Who are they?

By Jason Lim

One of the first pieces of advice that I got from a fellow American teacher when I first taught English in Seoul more than 14 years ago was to never get a haircut in a barber shop. Which was as bizarre as unintelligible at the time.

If you don’t get a haircut in a barbershop, then where the heck do you go? Being a red-blooded American male raised in the Bronx, you wouldn’t have caught me dead in a beauty parlor getting my hair shampooed and ― God forbid ― styled by someone else. All I wanted was the Korean version of the neighborhood barbershop where old, cantankerous Italian barbers would make sure you ended up looking like Joe DiMaggio or Phil Rizzuto no matter what your own preference was.

But I found out quickly enough that I got some good advice. I also found out how prevalent and exposed the supposedly illegal sex trade was in Korea.

Prostitution in Korea exists in diverse forms. There are the traditional “red-light districts” in every major and not-so-major cities. There are also the high class saunas and massage parlors in business districts. There are the call girl rings that specialize in either in-calls or out-calls. Also, barbershop poles twisting red, blue, and white can signify a haircut, massage, oral sex, hand job, or a combination of all of the above.

Prostitution is a huge industry in Korea. Although accurate figures are not available because of the underground nature of the trade, prostitution and related businesses (prostitution also channels significant economic activities to motels, beauty parlors, public baths, and bars) are estimated to employ up to 1 million people, about 4 percent of economically active population in Korea. The sex trade is estimated to have an annual economic output up to $24 billion, 4.1 percent of Korea’s GDP in 2002.

When the government began a serious crackdown on the sex trade in the fall of 2004, the Ministry of Finance and Economy at the time expected it to slash about 1 percent of GDP in 2005, which translated into $7 billion. I am not sure whether that figure proved accurate.

However, what proved accurate were the warnings that a crackdown would push the sex trade further underground and create new social issues to be dealt with in the near future. Driven out from its traditionally protected locations, the business of prostitution expanded into formerly taboo residential and business areas, as well as innovative new fronts that tapped into a whole new demographic of potential customers. Also, the crackdown in Korea created a mass exodus of prostitutes from Korea to other nations, primarily Japan and America.

But reading about prostitution as a social or legal problem can be very misleading, and obscure the real people behind this so-called issue. This was driven home to me in a very real way when I recently found myself dumbfounded watching a TV coverage of a massive demonstration by sex workers ― with their faces hidden by white masks ― walk hand in hand with basically pimps and brothel owners. They were protesting for their right to make a living as sex workers.

And this wasn’t the first time. Such protests happened back in 2004 when one brothel owner actually set himself on fire and many prostitutes went on hunger strikes, all backed by hundreds of sex workers picketing the government capitol building day after day.

Granted, as the government declares, many of these women are victims of an unscrupulous system whereby they are forced to work as prostitutes because of a staggering debt that actually increases as they work to pay it off. Also, many of the women are probably held against their will, if not no longer by prison bars than by implied threats.

However, the sight of hundreds of women who brave jeering and social stigma to protest for their right ― whether you agree with their chosen means or not ― has to make you think about who these women are instead of just what they do.

If you actually peek into who they are, you are shocked to realize that they are not some aliens; they are mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, church goers, neighbors, and everyone else that you know in your own lives. Surprisingly, they also have hopes, worries, plans, reflections, and everything else that you occupy your thoughts. In short, they are us.

These women are not merely “problems” to be solved or “issues” to be dealt with by politicians, social activists, feminists, or pragmatists pursuing their own agendas and skewed sense of right and wrong. But for the grace of God, these women could be our mothers, sisters, friends, and fellow workers whom we meet every day. Although we constantly judge and make decisions based upon these judgments, let us remember to first recognize these women as us.

True, prostitution is a major public policy issue that different countries have dealt in different ways. Many have legalized it, with varying degrees of success and unintended consequences. I am not advocating here for any specific policy, but I do believe that their courage should be applauded and needs taken seriously on a national level.

However, any public policy debate must begin by seeing these women as individual human beings, worthy of respect for their strengths and deserving sympathy for their weaknesses, like all creatures of God.

Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C.-based consultant in organizational leadership, culture, and change management. He has been writing for The Korea Times since 2006. He can be reached at jasonlim@msn.com and on Facebook.com/jasonlim2000.