Consorts, concubines and gisaeng —women from lower class families who were trained in the arts of sex along with witty conversation, music and poetry—dutifully played their roles in the history of this still-patriarchal country. On a recent Saturday afternoon, my friend Kim Kon-woo was waiting for me outside exit 13 of Suwon Station. We hoped to convince one of these women to talk to us about her life. The area was seedy but not excessively so. All along three or four streets were what you might call presentation rooms with sliding glass doors and fluorescent lights.
And in each of them, a woman—or sometimes two—stood or sat. She looked at her smart phone, checked her makeup and tried to act both alluring and nonchalant. Kon-woo and I strolled and talked about what we were seeing.
Did they despise their customers, had they joined the sex-work lifestyle willingly, and how did they truly feel? We had come to Suwon prepared for this rather harsh scene, and neither of us was shocked.
On the contrary, we looked at the ladies with genuine compassion and respect. First we went into a pharmacy which was run by a year-old woman. She informed us that her store had been in operation for more than 30 years. As for the sex trade that went on all around her, she claimed to be unbothered. We knocked at two or three of these rooms, stated that we sought not fornication but conversation and were turned away.
Finally, one of the prostitutes warily agreed to cooperate. Considering that her usual rate was 80, won for 30 minutes of perfunctory sex, we did not get much of a bargain. Nevertheless, we paid and entered. On each side of a darkened hallway was a series of small rooms. We stepped into hers. It had a bed, of course, but the three of us sat on the floor in a rather intimate triangle. I told Ms. X that we were not judgmental and had not come to rescue her from a life of sin.
