A Blue-Balled Nation
As an American-born living in New York City, where the marketing concept “Sex Sells” is embodied everywhere, there is nothing more startling when going back and forth to Korea than one key cultural norm – the absolute void of sex in the public realm.
The rare instances where sexuality is exuded are typically confined to pop-culture/hallyu/k-pop where long legs and lewd poses dominate Korean smartphones and commericals. God, I can't even estimate how many posters like the one below I saw throughout my childhood visits to Seoul. These are still plastered on most older restaurants.
Source: Taste the Soju
The popularity and ubiquity of girl groups might imply a revolutionary openness to sexualized culture in a very very traditional social fabric, but do not be misled by glamorous music videos. South Korea may organize democratic institutions and seem in line with Western interests, but there are many sectors where individual freedoms are cut drastically short. As evident in the title, there's one that I'll be looking at – Porn. Well not looking at porn, but the issue of porn... ah nevermind. ;)
Porn is illegal in Korea. Any Google search that might be even tangentially relevant to the naked body is met with this little gem -
“WARNING. Prevention of illegal and harmful information.” Straight up and explicit blockage with no hope without a VPN.
Now, from a perspective of 'Westernness' where most North American, South American, and European democracies enjoy the freedom of sexual entertainment with a few major exceptions, I have always interested on the consequences of this ban. A fairly large ongoing debate exists in the US where the pros and cons of the pornographic industry are brought to light – whether it is demeaning to women, whether it promotes sexual violence, whether it nurtures an oversexualized culture, whether it is a therapeutic medium, whether it is a new form of addiction, and a number of other discussions. The vast majority of Americans indulge in the art, including a substantially large percentage of women, and I'm of the opinion that at least having access to porn is necessary for a free society.
Red = Pornography Banned. Source: Wikipedia
SO. I've been looking into this topic on and off for the last few years and I wanted to capture these findings in a few posts. I'm terribly curious how the KR community will respond to these articles (I'm guessing many will recognize the cover image immediately). I just want to preface all of this writing (because much of it may seem horrifying) that is non-representative of the majority of Korean society and should not deter you from visiting. :)
Tremendous Consequences
Very peculiar things happen when you take away sexual freedom, especially the access to at least some representation of sexual freedom. We are and have always been animals and as such, we have strong sexual impulses that must be directed into non-harmful outlets. Pornography allows general publics to consume and release those impulses in a typically safe setting. The worldwide pornographic industry is an est. $20 billion and undoubtedly proves the demand for an ever-diversifying supply of sexual material.
But imagine if that access is abruptly taken away or never really existed since your adolescence. Your entire perception and relationship with sexual expression would be flipped on its head. You would seek out alternative modes to indulge those impulses. And unfortunately, some of those options would not be the safest or productive.
Source: Video Blocks
This is what is happening in South Korea. A complete and unwavering ban of pornography in Korea as it joins the league of developed nations has caused an entire black-market ecosystem to not only emerge, but thrive and affect almost every Korean in some form. I will explore these consequences, from illegal spy-cams to willing underage prostitution and start to draw a picture of how sexual representation has manifested in this country.
DISCLAIMER. All of this writing is made from external observation and 2nd-hand research. I'll try to keep things SFW and exclude any suggestive material. None of this exploration was done by me as I have of course never looked at pornography. Hi mom.
