SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Ji-yeon knew she wanted plastic surgery when she was 7. For the next 13 years, she destroyed photos of herself until her parents paid for double jaw surgery, a procedure that requires breaking the jaw to realign it.
韓國首爾——金志妍(Kim Ji-yeon,音)7歲時就知道她要做整形手術(shù)。在接下來的13年里,她不斷毀掉自己的照片,直到她的父母出錢讓她做了雙頜手術(shù),這是一種需要將頜骨切斷然后調(diào)整位置的手術(shù)。
Then Ms. Kim started to question why she devoted so much — $200 a month and two hours a day, she calculated — to her appearance. She cut her hair short. Then she crushed her makeup into pieces.
后來,金志妍開始對自己為什么在外表上花這么多錢產(chǎn)生了懷疑,按她的計算:每個月200美元、每天兩個小時。她把頭發(fā)剪短了。之后,還把自己的化妝品也都處理了。
Ms. Kim, 22, is one of a growing group of South Korean women rebelling against their society’s rigid beauty standards — a push they call “Escape the Corset.” Inspired in part by the global #MeToo movement, which has shaken up politics and society in South Korea’s deeply patriarchal culture, the women are challenging long-accepted attitudes about plastic surgery and cosmetics in one of the world’s most beauty-obsessed capitals.
現(xiàn)年22歲的金志妍是越來越多反抗社會嚴格審美標準的韓國女性之一,她們稱之為“脫下束身衣”。全球“#我也是”(MeToo)運動震撼了韓國高度父權(quán)文化下的政治和社會,這些女性部分受此運動的啟發(fā),在世界上最癡迷美容的首都之一,她們正在挑戰(zhàn)人們長期以來所形成的對整形手術(shù)和化妝品的態(tài)度。
“Misogyny is more extreme in South Korea, and the beauty industry has made it worse,” said Ms. Kim.
“韓國的仇視女性更極端,美容業(yè)讓這種情況雪上加霜,”金志妍說。
Beauty is big in South Korea. It has the world’s highest rate of cosmetic surgery per capita, and it keeps rising. It has become a destination for nip-and-tuck tourism. The beauty market — cosmetics and facial care products like masks — generated $13 billion in sales last year, according to Mintel, making it one of the world’s top 10 beauty markets.
美容在韓國很火。它擁有世界上最高的人均整容手術(shù)率,而且這個數(shù)字還在不斷上升。它還成為了整容手術(shù)旅游的一個目的地。據(jù)英敏特(Mintel)的數(shù)據(jù),韓國的美容市場——化妝品和面膜等面部護理產(chǎn)品——去年創(chuàng)造了130億美元的銷售額,使其躋身世界十大美容市場。
While men are an increasing part of the market, the beauty pressure is aimed mostly at women. K-pop stars who often get extensive cosmetic surgery are held up as the standard. YouTube celebrities with millions of followers offer elaborate tutorials on how to apply makeup. Women are bombarded with ads across buses, in subways and on TV.
雖然這個市場中男性的比例越來越大,但美容的壓力主要還是針對女性。那些通常做過大量整容手術(shù)的韓國流行音樂明星們被當成美的標準。擁有數(shù)百萬粉絲的YouTube名人,向人們提供如何化妝的詳細教程。在公共汽車、地鐵和電視上,女性到處受到這類廣告的轟炸。
“Born pretty?” reads one in the Seoul subway. “That’s a big fat lie.”
“天生漂亮?”首爾地鐵里的一幅廣告這樣問道。“那是一個彌天大謊。”
“We go through 12 steps just to put on the basic products before we even apply makeup,” said Ms. Kim. “That basically defines the problem.”
“我們在化妝之前,先要經(jīng)過涂抹基本產(chǎn)品的12個步驟,”金志妍說。“這基本上定義了問題的所在。”
Women are now pushing back. This summer, tens of thousands gathered to protest against sexual assault, the proliferation of spy cameras taking voyeuristic videos of women and the harsher standards they face in other aspects of society, from beauty to the law.
女性現(xiàn)在開始反擊。今年夏天,成千上萬人參加集會,抗議性侵犯,抗議拍攝窺淫視頻的隱蔽攝像頭數(shù)量激增,抗議女性從美容到法律等社會其他方面所面臨的更嚴酷標準。
Political and economic disparities fuel the anger. South Korea’s wage gap is the highest among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Women hold just one-sixth of the seats in the National Assembly and one-tenth of corporate management positions.
政治和經(jīng)濟上的不平等加劇了這種憤怒。在經(jīng)濟合作與發(fā)展組織成員國中,韓國的工資性別差距是最大的。女性只擁有國民議會六分之一的席位,以及十分之一的企業(yè)管理職位。
“The intensity of feminism in South Korea is stronger than in other countries because women really are not part of the political and economic leadership,” said Yunkim Ji-yeong, an assistant professor of feminist philosophy at the Institute of Body and Culture at Konkuk University.
