A threshold is a concept used to describe how much influence peer/ general review can have on one’s thoughts and actions. Though not entirely identical, it goes hand in hand with concepts such as mob mentality and the pressure to conform. Thresholds are brought in to discuss why people do not let good ideas influence them, and make stupid decisions instead. Thresholds can serve to explain why, after starting to hanging out with the ‘rebel’ kids, a straight A student stops studying; why an honest, straightforward teen would suddenly drink and drive; why people would go on doing things that seem so unlike them. Why people, despite knowing what they're supposed to do and what is the right thing to do, just can't seem to do it.

 The idea itself has been explored rigorously in Revisionist History; those with high thresholds can keep their own ground among others while those with low thresholds are often influenced by what others may think about their behavior. What I would like to focus on, however, is the online phenomenon that is taking place among the Korean Net Feminists. They have developed a norm of celebrating women with high thresholds while criticizing women with low thresholds, viewing the latter to be trapped in a “corset”.

  The term "corset" has been used online to describe the state of a woman who have conformed to a male oriented society and its set of values and morals. It has been used to describe the "cool girl syndrome", of how women would alter themselves to satisfy men; the cool girls would like sports and games, not care about calories when eating and be laid back enough to hang out with the guys but also be "feminine" and attractive enough to be the object of their desire. From the Manic Pixie Dream Girl to the Cool Girl, Korean Net Feminists has been focused on banishing these ideas altogether while hacking into the underlying mechanism to how these concepts came to be popular. 

 Though every Feminists' agenda may differ, the general idea that the Korean Net Feminists shared could be summed up with certain keywords: rebellion and retaliation. Korean Net Feminism traces its root way back to when MERS first hit Korea. In DC inside gallery, an internet forum, opened up a MERS gallery, male users wrote how MERS was spreading in Korea because Korean women traveled abroad for prostitution. The female users, took over the MERS gallery and changed the name to the now famous "Megalia", a combination between MERS and the daughters of Egalia. Since then, through various internet websites and Twitter, feminism became the hotly debated topic in Korea. 

 Twitter, with its hashtags and incredible ability to spread information like wildfire, became the home of many Net Feminists. One of the hashtags that survived the ever changing internet world is "#이렇게 입으면 기분이 조크든요". It can be roughly translated into "it feels gooood to dress like this". I remember scrolling through my timeline and discovering tweets with this hashtag, often with an incredible number of retweets. Ever since this hashtag became a trend among Net Feminists, the idea of a woman who remains unaffected by Korean society's idea of feminity became much more widespread. The hashtag describes a commonly shared experience among women, of being told that certain attires aren't appropriate because they aren't "feminine" enough. The hashtag became a meme that advocated women's right over one's own body, from choosing what to wear to doing what one wishes to do. 

 One thing I noticed about the meme however, was how certain styles often went ignored. When a selfie of a woman dressed in frilly pastel clothes were tweeted, they garnered less attention compared to a selfie of a woman dressed in revealing clothes, usually dark colored. The tweets that often went viral often had women with high arched brows and red lips-a style that has been considered "too much" or "scary" in Korean society. These tweets would often discuss how they do not care what others, especially men, think about "strong" makeup style. Slang such as "개썅마이웨이" appeared alongside often, which can be roughly translated to "someone who carries on with their own way no matter what", or simply a "my-wayer". 

 Considering how Asian women are stereotyped and often taught to be submissive and docile, it is understandable why women with high thresholds who do not care what men think of their style, behavior, and language, are praised. Considering how twitter, with its low barrier between the Korean users and other international users, might be more open to stronger language and style backs up the Net Feminists' favor towards the "my-wayer". Moreover, many Net Feminists are trying to break free from the "corset", especially the idea that women can't be too obsessive over their jobs and must focus on smiling and being nice. Sharing experiences of how they were forced to make coffee at their workplace or be the "flower" of that office among men, may have fueled the desire to become a woman with a high threshold. As most of them are aware of the discriminations and threats they may face for being a feminist, to retaliate and successfully beat back such prejudice and discrimination may have contributed to the sudden rise of the concept too. 

 Megalia, before it became a website of such controversy, was mainly used to "mirror" misogynic posts on the internet. Now, with Megalia gone, many Net Feminists act as "internet warriors", brutally making fun of misogynists through fact checking and mirroring. As a reaction to Korean Society's pressure on women to be "nice", "submissive" and "docile", the current generation of Feminists seem to have chosen a new model for themselves. Beyonce, Rhianna, or just about any female celebrity with a certain degree of feminist agenda and PCness is accepted and praised into the realm of Net Feminists. The Net Feminists have chosen a model that directly contrasts with Korean society's idea of feminity: a woman with a high threshold, who get things done the way they wish to get it done, no matter what society says.