잊혀진 자들의 투쟁 : 한국 성판매여성들의 저항의 역사

Abstract

This paper reconstructs the history of prostitutes’ protests in post-colonial Korea, during the period from the abolition of licensed prostitution after Korea’s liberation from Japan to the amendment of the Act to Prevent Morally Degrading Behaviors in 1996. To this end, this paper explores first-hand testimony, including prostitutes’ autobiographies, and also traces prostitutes’ struggles in records such as newspaper articles and court rulings, reading them ‘against the grain.’ This study clarifies that prostitutes protested against the oppression and injustices inflicted on them in various ways; appeals to the police, suicide attempts, demonstrations, escape from women’s reformatories, and litigation. As subalterns forgotten and abandoned by Korean society, their struggles did not elicit public sympathy, often leading to failure. However, they sometimes won their struggles, resulting in punishment of wrongdoers or amendment of laws on prostitution. In this way, prostitutes in postcolonial Korea made their own history of protests, separate from the organized women’s movement that was led by female intellectuals.