hankyoreh

On Sunday, 32 women in their 20s competing in the Seoul qualifying round of the 2021 Miss Korea competition took to the stage to dance to the music of “Rollin’,” a song by Brave Girls. (YouTube screenshot)

On Sunday, 32 women in their 20s took to the stage to dance to the music of “Rollin,’” a song by Brave Girls. The women were all in shorts or skirts; none of them were wearing masks.

The women danced before an audience of 50 judges and spectators. Some of the audience members were spaced out, but most were clustered together in groups of two to five. The judges at the table were mostly men, with white scoring cards on the table.

The women danced before an audience of 50 judges and spectators. Some of the audience members were spaced out, but most were clustered together in groups of two to five. The judges at the table were mostly men, with white scoring cards on the table. (YouTube screenshot)

This was a scene from the Seoul qualifying round of the 2021 Miss Korea competition. It took place at the building of the Federation of Artistic and Culture Organization of Korea.

With South Korea’s COVID-19 infections climbing to 500-700 a day, disease control authorities are on edge. Despite the circumstances, the Miss Korea pageant is going forward this year.

The Busan qualifying round was held on April 27 and the Seoul qualifying round on Sunday. Qualifiers are scheduled to be held in twelve areas around the country, including Gangwon Province and South Gyeongsang Province, through August.

While it’s disturbing enough that a hundred people – including the contestants, judges, and producers – were all in a single space during the COVID-19 pandemic, the event’s program was even more problematic.

A 10-minute bikini video was screened during the Seoul qualifying round on Sunday. The video showed all the contestants striking various poses in bikinis or monokinis (a one-piece swimsuit with parts of the back and waist cut out).

The Hankook Ilbo newspaper and Global E&B, the organizers of the pageant, had widely promised to shut down the swimsuit segment in 2019 following criticism that it amounted to sexual commodification. But two years later, the bikinis are back.

In video footage, women were seen wearing uniform tops over their bikini tops and holding toy guns. Close-up shots focused on parts of their bodies or their mouths biting down on candy.

The video gave a racier impression than the blue one-pieces that had typically defined the “Miss Korea swimsuit” in the past. Observing the show from the audience that day were nine children’s chorus members from Kids Korea, a competition sponsored by the Hankook Ilbo spinoff Beauty Hankook for girls aged six to 13.

Sponsored by the Hankook Ilbo, the Miss Korea competition began in 1957 and celebrated its 65th anniversary this year. Its long history has been filled with controversy.

Each year, the approach of assigning women scores for their appearance and bodies has ignited a debate over the commodification of sex.

At the main competition in 2019, seven winners from the preceding year participated in a fashion show dressed in traditional Korean hanbok clothes, under the titled “Corsets and Hanbok: A Meeting of East and West.” The “hanbok-corset” combo attracted outrage over the heavy modification of the traditional outfits and the revealing designs.

The logo of Miss Korea

For this year’s event, the organizers relaxed some of the eligibility requirements. This suggested that it was having trouble attracting Miss Korea competition participants due to the heavy criticisms and dwindling interest.

The maximum age for applicants was raised from 26 to 28, and duplicate applications were allowed. This meant that someone who failed to qualify in Seoul could apply again in a different region. A rule requiring participants to have moved to the corresponding region within the preceding 90 days was revised to allow them to have moved there at any time before the day of the competition.

The competition has been losing ground. In 2002, live broadcasts on terrestrial television networks were discontinued. The event subsequently moved over to cable: last year, it was broadcast first on the streaming service wavve, after which the video was uploaded to the portal site Naver and YouTube.

When the Seoul qualifying was broadcast live on YouTube last Sunday, the maximum number of viewers watching the event in real time peaked at just over 600.

The organizers plan to hold the main competition in October. The event’s official homepage includes a notice that the contestants will be arriving for training in September and having the main competition between September and October. The decision on whether to have the contestants stay together for training is to be made after observing developments with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are aware of the ‘sexual commodification’ criticisms, and the head office advised the supervisors of the different regional competitions to refrain from having the swimsuit walks, but we have since learned that a bikini video was broadcast from the Seoul qualifying,” said CEO Jang Seong-hyeok of Global E&B, one of the competition’s organizers.

“While this was not the same as having contestants walk on the stage in swimsuits and being scored on it as in the past, we issued another warning, as it may be uncomfortable for some viewers,” he added.

By Choi Yoon-ah, staff photographer

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]