Material Girls: Sexual Perceptions of Korean Teenage Girls who have experienced ‘Compensated Dates’

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine sexual perceptions and conflicts among Korean teenage girls who have been involved in ‘compensated dates,’ which is a form of sex work that may be temporarily under-taken by young girls or may lead on to prostitution. I have collected data from 12 girls, using in-depth interviews, who had experienced sexual abuse, and economic deprivation. These girls were rather maladjusted and had been abandoned by their families and schools. Their involvement in compensated dates began out of economic necessity, as they had run away from home. Sexual abuse was reportedly common for the majority of the respondents who had also suffered poverty and unhappy family lives. So these girls tended to seek compensated dates to overcome poverty. With poor education and skills, the girls viewed compensated dates as an easy strategy in the face of privation. In addition, the consumer society encouraged them to become sexually promiscuous to earn money, in order to buy and own more and more goods. The sexual conflict and ambivalence experienced by them were outcomes of their sense of sexual subjectivity. They saw their bodies as resources that were exchangeable for money, but they did not realize the internalized oppression they endured. They knew their bodies were a means of pleasure, but did not realize that sexual violence underlies it. The development of a stronger sense of self may resolve the conflict between the girls' curiosities and experiences concerning their bodies and sexuality.