Short Hair, Don’t Care! South Korea’s Olympic Archer An San Criticized For Her Haircut

Male chauvinists launched a campaign to humiliate An San, a 20-year-old archer. Instead of giving in, she won another gold. 

When South Korean archer An San won three Olympic gold medals in Tokyo, what greeted her back home wasn’t just praise. There was a flood of criticism as well.

What triggered a barrage of misogynistic hate against Korean gold medalist An San? She had short hair!

 “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.”

As BBC reported, An was labeled a feminist – a loaded term in South Korea often associated with being a man-hater.

According to Reuters, there are several politicians and celebrities who stood by An San by uploading pictures of their short haircuts on social media.

“With that firm look, please shoot through every prejudice in the world as we stand by your short-cut hair and support you,” Sim Sang-jung, a lawmaker from the minority Justice Party, posted on Twitter.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in also released a statement on social media to congratulate An San for her success in the tournament and demonstrated his support towards the archer.

Congratulations and thank you to An San for showing us the greatest game.

An’s win was celebrated to K-pop band BTS’s song “Permission to Dance” and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung, who heads the Korea Archery Association.

When she talked to reporters her coach intervened and told them not to ask questions unrelated to the competition. She herself refused to answer a question about online bullying.

An San was born on 27 February 2001. She is a South Korean archer competing in women’s recurve events. She won three gold medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in the women’s team, mixed team, and Individual events, becoming the first archer in Olympic history to do so at a single Games. She made her international debut at the 2019 Archery World Cup Berlin, winning gold in the women’s recurve event. An has been subject to online harassment from Korean anti-feminists who criticize her short haircut and her enrollment at Gwangju Women’s University.