[Column] Olympic 'Yeoje' and 'Taeguk Nangja' Should Now Disappear

[Image source=Yonhap News]

"There is a bow mark on your chin... Have you thought about getting treatment?" On the 3rd, after Im Si-hyun (Korea National Sport University) won the women's archery triple crown at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a video interview called 'Chaterview' with Im Si-hyun aired on a major broadcasting station, sparking controversy. The broadcaster even enlarged the mark on Im's chin using video effects. They also asked, "Who takes your girlfriend-style photos (photos that look like they were taken by a boyfriend)?" The reporters did not ask male archery athletes like Kim Woo-jin and Lee Woo-seok, who have similar marks on their chins, about bow marks. The attitude of dismissing the 'glorious wound' that brought the gold medal as a 'scar' was also problematic. Highlighting appearance and femininity unrelated to athletic performance is 'gender discrimination.'

One broadcaster posted a thumbnail (preview image) of the women's archery individual final highlights on their YouTube channel with the title "Im Si-hyun, are you watching An San unnie?" This implied that Im Si-hyun defeated An San (Gwangju Bank), who won the triple crown at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. When criticized for creating an awkward rivalry by invoking a player who did not participate in this tournament, the title was changed to "Im Si-hyun, back-to-back triple crown." During the opening ceremony broadcast, introducing "10 feminists" and translating "feminism" as "sisterhood" also drew backlash. This mistranslation was criticized for reducing efforts to change society to a "women-only world."

Gender discrimination issues have repeatedly occurred in Olympic sports broadcasts. The Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), the broadcaster under the International Olympic Committee (IOC), issued guidelines to the local Olympic production team in Paris to film female and male athletes in the same way. The intent was to avoid discriminatory perspectives by not zooming in on women's bodies. Similar guidelines were issued domestically. The National Union of Media Workers’ Gender Equality Committee released reporting guidelines for a "gender-equal Olympics," urging reporters to check whether they prepared questions they would not ask male athletes and whether they described or evaluated female athletes based on appearance.

Nevertheless, outdated practices were repeated. When reporting on Geum Ji-hyun (Gyeonggi Province Office)'s silver medal in the mixed air rifle event, some media outlets used nicknames like "Mom Shooter," "Mom Athlete," and "Best Mom." In mixed doubles table tennis, Shin Yu-bin (Korean Air), who won the bronze medal, was nicknamed "Ppiyak-i." This nickname came from a chant she shouted during the game that sounded like a chirping noise, but it evokes a "cute and youthful appearance," which has no relation to her athletic performance.

The expression "Taeguk Nangja" (Taeguk Lady) also appeared this year. According to the Standard Korean Language Dictionary, "Nangja" was a respectful term for "maiden" in the past. Using "Nangja" for female archers while not using "Taeguk Doryeong" or "Taeguk Chonggak" for male archers is a biased expression. The same applies to terms like "Yeogung" or "Yeogungsa" (female archer). Since there are no equivalent terms like "Namgung" or "Namgungsa" for males, this is easily understood. "Yeoje" (female emperor) means "woman emperor" and highlights femininity.

Instead of "Yeoje" or "Taeguk Nangja," how about using "Hwangje" (emperor) or "Taeguk Jeonsa" (Taeguk warrior)? The commentary by SBS caster Bae Sung-jae, who consistently called An Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance) the "badminton emperor" as she won the women's singles gold medal and achieved the "Grand Slam," stood out.

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