A Sexual Korea

I cannot remember where I stumbled on this poster -- probably on The Grand Narrative. In the media it is the foreign community that is made out to be sex crazy. Interestingly, if one is to trust the statistics above, the foreign community are not the major clientele of the sex industry. There is a strange dichotomy in Korea, where foreigners are made out to be the sex addicts; however, on closer inspection one see a heavy emphasis on sex in the Korean culture. I recently opened a Korean newspaper and on practically every other page there was some kind of sex-ad -- be it escort agencies or penile dysfunction clinics. When I just came to Korea I was surprised to see escort-agency business cards with very provocative pictures of ladies licking their fingers and, showing cleavage and sitting open-legged strewn in the city streets at night. Every where you go one sees motels. Having slept in a number during my travels in Korea I can tell you that these motels are set-up for utmost sexual-encounter comfort, with emphasis on discreetness. Recently when I went to a Korean cinema to watch a movie it dawned on me how many sexual references there are in the advertisements. Since I don't have a television I cannot say whether this is the case for most Korean ads or just the ads shown in the cinemas. But judging from poster ads and billboards I think it is common. Not to mention the many recent Korean movies that are basically glamorous soft porn -- take A Frozen Flower as an example.

The strangest thing for me is that the Korean society insists that it is conservative and prudish. At face value that is the truth. But just below the surface there is another Korea that is anything but sexually conservative. It is like Korea is in a Victorian Era that is ready to explode with sexual tension.