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To publicly declare that one is a feminist in contemporary South Korea yields a certain stigma and risk, a phenomenon that has drawn sustained and marked attention from international media and scholarly communities. The contemporary wave of feminism in South Korea for the past decade has been met with a strong misogynistic backlash in both online and offline spaces, with cases of femicide, digital and physical violence, a rise in digital sex crimes utilizing emerging technologies, and other cases of gender-based violence. One might ask: What reasons do instigators of misogynistic violence cite as justification for their violence? In this short piece, I point to a few contemporary moments in South Korean politics and discourse to argue that violent misogynistic acts frame feminism as symbolically violent, therefore deserving of physical and material violence in retaliation. Violent misogyny, which comes in forms of physical, sexual, material, or financial harm via misogynistic logics, operates by justifying its violence in pointing to the supposed violence of feminism that “attacked” men “first.” The catch, of course, is that the violence of feminism is but a challenge against heteropatriarchy and hegemonic masculinity, or the institutionalization of heteronormative patriarchy and the ideology of masculinity embedded within social norms, systems, and logics. Misogyny interprets feminism as a challenge to these systems and, therefore, as aggression. It turns to “reciprocate” with magnified acts of violence, actively threatening women and gender minorities’ safety. Violence, therefore, operates as both a rhetorical and material tool to uphold existing cultures and structures of heteropatriarchy and misogyny.

Brazilian Black councilwoman Marielle Franco was assassinated in March 2018 by Rio de Janeiro’s right-wing militia. Born and raised in Rio’s Favela da Maré, Franco ran for city council in 2016 on an explicitly queer Black feminist platform that centered on working-class concerns, especially of Black women. Her supporters spanned from working-class favela voters to college students and progressives of various ages from different parts of the city. Once elected, Franco became a vocal critic of state-sponsored violence in Rio’s favelas, shedding light especially on the extrajudicial killings performed by Rio’s military police and associated militias. She was fatally shot on her way home from a Black feminist circle event, and just a few days after denouncing the slaughter of Black youth by the police in Rio’s neighborhood of Acari. Two former police officers connected with Rio’s militias were arrested the following year for the shootings; years later, two politicians from Rio, along with then head of Rio's Civil Police, were arrested for ordering her killing. Crucially, the years following Franco’s death, which went unsolved for over five years, became a defining moment in Brazil, when the country was called on to reckon with the pervasiveness of racist gendered violence in Brazil’s political life.

This essay bridges three moments of Brazilian history and politics: first, we connect the Brazilian historical and cultural context to Franco’s ascension and subsequent murder; second, we examine how Franco’s death worked as a reminder of the country’s violent colonial past amid contemporary right-wing violence. Third, we discuss how Franco’s memorialization has served as a catalyst for organized Black feminist praxis in Brazil. Despite continuous brutal backlash endured by Black women in the Brazilian public sphere, Franco’s legacy prevails. This essay furthers critical perspectives of intercultural communication arguing that gendered violence is a continuation of colonial practices. At the same time, we also highlight that the relentless feminist work by Black women from Latin America is a site of decolonial knowledge that deserves scholarly attention.

Public support for science is critical to managing emerging societal risks, particularly in contested scientific issues involving moral tensions. Incorporating moral concerns into persuasive messages may therefore represent a promising strategy for strengthening such support. Drawing on moral foundations theory, this study examined how moral framing shaped public support for science through two online experiments with U.S. adults across distinct risk contexts. In the context of agricultural biotechnology, Study 1 (N = 405) found that individualizing moral framing increased perceived message credibility and, in turn, support for agricultural biotechnology compared to binding moral framing. Study 2 on future pandemic preparedness (N = 218) further demonstrated that individualizing moral framing enhanced message credibility, which heightened moral engagement and subsequently increased support for federal spending. However, this serial mediation emerged only among individuals low in binding moral foundations. Theoretically, these findings advance moral foundations theory by identifying credibility and moral engagement as key mechanisms underlying the persuasive effects of moral framing. Practically, the results highlight the value of tailoring science and risk messages to audiences’ moral values to strengthen public support for science in contested risk contexts.