1) Interview #1: 'A' _ By Hye-Jin Woo
‘A’ is a female Korean
sex worker who has her own bar called ‘N’(initial) in Itaewon ‘Hooker Hill’.
She has been working in the sex business for more than 10 years and she opened
her own bar 2 years ago. This interview was carried out inside her bar in
Itaewon on October 13th, 2015.
ABOUT HER BACKGROUND
She is 41 years
old and is from Donghae, Gangwon Province. She started working in this business about
10 years ago for financial reasons, and now has her own bar in Itaewon ‘Hooker
Hill’. She has one brother and is currently living by herself near her bar. Even
though she had never lived in another country, her English is very fluent (close
to that of a native speaker's) because her main customers are foreigners in Itaewon. She
watches American TV shows and reads English magazines everyday in order to
learn English. ‘A’ is working alone in the bar she owns, because according to
her, she is not good at handling the stress that comes from working with other
people. She used to have another girl in the bar, but she fired her after a
couple of months.
ABOUT SEX
BUSINESS IN ITAEWON ‘HOOKER HILL’
The place where
her bar ‘N’ is located is called ‘Hooker Hill’. The reason people call the
place this name is because there are a lot of sex shops on this street which is
also kind of a hill. According to ‘A’, most of the bars (sex shops) are owned
by Koreans, but it’s the foreigners-sometimes transgendered foreigners- that
work here as sex workers. The customers of these bars are mainly American
soldiers or foreign men who are currently residing in Itaewon. Sometimes Korean
men come to the bars, but they don’t really let Korean customers in because
they could be policemen. They have their own CCTV inside their bars so that
they can open it whenever a foreigner approaches. They usually keep their doors
closed at all times and do not open it for Korean men.
ABOUT HER LIFE
AS A SEX WORKER
‘A’ says that she
makes good money with her business, and is satisfied with her job. When asked
about the difficulties at work, she answered that dealing with a ‘drunken asshole’
is something that she hates the most. However, she says that there is always
something that you can learn from a person, and from a drunken asshole, she can
learn how to not behave like an asshole. Her main job is understanding the customers
and giving them what they want. In order to do that, she needs to be smart so
she reads a lot of books and always tries hard to learn a new language. Although
there are a lot of sex shops on the street, she doesn’t make friends with these sex
workers because they are just her rivals who are competing against her
for customers.
ABOUT THE STEREOTYPES
AGAINST ‘SEX WORKERS’
‘A’ was aware of
the stereotypes that people have against sex workers, but she didn’t really
care about it. Of course sometimes her customers look down on her because of what
she does and how she dresses, but she thinks that it’s a natural thing for
humans to have stereotypes and prejudices against one another. She asked me
whether people have prejudices against the president of this country because
she is the daughter of Park Jung-Hee (also a former president), and whether they
have prejudice against me because I am an SNU student. She says that people
having prejudices and stereotypes are something that you cannot help with, so
the important thing is to stay strong and just be confident with what you do.
ABOUT HER
BELIEFS
Throughout the interview,
‘A’ mentioned a lot about her beliefs. She is a devout Christian and kept
telling me that I should believe in god as well. She says that many of her
customers are unhappy people who feel that their lives are meaningless. It
doesn’t matter whether they are rich or good looking, they are all miserable
because they don’t believe in anything. They all come to Hooker Hill for pleasure,
but this pleasure is something that does not last long, and she pities them for
being so ignorant of this fact. At the end of the interview, ‘A’ repeatedly
told me to let go of all the stereotypes that I had against what she does for a
living, and remember her only as a devoted Christian.
2) Interview #2: 'B' _ By So-Hyun Lee
‘B’ is a counselor who works in ‘Durebang’, a center for assisting Korean and migrant women who are forced to work in military camp town prostitution. We conducted this interview in the center’s counseling room, in October 22nd, 2015.
