Korean women keep short hair after Olympic Gold Medalist An San targeted for her hairdo

Women in South Korea have been reclaiming their short hair in support of South Korean archer An San who won three Olympic gold medals in Tokyo but was mocked for her short hairstyle. Critics flooded Twitter with insults directed at San, who in Seoul, is labelled an avid ‘feminist’ in the sense that the term was wrongly associated with male-bashing in the Korean nation. "It's good she got gold but her short hair makes her seem like she's a feminist. If she is, I withdraw my support. All feminists should die,” a commenter said, launching a scathing verbal attack on the Olympic winner criticizing her hairstyle. But as the condemnation swelled against San, hundreds of thousands of women congregated online in support of the archer. 

Women lambasted male chauvinists on Twitter for discrimination and misogyny as they launched ‘It doesn't make me less of a woman’ campaign. Females registered strong protest against the accusations launched at the South Korean archer calling them baseless and in bad taste. Furthermore, the Korean women made clear that the hate hurled at An San as a "feminist" simply because of her hair will not stop the feminist movements in the country. Amid all the humiliation, the 20-year-old Seoul archer won more gold medals in the games. 

Men filed an official complaint on the Korean Archery Association’s online bulletin board demanding the committee to revoke two Olympic gold medals for the player as she ‘appeared’ like a feminist. “She has short hair and goes to a women’s only college—she reeks of feminism,” a man wrote on the bulletin board. Men in South Korea launched a defamation campaign on 4chan-esque web forums and YouTube channels as the player appeared in her short hair look on state television after her Olympic feat.

On An’s Instagram account, men harassed her to “clarify”  whether she’s a feminist, associating the Internet slang with ridiculing men. Her Instagram was bombarded with “ung aeng ung” and “5.5 trillion” an onomatopoeia linked to unintelligibility and other exaggerations. Seoul’s The New Men’s Solidarity Network launched a campaign to “reverse the feminist-friendly coverage” as they condemned the man-hating sentiment. 

'..To express solidarity to female Olympians'

Meanwhile, the South Korean woman that launched the short hair campaign on Twitter told BBC that it disturbed her to watch "not one or two, but [many] misogynistic comments [about An] coming up on every male-dominated online community.” She said, the anti-feminist campaigners are largely men, hence women have to resort to launch a protest with a ‘short hair’ campaign. "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 in her broadcast statement to the network. In an attempt to express solidarity to female Olympians, Jiyoung launched the infamous campaign. 

Image: Instagram/ssaaaann__22