When Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar for “Best Actress” for her performance in the now-most awarded film of all time, “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” the Internet erupted in elation, possibly one of the only few times people were united on the web for once–you know, United Everywhere All At Once (for Michelle Yeoh).
The reason why Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan deserved that Oscar win is in this scene alone. pic.twitter.com/fJQVBIaXwF
— hugeasmammoth.films (@hugeasmammoth_) March 18, 2023
Oscar winner Michelle yeoh…that’s all pic.twitter.com/iWHCRUin6U
— Nicolas is happy (@niggaolas) March 13, 2023
Michelle Yeoh watching her Oscar get engraved… oh she’s LIVING HER MOMENT! pic.twitter.com/PspxbBMTdY
— hugeasmammoth.films (@hugeasmammoth_) March 13, 2023
Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian woman in history to win the Oscar award for lead actress, and her win was such an empowering moment for Asian representation in Hollywood. Aside from her award alone, the first part of Yeoh’s acceptance speech also was a moment to remember:
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities. This is proof—dream big—and dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime. Never give up.”
Being the first Asian woman to win the award was already a feat in itself, and it was no doubt that it would be covered globally. However, one Asian news outlet (SBS Korea) particularly censored out Yeoh’s address to the women, and it made everyone mad. Mad is actually an understatement.
michelle yeoh specifically mentioned “ladies” during her oscar speech but bc SBS felt her message “applies to everyone and not just women” they purposefully edited the “ladies” part out and changed the subtitles to make it look like she said “everyone” 🤨pic.twitter.com/TvydkBwx8y https://t.co/Gq7ST3Dn0W
— springkies (@jekkibby2) March 14, 2023
If SBS news believes the message applies to EVERYBODY, they should win an OSCAR of their own and say EVERYBODY in their speech.
This is MICHELLE YEOH'S SPEECH. It belongs to her. Who are they to change it?
Internalised misogyny and misguided entitlement at disturbing levels. https://t.co/irlkw7OP10 pic.twitter.com/f0Qis9ofzS
— its ak yo (@itsakyo) March 14, 2023
SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) cut the clip of Michelle Yeoh calling “ladies” and deliberately mistranslated her message to women by replacing the “ladies” with “everyone(여러분)” in the subtitle from her acceptance speech at 2023 Oscarpic.twitter.com/CX0k6aipa1
— 리톨 (@litol_kim) March 13, 2023
SBS edited out “Ladies” in Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar acceptance speech 😑
Another example of misogyny, alive & kicking
She had said, “Ladies, don't let anybody tell you you're ever past your prime pic.twitter.com/1lPDyhbY41
— (Sara) for Tomorrow (@SaraBangtan07) March 14, 2023
In response to the backlash that they have received over their edited and mistranslation of Michelle Yeoh’s speech, SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) released a statement to explain the rationale behind their actions.
SBS responded by saying, “We excluded the word because we felt that the message, ‘Don’t let anyone tell you you are ever past your prime,’ wasn’t exclusive to women.” Of course, the Internet didn’t take kindly to it.
SBS, korean TV station cut Michelle Yeoh's part when she was receiving the oscar! It's a typical inferior mentality, the Koreans hate to see Asian actors who are not from their country get international recognition and michelle yeoh is chinese-malaysian actor. pic.twitter.com/wmbJCtvICy
— 🥃💍The Brightest Star 🧥💄 (@liliforlalisa_m) March 14, 2023
And to think the great Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian woman to win Best actress at the Oscars and SBS, a big 3 broadcasting service can decide to omit part of her speech addressing women 🙃isn’t better to just broadcast her speech word for word? https://t.co/QLJes2Ofj3 pic.twitter.com/Wvhu84oWN4
— Strawberry Moon (@3viesls) March 14, 2023
South Korean broadcaster SBS accused of misogyny after editing Michelle Yeoh’s Oscars acceptance speechhttps://t.co/IJqqcoTZiC
— The Asian Feminist (@theasianfmnst) March 14, 2023
A Korean outlet, SBS, censored Michelle Yeoh by editing her Oscar speech. They cut the clip and they provided an altered translation of her speech. They removed the word 'ladies' and changed it to 'everyone'.
Just in case y'all are wondering what Korean feminists are up against.
— Not pregnant just eating good.. (@I_Hate_Ted_Cruz) March 14, 2023
SBS News, one of the public channels in Korea, has caused controversy about Michelle Yeoh's Oscar speech because they eliminated the expression "And ladies" in their news. They has just reported Michelee Yeoh sended a memorable messege to "everyone" (not for women). https://t.co/zE2010rple
— 🍤바삭해져버린내루미🍤 (@hannamjaggygo1) March 14, 2023
Quite frankly, censoring out the “ladies” part and translating it to “everyone” says a lot about how the Korean society sees women. And, they’re not the only ones that treat women this way, so it makes sense to call out media outlets that are like this in their presentation of powerful women.
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