Michelle Yeoh made history when she won the Oscar for best actress for her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once . As the first Asian woman ever to take home the Academy Award category’s prize, her achievement was widely lauded by fans across the world. However, South Korean public broadcasting station SBS has come under fire for undermining her speech in the interest of “inclusivity”. What went down 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 Oscar pic.twitter.com/CX0k6aipa1 — 리톨 (@litol_kim) March 13, 2023 The 60-year-old Malaysian actress ’ original speech was a moving one that gave a shout-out to all little children, mums and women out there. The line “And ladies, don’t let anyone tell you you are ever past your prime” struck a chord with many, but when SBS aired the coverage, they omitted the word “ladies” in the broadcast. Netizens bite back 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 Many took to Twitter and other online communities to hit back at the broadcaster. They were outraged at the “erasure of women” and expressed concern for being “a misogynistic country”. Other Koreans pushed for the news to be covered by foreign media to bring more attention to the censorship. Internationally, some have been hitting back at the “insecurity of men”. How to rock balletcore fashion like Blackpink’s Jennie SBS’ response to accusations On March 15, SBS said in a statement that it had “no intention” of distorting Michelle Yeoh ’s speech. The company claimed that Yeoh’s phrase was omitted by mistake during editing. They felt the main message to be delivered was how Yeoh overcame racial bias. Meanwhile a report in Korean newspaper NoCutNews claimed that SBS had felt that her speech was “not necessarily applicable only to women”, and Yonhap’s statement from SBS claims they removed it due to the “connotations of the word”. Alas, their responses only served to cement the public’s opinion that SBS stole a speech meant for women, and distorted it to include men. Misogyny or inclusivity? While SBS has since uploaded the clip in full and asked viewers for benevolence, the question still begs to be asked. Is this another show of South Korean society’s ingrained misogyny? Perhaps it is South Korea’s hypersensitivity to women’s rights and issues of gender equality that pushed SBS to take precautions. South Korean men are known for pushing back against any signs of feminism in the country. The rise and return of Chinese supermodel Liu Wen According to Hankookilbo, Red Velvet’s Irene had her photocards cut up and burned by fans when she was spotted carrying a book, Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 , which was deemed to be a feminist tome. In another instance, actress Naeun was forced to delete Instagram photos and clarify that a product was sponsored when netizens found that her Zadig & Voltaire iPhone case had “feminist words” on it. And they wonder why the birth rate in their country is the lowest in the world, erasing the most important part of her speech just to make men happy, they stole a speech for women to include men in it, a big broadcasting station doing that says it all abt the state of the country https://t.co/x3ZRpvLNqS — PJ (@Justtvibing) March 14, 2023 On the other end of the spectrum, some Korean women are looking to the so-called 4Bs movement that equates to no marriage, no sex, no childbirth, and no dating ( bihon , bisekseu , bichulsan , biyeonae ). Twitter user @Justtvibing agrees that with even public broadcasting channels catering to the egos of men, it is no wonder the country is recording its lowest birth rates since records began. Want more stories like this? Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter .