The Paradox of Vernacularization: Women's Human Rights and the Gendering of Nationhood

Abstract

This article extends Sally Merry's idea of "vernacularization" of human rights by examining its paradoxical effects. Specifically, it traces how international norms about trafficking in persons and women's human rights become vernacularized into anti-prostitution policies in South Korea, and how such universal ideas facilitate the re-articulation of authentic national culture and Korean womanhood. As nationhood is gendered with reference to women's sexuality, the analysis shows how the struggle to localize women's human rights in anti-prostitution reforms may challenge the state and propel reforms but also corroborate state nation-building. As such, it contributes to developing culturally and historically specific knowledge about the idea of human rights in relation to gender and the nation.