ABOUT THE JOB
She has been working in this area for 3 years. She first started this job just as a social worker, but she quickly grew interest thanks to her background in hometown Yang-ju, where camp towns existed. What she does is to first out reach for women who need help through much advertising and help sex workers with lawsuits and aiding medical charges. The hardships she face most is confronting policies related to expired VISAs, or other laws because prostitution has been banned since 2004. One case she had trouble with was when a client suicided because the police kept questioning her about her illegally trying to remain in Korea.
ABOUT THE SEX INDUSTRY
She thinks the sex industry should not be legalized nor disclosed to the public because of Korean’s tendency to put customers in priority. She thinks that if the law becomes legalized, culture will only worsen the working environment and put prostitutes in greater danger. She also mentioned that sex workers will not register for the unemployment insurance in fear of labels from the record, looking from Germany’s case. However, compared to Japan, she says Korean sex workers’ human rights are way more guaranteed.
ABOUT SEX WORKERS & STEREOTYPES
First of all, she says that foreign sex workers don’t know about the labels put upon them nor feel discriminated because they rarely meet Koreans due to lack of free time outside. Whereas there is one big stereotype that makes all the troubles; people think these sex workers came to Korea to work voluntarily as a prostitute. Actually, they are mostly deceived and blackmailed economically to work as a prostitute. The bias leads to passing responsibility to victims and also obstruction of interest in the situation. She thinks that this bias comes from lack of stories and information about these women and feels that public attention is needed to eliminate it.
OTHER INFORMATION
She told us about the system how Philippine women come to Korea deceived that they will be singing in bars. They join an agency where they are guaranteed a certain salary, but when the singers are sold to bars in Korea, the owner demands profit limits to repay singers’ ransoms and when they don’t satisfy the limits, they are forced into prostitution and prohibited to go out. Also, she mentioned that women who luckily escape the bars usually go to factories regardless of the equally hard work due to the lack of job spaces in the Philippines. Lastly, she said that there are very few unique cases where sex workers eventually marry an American soldier and remain in Korea.
3) Interview #3: ‘C’ _ By Seong-Yoon Park
‘C’ was a sex worker who came from Phillippines with VISA E6 for being a singer. However, her entertainment manager deceived her and she had to work in Dong-Doo-Cheon since 2007 as a sex worker.
ABOUT HER BACKGROUND
She thought she could earn money and could support her family. However, she could know that her job was not just a singing after the first day. She had to work for club and customers with sexsual behavior. She was dispirited but she had no choice because of her family in Phillipines. She and other three girls worked every night and could not take a rest. She had to sat side by side a customer and gratify him because he payed for her time by buying a ‘juice’. One night she was alomost raped by one customer. She said that situation to boss, but the boss(‘mamasan’) said it was also a part of a job. She determined to quit a job and fled on September 2007.
ABOUT THE SEX INDUSTRIES
She said it is unjust that saddling a whole responsibility to sex worker because it is not her ‘choice’ but ‘inevitable choice’. Many people saw sex working is just their choice for money, so it is OK to treat them with sexual behavior. However, she said she was deceived by manager and seeking a job even in small factory was very hard for ‘foreign woman’.
ABOUT STREOTYPES
She said she could not recognize stereotypes because she was confined in the ‘home’ all day. However, she said it is obvious misunderstanding that foreign sex workers chose selling their sex as a job. Most of them didn’t know what they would do before entered in Korea. They came with VISA E-6 for being an entertainer. They were selected by entertainment agency in their country, and that agency made a contract with Korean agency. Foreign women prepared sample video, took an audition, and came as a ‘singer’. However, the club which was their work place treated them as a ‘Juice girl’. Buying a juice is same as buying a time of woman. If the customer pay more, she had to spend the night together.
OTHER INFORMATION
Foreign sex work industry is somewhat different from Korea. Their workplace is like a pub or bar and they don’t have to sell their sex officially. Most of their customers are US Army, and sometimes they fall in love. Of course, period of love is short and most of boyfriends leaved to America. Sex work women also return to their country after about 2-3 years.
