• Anxiety and mood
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2006

Objectives : Since prostitution is multitraumatic phenomena, it is known that most women in prostitution have symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illness. In Korea, new anti-prostitution law launched in the year of 2004 imposes protecting prostituted victims at government-supported shelter. The objective of this study was to compare the mental symptoms, especially PTSD features of women who escaped from prostitution with those of control subjects. Methods : We assessed 113 ex-prostituted women who live in shelter for 8 months on the average and 65 normal control subjects. Demographic data, questionnaire for sleep, physical illness, smoking, alcohol and drug use, Stress Response Inventory, Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS), Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) were used. Results : Ex-prostituted women had significantly higher scores of DTS, IES-R, stress related responses, sleep problems, smoking problems, and alcohol problems than control group. Age and duration of sex trade of the subjects were significantly correlated with the severity or frequency of PTSD symptoms. The degree of smoking, alcohol drinking and sleep problems were also significantly correlated with the PTSD symptoms. Conclusion : These results suggested mental symptoms did not disappear even after women escaped from prostitution.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.75
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• pp.43-79
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• 2016

An increase in the number of immigrants to Korea since the late 1980s' has signified the proliferation of globalization and global capitalism. In Korea, most married immigrants are women, as the culture emphasizes patrilineage and the stability of the institution of marriage, particularly in rural areas. Immigrant women have experienced dual ordeals. The Aogra Internet community in Korea has been one of the most representative sites that has shown the power of communities in cyberspace since 2002, leading the discussion of social issues and deliberative democracy both online and offline. This paper analyzed Koreans' writings (such as long comments) on immigrant women in the Agora community. The analysis revealed the following results: first, immigrant women were referred to using terms related to prostitution, with excessive expression of disgust, which is called a "narrative of identity." Second, anti-multiculturalists called Korean men victims of married immigrant women and expressed hatred toward immigrant women, which is called a "narrative of sacrifice." Third, anti-multiculturalists justified their emotions as just resentment based on ideas of justice, equality, and patriotism, concealing the emotion of disgust, which is called the "narrative of justice, equality." Fourth, antimulticulturalists played roles to spread the emotion of disgust, by repeatedly referring to international marriage fraud and immigrant workers' crimes, which is called "narrative of crime." Fifth, some positive writings on immigrant women were based on empathy(a concept defined in this context by Martha Nussbaum), but they can be analyzed as narratives encouraging cultural integration through the perspective of orientalism. Therefore, comments on immigrant women in the Agora represent a "catch-22" dilemma. To deal with conflicts arising from disgust and violations of human rights, civic education focusing on humanism is needed in this multicultural era.

• Women's Studies Review
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.79-120
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• 2011

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the implication of feminist oral history from a postcolonial feminist perspective as critically reexamining the relationship between hearer and speaker, representer and narrator, the said and the unsaid, and secrecy and silence. Based upon oral (life) history of a U.S. military prostitute (yanggongju), I tried to show the experiences of a historically-excluded and marginalized 'Other,' and then critically reevaluate the meaning of encountering 'Other', not just through the research process but also in the post/colonial society in Korea. The narrative of an old woman in the "kijichon" (a formal prostitute in U.S. military base) shows how woman has navigated the boundaries between inevitability/coincidence, the enforced/the voluntary, prostitution/intimacy, and military prostitute/military bride while continually negotiating as well as having conflict with various myths and ideologies of the 'normative woman,' 'nationhood,' and 'normal family.' In addition, her narrative which causes the rupture of our own stereotypical images of a military prostitute not only proves the possibility of reconstructing the self-identity of a subaltern woman, but also redirects the research focus from the research object to the research subject (ourselves). Consequently, the implication in feminist oral history is that feminist researchers who whish to represent the experiences of other should first inquire 'what/how we can hear,' 'why we want to know others,' and 'who we are,' while simultaneously asking if subaltern woman can speak.