Students under probe for clues on leaked nude photo
This is a poster captured from Womad, the ultra-feminist site, in which a nude photo of a male model at a Hongik University drawing class was uploaded and went viral on social networking sites.
By Oh Young-jin
Police have collected mobile phones from students who participated in a life-drawing class at Hongik University after a photo of a nude male model was leaked and went viral.
The phones will be checked to discover who took the photo and uploaded it to the radical feminist and anti-male site Womad.
Nobody has refused to submit their phones and no one has admitted responsibility.
The Mapo Police Station is also planning to check the site in an attempt to track down the person who uploaded the photo.
The photo appeared on the man-hate site May 1. The university administration and the student governing body tried unsuccessfully to find the person responsible. They then called police.
The photo drew many comments to the site and some postings mocked the male model's genitals.
The model went into hiding and through an associate expressed extreme difficulty in returning to normal life after family and friends became aware of the photo.
A petition on the presidential website calling for the punishment of the person responsible had attracted over 24,000 signatures as of 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Some who signed up argued that Womad should be closed, saying it has nothing to do with feminism, as it claims.
The “man-bashing” web site remains defiant in the face of an increasing call to have it closed.
Wednesday afternoon, new postings still appeared, one blaming the model for his lack of manhood, while another posted a thread of photos of men in altogether.