A deaf person in a webtoon was ordering one of her favorite snacks. She asked how much the snack costs, and thought that the snack was quite expensive, so she decided to eat just one snack. The problem of the scene was that her thought was written with the dull language of deaf people that people often think of. However, real hearing-impaired people do not think like that.

▲ A deaf character thinking with dull languags

The woman in the webtoon scripted not only to use dull languages, but she also acted weird so that people think it is enjoyable, and it is what deaf people act like. Many internet users including disabled people criticized the webtoon artist Gian84, and also the human right group for the disabled called Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination. They said that it is a violation of the law against disability discrimination act. He apologized of his act and modified the scene. This if a part of his written apology: "I was criticized for my portrayal of characters such as gender, disability, and special occupation groups. I exaggerated and described the characters in the wrong direction in order to make my work enjoyable. I'll be more careful in the future. I'm really sorry. I apologize again." However, there are no coreection has been made to any problem scenes except the scene that have recently become an issue. Also, we can see that he thought disabled people acting weird is funny.

▲ Before/after of modified scene

▲ The original text of written apology

After this, more peoblems are discovered from his webtoon, such as sexual objectification against a woman character, people who is screaming to a deaf character, caricaturing a dating abuse, and scenes that inciting hatred against a foreign worker. None of these problems are modified. Moreover, the meaning of his nickname became a problem because he introduced the word "Gian" as the place he was born, and he said it was a city of beautiful paddy-nails and missing woman. In fact, it was a serial murder cases against woman.

Gian84 is not just a webtoon artist. He is also an entertainer in a TV program, "I Live Alone". As his written apology is encountered to be a half-apologize, many users of SNS are saying that he has to be more responsible and also demanding to resign from the TV show. Therefore, he should examine himself so that the will never draw the scene again which is discriminating second-class citizens.

May 19th, 2019

by Lee Yeonseo