Digitalpolis and “Safe” Feminism: Focusing on the Strategies of Direct Punishment and Gated Community

This article starts with the following questions: Why did some digital feminists in Korean society set safety as the number one issue rather than freedom? Why did they come to emphasize gatekeeping communities for women? To answer these questions, the time-space conditions under which they live are defined as the digitalpolis, which is characterized by flowing networks and hybridity, unlike traditional cities as territorial places of homogenization. It is an urban network where the flow of science and technology, people, goods, money, and images are intricately interconnected. Furthermore, this research argues that in a digitalpolis, women experience the fear of physical boundary loss and the anxiety of uncertainty even more than before. In the psychasthenia and anti-intellectualist atmosphere that appears with the fear and anxiety in the digitalpolis, women drive a movement that puts safety first. Based on this, this study insists that some digital feminists try a strategy of direct punishment online to respond to the fear and anxiety, and they form gated communities that strengthen sexual boundaries, maintaining an imaginary identity, such as the biological woman. Finally, this research reflects on whether the strategies of direct punishment and gated communities can guarantee women’s safety.