Foreign Media: "Apple Removes Pinching Hand Only in Korea... Appears to Recognize 'Anti-Male' Controversy"

Notebookcheck, an Austrian IT outlet, reports
Only South Korea removed the hand from iPhone 17 Air promotional images

Apple appears to have removed an image from its Korean website showing someone holding the new iPad mini between their thumb and index finger.

Apple used different promotional images for the new iPad mini in different countries. The hand was removed from the Korean website, while it remains in the images on the U.S. website and elsewhere. Screenshot from Apple's official website.

According to Austrian IT publication Notebookcheck on October 27 local time, Apple used images in the United States and China that showed a hand holding the product to emphasize its thin, sleek design, despite the device being just 5.4 mm thick. In Korea, however, Apple used only images showing the device's thin edge.

The foreign outlet said the difference may be related to controversy in Korea, where the gesture of bringing the thumb and index finger together to hold a product has been interpreted as belittling men's bodies.

Men in their 20s and 30s view the pinching gesture as an expression of hatred toward men, saying it is used by radical feminist groups to mock the size of men's genitals.

In 2023, the gesture appeared in a promotional video for the game "MapleStory," prompting the developer, Nexon, to apologize. During the controversy, some male internet users speculated that a female illustrator at a subcontractor hired to produce the promotional material had included the gesture. They circulated her personal information and made insulting remarks. It was later revealed that the person who drew the promotional storyboard was a man in his 40s, not a woman.

The foreign outlet said Apple may have modified the image to avoid unnecessary controversy in Korea, adding that the company had made a similar localization change when it launched the iPhone Air.

When Apple unveiled the "iPhone 17 Air," its thinnest iPhone ever, last year, it posted images on its websites around the world, including in the United States, China, Japan and France, showing someone holding the phone between their thumb and index finger to emphasize its ultrathin design. The phone was pinched between two fingers along its edge, making the fingers appear almost to touch and highlighting how thin it was.

Promotional images, including videos and photos, were posted with the same visuals across domains in more than 100 countries worldwide. In Korea, however, the pinching fingers were removed, apparently in recognition of the controversy.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.