New broadcasting guidelines produced by the South Korean government have prompted outrage for suggesting that television programs feature K-pop stars that look too similar.
The guidelines, which criticise the stars as “skinny” with “similar hairstyles and makeup, and with outfits that expose their bodies”, were issued earlier this month by the ministry of gender equality and family (Mogef).
A petition has been submitted to the Korean government calling for the ministry’s abolition on the grounds that it has tried to censor “how female pop stars look”, reported the Korea Joonang Daily. The petition says the ministry was going “down the path of [dictator] Chun Doo Hwan, starting with internet censorship and now appearance censorship”.
Comparisons with the dictator, who ruled South Korea from throughout the 1980s, were also drawn by opposition politicians, including Ha Tae-keung of the minor opposition Bareunmirae party, reported the Korea Times.
Last year, South Korean women began a social media movement reacting against the country’s culture of exacting beauty standards, which suggest women engage in cosmetic surgery and laborious multi-step skin care regimes.
The movement, called Escape the Corset, saw Korean women post makeup-free selfies and videos of themselves destroying their makeup, in a rebellion against beauty norms.