Strange Passion: Gore Masculinity in the Digital Age

In 2022, the cyber hell unfolds in South Korea. In a situation where the web hard cartel and welcome to video cases could not be properly resolved, a network of Nth Room Case-Digital Prison-Illegal Gambling Site was formed. Along with this, Hacklers and cybe-wreckers are indiscriminately making money by making sacrifices for people. This is also in line with the generational change of the gangster culture. This essay analyzes the political and economic background that led to the opening of this ‘cyber hell’ and the problem of subjectivity formed therein. To this end, it borrows Sayak Valencia's concept of gore capitalism and names the system in which violence becomes a mode of accumulating wealth in the digital media field as digital gore capitalism, and the masculinity formed as Gore Masculinity. In this case, gore masculinity refers to the concept of appropriating the subject of Endriago in Valencia's assertion to fit the Korean situation, and it refers to the use of marginalized masculinity as a resource while justifying violence. The key here is that there are consumers who consume violence, and there is an online misogyny culture at the birth of such consumers. Finally, this paper introduces the discussion of Trans Feminism as an alternative ethics to gore masculinity.