Male Contestants Of Korean Dating Show Intensely Criticized For Misogynistic Attitude

A Korean dating show has invited immense criticism from international netizens for the problematic behavior of its male contestants.

The show in question is Strangers In Love, which aired from October 2020 to January 2021. The concept of the show was pretty similar to average dating shows, with 12 men and 12 women spending time together away from the outside world, hoping to find love. A particular section of the show’s first episode has resurfaced on the internet, sparking a heated discourse.

In a viral post on X (former Twitter) that has garnered over 2.8 million views at the time of writing, the OP (original poster) compiled screengrabs from the show when contestants arrived at the accommodation. When a female contestant walked in with her suitcase, all the male participants were seen sitting and chatting among themselves about how, during the previous season of the show, male contestants would help the women carry their suitcases. One male participant chimes in, saying that times have changed.

Despite the walk to the accommodation being a steep ascend and the female participant clearly struggling to carry her own luggage, none of the men offered her help. During an interview session, one of them giddily told the camera that since gender equality is a “thing” now, everyone should suffer equally.

Netizens have broadly criticized the men’s attitude as chauvinistic and bitter.

They go to a dating show and the first thing they do is lost an opportunity to date a woman, just because women's independency hurts their ego. Bunch of crybabies. https://t.co/5yxBOClbTu

— katze🇺🇾 (@tssswift_) October 3, 2024

Korean men want women to be as a skinny as possible and present hyperfem which usually means the girls r physically weak due to their physique then blame it on the girl for not being as strong as their fat asses like gtfo https://t.co/kX7Jbw9KUY

— kerooooo˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ (@kerenyeager_) October 3, 2024

men only want equality if women can suffer from it. the reason why the first things that come to their minds when talking about equality are "so i can hit you?" and "then go to war" is because they hate you https://t.co/M3scmDWuZp

— radfem-ing (@radfeming) October 3, 2024

men will acknowledge equality only when its time to sit in a pregnant lady's seat or physically fight a woman but when its time to take orders from them or be paid equally, they will go into cardiac arrest and act like the world is ending. https://t.co/60PyzUzZXQ

— Sam⁷ (@vanteluxes) October 3, 2024

This particular segment has also attracted significant attention on Reddit, in a thread specifically dedicated to “Incels,” with netizens baffled that helping someone was turned into a gender issue by some of the participants.

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Though the show aired a few years ago, this renewed attention to this particular part has re-hashed conversations about women’s plight in South Korea and the large anti-feminist pushback in the country on the part of its male population.

Meanwhile, Korean men have called for a boycott of an iconic British band for their perceived feminist beliefs. Read more about it here.