Miss Se Youn Park1
1University of Queensland, Australia
Biography:
Se Youn is a final year PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, specialising in International Relations. Her research focuses on the regulation of ISIS women returnees in the UK and Australia, exploring how legislation, narratives, and practices shape distinct gendered outcomes for these women. Additionally, Se Youn has a secondary research focus on South Korean politics, particularly the security implications of misogyny and feminist backlash in the region. Se Youn currently serves as Director of Research at WIIS-A Inc., where she oversees the internship programme and the development of research initiatives.
Abstract:
This paper examines the divergent ways misogynistic violence, particularly random stabbing attacks against women, is categorised and addressed in Australia and South Korea. While South Korea increasingly classifies such acts as terrorism, Australia frames them as isolated incidents of violence. This discrepancy highlights critical differences in how states conceptualise terrorism and the role of misogyny as a systemic and ideological motivator. Despite Australia’s relatively progressive stance on feminism, its reluctance to recognise misogynistic violence as terrorism reveals significant gaps in its counter-terrorism framework. Conversely, South Korea’s anti-feminist political environment has paradoxically enabled a broader application of the terrorism label, albeit one disconnected from feminist critiques. Through a feminist security studies lens, this paper interrogates these contrasting responses through comparative empirical analyses of responses to the Bondi Junction Stabbings in Australia and 'Don't Ask' Stabbings in South Korea. It explores how categorisations shape state policy, public discourse, and the security of women in the two states. As a result, I argue for an expanded definition of terrorism to include misogyny as a form of ideological violence. By contributing to the growing conversation on misogyny as terror, this research seeks to inform more inclusive frameworks for understanding and addressing the intersection of gender and terrorism in diverse contexts.