Why does Park In-bee have to be pretty?

By Jason LIm

At 28 years old, Park In-bee is already a legend in the game of golf. She has 17 LPGA wins (7 majors) and just became the first Olympic champion in Women's Golf since 1900. After her retirement, she's pretty much guaranteed a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame at the first available ballot.

By all measures, she's probably the most successful Korean athlete on the global stage. Ever. Cha Beom-geun, Park Se-ri, Park Chan-ho were successful pioneers that inspired millions of future-generation Korean athletes, but none of them came close to Park In-bee's individual success. In fact, Korea might never see an athlete like her again for a generation. Further, she's is fluent in English, articulate, measured, and steady in her personal life as she is in her professional one.

With all this, you would expect Korean companies with global footprint to be knocking down her doors for an opportunity to be associated with her. Not really. She only signed a major sponsorship deal with a Korean company (KB Financial) in 2013, fully five years after debuting in the LPGA.

The reason? Her looks.

Park doesn't conform to the prototypical Korean ideal for what an attractive young woman is supposed to look like. You know the type. For reference, look at any member of K-Pop girl groups. In fact, it has even been reported that other Korean golfers with far less achievement snagged record sponsorship deals ahead of Park because they were "prettier."

Can you imagine if LeBron James got passed over by sponsors in favor of Rick Fox? That's what happened here.

And it's not just looks. It's how she's supposed to behave as well. As Park won the gold medal, a well-known TV personality lamented that "only if Park would be half as coquettish to the general public as she was to her husband…" Left unspoken is that Park doesn't behave the way that a young woman should in Korea.

Admittedly, this is not a uniquely Korean phenomenon. It's been long recognized that athletes are a product that are commoditized and sold through advertisements. And good looks help. Joe Namath and Maria Sharapova come to mind. However, even in their cases, good looks were a contributing factor to their fame and marketability, allowing them to earn more sponsorship money than they would have if they were merely "ordinary" looking; their athletic prowess was the primary consideration.

However, it seems that the contemporary Korean culture places an especially high emphasis on one's physical attractiveness in everything. It's not just the entertainers. It's not even just the athletes. This national obsession over looks permeates the whole society. Recently, a juice bar near Sogang University ran an advertisement for a part-time employee with the stipulation that only those who are confident of their looks should apply. Really? You can't even serve food and drinks if you are not good looking?

Many argue that businesses should be allowed to select employees based on their looks since good looking employees will add to the bottom line. Airlines do it when picking flight attendants. Retail stores do it when hiring employees. Hooters do it when hiring waitresses. This is capitalism, right?

Maybe, but it certainly isn't fair. Especially, discrimination based on looks will impact women much more than men.

According to The Diplomat, the "World Economic Forum placed South Korea at 115 out of 145 countries ranked in terms of economic participation and opportunity, largely a result of the wide pay gap and the small number of female legislators, senior officials, and managers. South Korea has one of the largest pay gaps between women and men's remuneration for work in the OECD. On average, women make 36.6 percent less than men in South Korea."

You don't think that Korea's obsession over looks, especially how pretty a woman is, has anything to do with these damning statistics? You don't think that Korea's reputation as the cosmetic surgery capital of world has anything to do with the cultural message that looks will trump any education, training, or skills that you work hard to acquire?

The Diplomat also noted that, in Korea, "Women occupy only 8.8 percent of senior civil service positions, which is notable because in 2015, 46 percent of those who passed the civil service exam were women."

You don't think performance evaluation by looks has anything to do with this discrepancy? And how does the bottom line affect civil service positions? Government is not out to make a buck. So, how can you explain this statistic?

Simple. Civil servants who are not prettier won't be promoted. Office workers who are not prettier will be fired. Academics who are not prettier won't be selected. Students who are not prettier won't be hired as part-time help. Worse, even if a make it up the ladder, she will always be dogged by the suspicion that she got there on her looks, not her abilities. This is what you get when you allow discrimination of any kind stand: discrimination of all kinds becomes the norm.

Park In-bee is a golfer. A legendary one at that. Her looks have nothing to do with her performance. She shouldn't have to be pretty and act coquettish to be celebrated and rewarded.

Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture. He has been writing for The Korea Times since 2006. Reach him at jasonlim@msn.com, facebook. com/jasonlimkoreatimes or @jasonlim2012.

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