Why South Korean women are reclaiming their short hair

Among the many insults that flew her way, An was labelled a feminist - a loaded term in South Korea often associated with being a man-hater.To get more news about 最新69国产成人精品视频免费, you can visit our official website.

One man said in a post: "It's good she got a gold but her short hair makes her seem like she's a feminist. If she is, I withdraw my support. All feminists should die."

But as criticism of her grew, so did a campaign to defend her.

Thousands of women across the country began posting pictures of themselves with short hair - declaring that it did not make them any less of a woman.

Women in South Korea have long battled discrimination and misogyny but over the last decade have made steps forward, from the country's #MeToo campaign to the abolition of its abortion ban.
Han Jiyoung is the woman at the heart of the short hair campaign on Twitter, and created it under the hashtag #women_shortcut_campaign.

She told the BBC she was troubled when she saw "not one or two, but [many] misogynistic comments [about An] coming up on every male-dominated online community."

These anti-feminists are largely young men, but also include older men and even some women.

"This kind of mass attack... sends the message that men can control the female body and a message that females need to hide their feminist identity," she said.

"I thought starting a campaign for women to [show off] their short hair and to show solidarity to female Olympians would be effective in tackling both issues."

Tens of thousands of images began pouring in - many women showing before and after images of themselves with their long and short hair. Others said An San's hair inspired them to go out and get haircuts themselves.Hawon Jung, author of an upcoming book on South Korea's #MeToo movement, said the two were seen as intertwined after the "Cut the Corset" movement in 2018, where young women challenged long-held beauty ideals by wearing short haircuts and no makeup.

The short hair campaign comes just weeks after another aggressive campaign against "feminists".

This controversy surrounded a finger gesture, which some men claimed mimicked a feminist hand signal belittling their penis size.

The gesture - involving the thumb and index finger pinched close together - was the logo of Megalia, the now-defunct radical feminist online community widely perceived to be anti-male.

Brands including convenience store GS 25 and fried chicken chains BBQ Genesis and Kyochon were forced to remove print ads containing the gesture earlier this year, following boycott calls.