[Newsmaker] Lookist evaluation of Yoon’s spouse raises eyebrows

Left-leaning figures have come under fire for making comments about Kim Keon-hee’s appearance, with some calling the remarks “misogynous.”

The latest comments on Kim, the wife of People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, came after she publicly apologized for embellishing her career history.

On Wednesday, former lawmaker Sohn Hye-won once again took to social media to comment on Kim’s makeup and facial expressions when she delivered the apology.

Sohn posted on Facebook captured footage of Kim delivering her apology, and wrote, “(Kim) put on too much makeup and blush on her cheeks, highlighting her flushed cheeks. She is putting on her timid smile at moments. Is this the attitude of apologizing?”

Weeks before, Sohn had also posted on social media two photographs of Kim -- one from years before alongside a more recent one -- implying Kim had received plastic surgery.

“I had known that (her) face changed, but looking closely, I see her irises have gotten bigger,” Sohn wrote.

Left-leaning prosecutor Jin Hye-won, who commented on Sohn’s Facebook post, also talked about Kim’s looks, saying, “(Kim’s) lower chin is made to protrude slightly. I believe she shows a good example of plastic surgery that can raise the feminine attraction and self-esteem.”

Some found Sohn’s comments inappropriate and said they were “disappointed” in the lawmaker. One user on social media wrote, “Judging, or making others judge a person by their looks in a footage is unusual of you to say. Why don’t you just say you hate her?”

“I am disappointed that a person who served as a lawmaker of the country can say these things and get away with it,” Kim Yu-mi, an office worker in Seoul, told The Korea Herald.

“It is dispiriting because it feels like society is agreeing to the vulgar culture of body shaming.”

The comments from the liberal figures also took flak from both sides of the aisle.

Shin Ji-ye, a feminist politician who recently joined Yoon’s campaign team, condemned the remarks as “misogynous.”

“As a feminist, I think these face-shaming comments are much more hideous,” Shin said in a radio interview Wednesday.

“This is what degradation of women and misogyny is.”

The spokesman from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, standing across the aisle from the conservative People Power Party, also labeled the remarks from the liberal figures as “shameful.” 

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)