Seoul to hold anti-beauty pageant festival

SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- Mocking the standard yardstick for women's beauty and
the lingering patriarchy in South Korea's Confucian society, an anti-Miss Korea
festival is set to open in Seoul Saturday, organizers of the event said on their
Web site.

Changing this year's title to the "IF Festival" from "Anti Festival," the event
will be hosted by female director Byun Young-joo and will feature various
performances and lectures on female solidarity, survival and more.
Former singers with the Korea National Opera who were laid off without insurance
or retirement pay will open the festival with the ballad "Flower Selling Girls."
Other performances will include the skit "Paradise of Their Own," which satirizes
the uglier side of Korean society that led to the suicide of actress Jang
Ja-yeon, who was allegedly forced to offer sexual favors to high-powered
entertainment figures.
More lighthearted performances will include a group of 50-something women dancing
to Abba's "Waterloo."
The first anti-Miss Korea festival opened in 1999 and played a major role in
stopping broadcasters from airing beauty contests that had once been a favorite
among male audiences for more than four decades. Criticized for commercializing
women and their bodies, the show was taken off air in 2002 and hasn't been seen
on television since.
The 11th "IF Festival" will be held on Saturday from 7 p.m. at Sogang University
in western Seoul. Admission for adults is 12,000 won (about US$9).
hayney@yna.co.kr
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