminism. Members of the New Men's Solidarity protested outside the company's headquarters.
The integrity behind the online backlash was questioned by GS25 officials and third parties. Food industry retailers rejected the accusation and expressed that such incidents would demoralize their business. A person claiming to be the GS25 graphic designer contested the controversy on Blind. In a now-deleted statement, she said she does not support any ideology and her design did not intend hatred for men. Nevertheless, GS25 announced on May 31 that the graphic designer would be disciplined. GS Retail president was relocated to only serving offline business department although GS25 claimed this decision is unrelated to the finger pinching incident. The GS25 incident is commonly referred to as the first publicized case of controversies surrounding the finger pinching.
MapleStory scandal On November 25, 2023, Nexon's video game MapleStory published a trailer, promoting the remastered character class Angelic Buster. A rumor was spread shorly afterward, claiming there was a display of misandry in the trailer, with a character allegedly performing the finger pinching gesture for 0.1 seconds. Finger pinching conspiracy theorists searched for similar gestures in other Nexon trailers, including Dungeon Fighter Online and Blue Archive. The conspiracy theorists scrutinized Ppuri, the animation production studio of the animated trailers. Ppuri had been working with Nexon since 2017, producing numerous trailers for the Nexon video games.
Nexon removed the MapleStory trailer on November 26. The company also reportedly contacted Ppuri on that day and suggested it issue an apology. Accordingly, Ppuri posted its first apology letter at 16:12. The letter stated Ppuri did not depict the finger pinching gesture on purpose, and the company would send Nexon a list of animation frames by the staff that drew the finger pinching gesture. Three hours later at 19:00, MapleStory director Kim Chang-seop announced Nexon would remove all visual works created by Ppuri and condemned the animation studio in a YouTube livestream. Kim said he was against people who implicitly express hatred, and promised Nexon would pursue legal actions against Ppuri. Dungeon Fighter Online director Lee Wonman and Blue Archive director Kim Yongha expressed similar sentiments on the matter. Ppuri's works for those games were removed as well.
Nexon's response was followed by substantial backlashes from finger pinching theorists against Ppuri. A female Ppuri animator was doxed; her social media posts were analyzed and alleged to be confirmation of planting misandrist symbolism. She also received death threats and rape threats. Users of Namuwiki, a wiki website, compiled alleged incidents on a "misandry controversy" article. Ppuri president Jang Seonyeong issued a second apology letter on November 27 in which she promised to fire the animator; this was due to pressure from the theorists and their business relationship with Nexon, which composed 80 percent of their work at the time. This public apology was taken down on the same day. Ppuri later overturned the decision of removing the employee from her position. Jang and Ppuri director Kim Sangjin said that it was unjust to admit to a misdeed the studio has never done, and the director wanted to protect its animators from online harassment.
Nexon's public reprimand of Ppuri was positively received by its associated developers. Nexon union leader Bae Suchan likened the fingers to the English racial slur nigger, saying an expression must be redacted if it can be read as hate speech. When its umbrella organization, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), joined the press conference in front of Nexon's headquarters to condemn Nexon's action, Bae Suchan said they would consider leaving the KCTU because it focused more on political activities than efforts to protect the rights of its members. Supercat, the developer behind mobile game The Kingdom of the Winds published by Nexon, started in-house training that taught its workers not to express feminism in the game and included Ppuri animator's tweet as an example. On Blind, anonymous Nexon employee criticized Ppuri for putting the burden to fix the game on Nexon developers.