[One Thousand Characters a Day] Insight into Beauty 'Easy Beauty' <1>

Editor's NoteChloe Cooper Jones's essay , which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in both 2022 and 2023, has been published domestically. Chloe, born with the congenital disability 'sacral agenesis,' is a philosopher and a mother of one child. In this book, she presents a fierce and multi-layered insight into the discrimination and prejudice she has had to endure countless times due to her disability. For her, her body was not an 'imperfect body' from the beginning. However, as she was constantly denied and hurt by people around her and realized that she was 'disabled,' Chloe instinctively turned away from it. Instead, she protected herself by pursuing academic and emotional inner beauty and hiding within the words of philosophers. Then, as she traveled to various places, including spaces that had previously rejected her, she sought her own new answers about 'disability,' 'motherhood,' and 'beauty.' Word count: 1018 characters.

A stranger was staring intently at me. I relaxed my shoulders and glanced at him. He was a tall man. With confident and natural gestures, he strode across the exhibition hall and approached me. His gaze was fixed on me. The closer he got, the more strongly I felt bound by his eyes. His two eyes scanned my entire body, then moved elsewhere, then back to me, and again elsewhere, measuring my height up and down without any sign of hesitation. Humans get excited when they see something new. And I am always something new.

(Omitted)

Most people first notice my height. Because I am short. Then they pay attention to my gait and realize that my legs below the knees and my feet are not sufficiently developed, making my body unbalanced. My spine is curved, causing my back to hunch forward. I have a condition called hip dysplasia. It means my hip joints do not fit well together and are unstable. The round, ball-like part of the joint tries to find a socket by grinding the flat part of the bone. Each time this happens, I feel pain and cannot escape it all day long. I hear the sound of pain playing throughout every moment I am awake. I walk by shaking my hips, so my gait sways side to side. If I grew my hair long and tied it up, my hair would swing back and forth like a pendulum. I move slowly. I slow down on stairs, but if there is a handrail to lean on, I can climb stairs. My arms are strong, and not only can I climb stairs, but I can also do pull-ups. Medically, my disability is called 'Sacral Agenesis.' From the moment I was born, I did not have the sacrum, the bone that connects the spine and pelvis. 'Agenesis' is a word derived from Greek meaning something that did not develop or failed to develop. The sacrum I do not have, my missing element.

- Chloe Cooper Jones, , translated by An Jin-yi, Hankyoreh Publishing, 25,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.