The Women Outside: Korean Women and the U.S. Military
- Give a synopsis of The Women Outside: Korean Women and the U.S. Military
The movie documents the lives of South Korean women who work in South Korean Military brothels and clubs. The service industry consists of more than 27,000 women who service more than 37,000 American soldiers located in the Military regions. These women live a life of endurance and survival, and it is questionable why the South Korean government allows its women to indulge in promiscuity at its own benefit. This film challenges the US Military present in Korea and the role that women plays in international geopolitics.
- How do the soldiers' attitudes affect the relations between them and Korean women? What are the different reasons women come to work in the military camptowns? Why would women have to stay? Explain.
American soldiers do not appreciate Korean Women and they refuse to commit themselves into intimate relationship. Most of them want to get a free service from these women. Most of them end up beating them, harassing and even killing them. However, these women lack an alternative because most of them come from poor backgrounds and they want to improve their lives. Therefore, they have to remain around these camps even after being sexually and physically harassed. Some of them are deceived by false job advertisements and they end up working in these brothels and can never escape, because of the high debts they owe to the brothel and bar owners.
- In what historical and cultural settings do we see militarized prostitution proliferating? Why? Who benefits from militarized prostitution? How does race, gender, class and culture play roles here? How does media play a role? Explain.
Militarized prostitution proliferates mostly in South Korea, because of the large US military presence, the South Korea’s economic needs and its reliance on United States. The beneficiaries of the Military prostitution are South Koreans communities and the South Korea Government. The South Korean women who engaged with the American black soldiers were discriminated against, and their children were not allowed in American white schools. As a result, most of them dropped from school and joined street thugs, engaged in drugs and other indulgent behaviors. Moreover, instead of the media assisting in curbing the problems, false ads about hostess jobs were advertised and women ended up being kidnapped and sold to the brothels and bars.
- What are the reasons that women engage in sexual labor? How does Korean culture and social institutions in particular shape Korean women's prostitution for foreign soldiers? Explain.
Most Korean women engage in sexual labor in order to improve their livelihoods and those of their family members. The South Korean government, in particular, the Korean culture and social institutions shaped prostitution because they enacted a policy that allowed sex tourism in order to entertain the foreigners.
- In the film, reference is made to the discrimination suffered by racially mixed children between Korean women and American GIs. In what ways racial discrimination within the society of clubwomen between those who relate to white GIs and those who relate to black GIs. Would the children's situation change if they were to go to the United States? Who is responsible for caring for these children? Explain.
Those women that related to the Black GIs were discriminated against and never interacted with those that related to the White GIs. The situation became worse when these immigrants went to United States, especially when these women are divorced. They practiced prostitution in order to take care of their children, who are discriminated by the white children. In most cases, the American Soldiers disappeared from their Korean wives and never to be tracked down, and in such cases the women are compelled to assume the whole responsibility of taking care of the family.
The England, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, and Norway immigrants.
- In what years, The 1st Japanese to set foot in the Americas. Between 1880 and 1910
- Which Asian group could travel with American passport? Chinese immigrants
- In what years, thousands of Chinese worked on the transcontinental railroad? 1882 to 1943
- The ____ Gentlemen’s _____________________, an agreement with Viet Nam that allows individuals and families to enter the U.S.
- The existing immigration laws & the Gentlemen’s Agreement, which barred other Asians, were not applicable to which groups? Japanese immigrants
Short Essay Questions: Answer the following:
- In the 19th & 20th centuries, 5 groups of Asian immigrants came to the U.S. under 3 different circumstances. Briefly explain.
Some entered as settlers, slaves, contract laborers and others as entrepreneurs
- Post - 1965 Southeast Asian refugees and immigrants resettled in the U.S. can be divided into three waves. Briefly explain each wave.
The first wave of immigrants to resettle into the United States was from northwestern Europe. The second wave of immigrants was from southern and eastern Europe and the third wave was largely from Italy, Austro-Hungary, and Russia. .
Works Cited
Takagi, J T, and Hye- Jung Park. The Women Outside: Korean Women and the U.s. Military. New York, N.Y: Third World Newsreel, 1995.