“韓國女權(quán)主義的強度比其他國家大,因為韓國女性真的不屬于政治和經(jīng)濟領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層,”建國大學(xué)身體與文化研究所的女權(quán)主義哲學(xué)助理教授尹金智永(Yunkim Ji-yeong,音)說。
In that environment, Escape the Corset has found an audience.Bae Eun-jeong, known as Lina Bae, was a YouTube star who gave beauty tutorials. After hearing about the anti-corset movement earlier this year, Ms. Bae, 21, took a closer look at the comments on her YouTube channel. Many were from young girls who said makeup gave them the courage to go to school.
“脫下束身衣”運動在這種環(huán)境中找到了受眾。裴殷貞(Bae Eun-jeong,音),也就是裴莉娜(Lina Bae),是教人如何化妝的YouTube名人。今年早些時候,聽說了“脫下束身衣”運動后,現(xiàn)年21歲的裴莉娜仔細讀了別人在自己YouTube頻道的留言。許多評論來自年輕女孩,她們說化妝給了她們上學(xué)的勇氣。
“I realized there was something very wrong,” said Ms. Bae. “I wanted to do a new kind of video to tell them that it’s O.K. not to make yourself up.”
“我意識到這里有一個很大的錯誤,”裴莉娜說。“我想做一個新的視頻,告訴她們不化妝也沒關(guān)系。”
In June, Ms. Bae uploaded a video in which she goes through the laborious process of applying creams, foundation, eyeliner and fake eyelashes. A series of simulated messages like those she has received in the past scroll across the screen. One says: “Your eyes are freaking uneven.” Another one: “I would kill myself if I were you.”Then she takes off all the makeup and tells the viewer, “Don’t be so concerned with how others perceive you. You’re special and pretty the way you are.”
今年6月,裴莉娜上傳一段視頻,視頻中,她過了一遍涂霜、上粉底、描眼線、戴假睫毛的耗時費力過程。同時,幾條與她以前收到的評論類似的信息在屏幕上滾過。一條說:“你的眼睛特別的不對稱。”另一條說:“我要是你,我會殺了自己。”然后她在視頻中卸掉了所有的妝,對觀眾說,“別太在意別人怎樣看你。你本來的樣子就很特別、很漂亮。”
The video has been watched 5.5 million times. Ms. Bae’s YouTube followers jumped to nearly 147,000 from 20,000. A publisher asked her to write a book. She has since cut her hair short and stopped wearing makeup, saving nearly $500 a month. Now her videos focus on cooking and sharing ideas.
這段視頻被觀看了550萬次。裴莉娜在YouTube的粉絲從2萬猛增到近14.7萬。一個出版商邀請她出書。她從那時起剪了短發(fā),不再化妝,每月省下近500美元?,F(xiàn)在,她的視頻集中在烹飪和分享想法上。
Cha Ji-won, a video content creator at an urban renewal company, joined the movement earlier this year and created her own YouTube channel, which now has 30,000 followers. Ms. Cha, 22, once thought that spending as much as $700 on makeup each month was not enough. Now she has turned her makeup into slime to play with.
車智元(Cha Ji-won,音)在一家城市改造公司做視頻內(nèi)容,她于今年早些時候加入到這場運動中來,并創(chuàng)建了自己的YouTube頻道,目前已有3萬個粉絲。現(xiàn)年22歲的車智元曾認為,每月高達700美元的化妝品開支還不夠多?,F(xiàn)在,她把自己的化妝品拿來玩。
“They are sort of like toys, like crayons,” said Ms. Cha. She used to feel like a second-class citizen, she said, but now that she has stopped wearing makeup “people listen to me when I say things.”
“它們有點像玩具,像是蠟筆。”車智元說,以前曾覺得自己像個二等公民,但現(xiàn)在不再化妝后,“我說話時人們會聽。”
The movement has sparked an ugly backlash.
這場運動也引發(fā)了惡意的反彈。
Ms. Bae, Ms. Kim and Ms. Cha, who all have bowl haircuts characteristic of the movement, say they have become targets of verbal abuse and death threats. Ms. Kim was told by two prospective bosses that she did not look feminine enough. Feminists talk about their peers “coming out” publicly because many prefer to stay anonymous.“The violence against people who leave the mainstream path is very intense in South Korea compared to other countries,” said Seo Sol, 26, who has a YouTube talk show about feminism called “Because There Is Too Much to Say.”
