The ‘escape the corset’ movement has seen women shun cosmetics in protest against gender discrimination, misogyny and unrealistic beauty ideals.
Like many women in South Korea, Bae Eun-jeong never left the house without makeup. She hated her natural face.
Bae’s beauty regimen routinely took two hours, to the point that she’d give herself less time to sleep and eat in order to squeeze it all in before going to school. Even a simple trip to the supermarket by her home took plenty of preparation.
“If I went out without makeup, I didn’t have much confidence. I felt embarrassed that someone would look at me. I hated my face,” the 21-year-old said. “Even if I would only be out for an hour, I would put on makeup first.”
Earlier this year, as she browsed comments on her videos, she saw young fans expressing that they felt “ashamed to go outside with a bare face.”
“(Girls) around me all wear makeup,” one commenter wrote, “I don’t want to, but I feel like I should.” Another said: “I don’t have much confidence in how I look — how do I get more confidence?”
Bae was shocked to see girls as young as 13 worrying about their appearance. The comments made her question her social responsibilities.
In response, she posted a video titled “I am not pretty,” in which she applied and removed makeup while sharing hateful comments she had received in the past, such as, “A pig is wearing makeup” or “If I had her face, I’d commit suicide.” At the end of the video, she smiles and tells viewers “it’s OK not to be pretty.”
“I posted the video because I wanted more women to be free from oppression,” Bae said. “I wanted to share that you don’t need to change yourself because of how other people see you.”
Today, Bae is among a growing number of women challenging South Korean attitudes toward beauty as part of a feminist movement known as “escape the corset.”
The movement’s name evokes the time when feminists protested the 1968 Miss America beauty pageant by throwing away bras, hairspray, makeup, girdles, corsets, false eyelashes, high heels and other items they saw as symbols of oppression.
