Criticism Over Ansan Player's Hairstyle
"Are You Ideologically Screening the National Team?" Some Netizens React
Female archery representative An San is shooting an arrow at the Tokyo Olympics women's archery team event held on the 25th at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Japan. / Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] "Why do you cut your hair short?", "Isn't a short cut feminist?"
Some netizens are pouring out criticism toward athletes who participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for the absurd reason that their 'hairstyles are short,' causing a growing controversy. The claim is that "short cuts are likely feminists, so I don't like it." As this fact became known, posts condemning misogyny have flooded online spaces.
Recently, a post titled "Isn't athlete Ansan a feminist?" was uploaded on an online community. The netizen who wrote the post said, "Short cut at a women's university. She meets the feminist conditions," and added, "Am I strange for thinking this way?"
The athlete mentioned by this netizen is Ansan (20, Gwangju Women's University), a female archery representative who won the gold medal in the women's archery team final at this Tokyo Olympics.
Relatedly, another netizen said, "Short cuts from women's universities are feminists with over 90% probability," and "Cases of not being feminist are extremely rare. Regardless of political orientation, I strongly dislike feminists, so I don't support Ansan."
One netizen even left a direct reply on Ansan's Instagram post. When the netizen wrote "Why do you cut your hair?" along with a frowning emoji, the athlete replied, "Because it's comfortable."
This is not the first time a female athlete has been embroiled in controversy over her hairstyle. Shooting national representative Park Heemun also faced criticism from some netizens on the 24th during the women's 10m air rifle event, being called "feminist," "should be filtered out," and "tolerated because she is a national representative," all because of her short cut.
As criticism of national athletes' hairstyles and appearances continues, rebuttals have poured in on some social networking services (SNS).
Body psychologist Han Jiyoung criticized some netizens who make unreasonable criticisms of female athletes by posting on her SNS account on the 25th with the hashtag 'Women_ShortCut_Campaign.'
Han said, "Female athletes are being asked questions like 'Why do you cut your hair?' and 'Are you a feminist?' just because they are women," emphasizing, "More women with short cuts need to stand on stage and be visible."
The campaign started by Han received great support, with over 6,000 participants in just one day. Female netizens posted photos certifying their short cut hairstyles, raising voices such as "Conducting ideological verification of national representatives just because their hair is short," "Obsession is close to a disease," and "I support female national athletes."
Meanwhile, Ansan won gold medals in the archery mixed team event on the 24th and the women's team event on the 25th, becoming the first double gold medalist of this tournament. She is also competing in the individual event starting on the 27th, aiming to become the first triple gold medalist in Olympic archery history at a single tournament.
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