留著運動式短發(fā)的裴莉娜、金志妍和車智元說,她們都成為了謾罵和死亡威脅的目標。金志妍去求職的兩家公司老板對她說,她看上去不夠女性化。女權(quán)主義者談?wù)撈鹚齻兊倪@些同路人時會用公開“出柜”這樣的字眼,因為許多人希望保持匿名。“與其他國家相比,針對離經(jīng)叛道者的暴力在韓國要強烈得多,”26歲的徐雪(Seo Sol,音)說,她在YouTube上有一個關(guān)于女權(quán)主義的脫口秀節(jié)目《因為有太多的話要說》。
Yim Hyun-ju has experienced the criticism. The 33-year-old anchor at Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, a national broadcaster, decided to wear her glasses on her morning news show on April 12. Her fake eyelashes were making her eyes so tired that she was going through a bottle of artificial tears every day.
任鉉珠(Yim Hyun-ju,音)經(jīng)歷過這種批評。韓國文化廣播公司這位33歲的主持人決定在4月12日的早間新聞中戴上眼鏡。假睫毛讓她的眼睛很難受,每天要用一瓶人工淚液來緩解。
It became an online sensation. “I did not think it would become news,” Ms. Yim said.
她的做法在網(wǎng)上引起了轟動。“我沒想到那會成為新聞,”任鉉珠說。
Ms. Yim’s producers reproached her. Viewers wrote to complain. But women came up to her in public to thank her. Now Ms. Yim wears her glasses from time to time, an act that she says sends viewers a message to judge her based on her competence and not her appearance. But she doesn’t want to be identified as part of any movement.
任鉉珠的制作人責備了她。觀眾們寫信投訴。但也有女性在公共場合走到她面前來感謝她。現(xiàn)在, 任鉉珠會時不時地戴上眼鏡,她說,帶眼鏡的做法向觀眾傳遞了一個信息,讓他們根據(jù)她的能力而不是外表來評判她。但是她也不希望別人認為她是任何運動的一部分。
“If I could act freely, I would apply makeup less,” Ms. Yim said.“But I’m stuck between my mind and heart, which says one thing, but there is the reality of my job,” she added.
“如果我能自行選擇的話,我會少化妝,”任鉉珠說。“但我陷入了理性和感性之間的糾結(jié),感性告訴我一種東西,但我有我工作的現(xiàn)實,”她補充道。
Many women in the anti-corset movement credit their actions as having had a small impact on the makeup industry. One recent ad, for the Missha cosmetics brand, features a short-haired model and one with freckles. “Get out, expose your flaws and follow your own standards rather than others’,” it says. Still, they note, the women in the ad largely stick to Korean beauty standards — and the women are wearing makeup.Kim Hong-tae, a spokesman for Able C&C, which owns the Missha brand, said the ad was meant to convey “that there is no predetermined standard of physical appearance.”
許多參加“脫下束身衣”運動的女性說,她們的做法已對化妝品行業(yè)有了小小的影響。化妝品牌謎尚(Missha)最近的廣告啟用了一個留短發(fā)、有雀斑的模特。廣告說,“走出去,把你的缺陷露出來,聽從自己而非別人的標準。”盡管如此,人們指出,這個廣告中的女性在很大程度上仍遵循韓國的審美標準——廣告里的女性都化了妝。謎尚品牌所有者Able C&C的發(fā)言人金弘斗(Kim Hong-tae,音)說,那個廣告要傳達的信息是,“沒有預(yù)先確定的形象標準。”
And the social pressure to wear makeup and have a small, heart-shaped face is still strong. Im Soo-hyang stars in a Korean drama called “My ID is Gangnam Beauty,” about a young woman who has plastic surgery and grapples with image issues. The name refers to the upscale Gangnam district in Seoul, where plastic surgery clinics line the streets.“I can’t say I’m free from being conscious about people paying attention to me because of the nature of my job,” Ms. Im said during an interview at a hair salon in Gangnam. “Look at me. I have my hair done, I’m wearing makeup, I have my nails done and I’m wearing pretty clothes.”
要化妝、要有一個心形小臉蛋的社會壓力依然很強大。林秀香在韓劇《我的ID是江南美人》中擔任主演,該劇講的是一個年輕女性做整形手術(shù)努力解決自己的形象問題。劇名中的江南是首爾的一個高檔住宅區(qū),那里的街頭到處都是整形醫(yī)院。“我不能說,我不用在乎人們因為我工作性質(zhì)的緣故對我的關(guān)注,”林秀香在江南一家美發(fā)沙龍接受采訪時說。“看看我吧。我做頭發(fā),我化妝,我做指甲,我穿漂亮的衣服。”
She smiled, then added, “I cannot be liberated.”
她笑了笑,然后補充說,“我不能被解放。”