Military Prostitution and the U. Military in Asia. Where there are soldiers, there are women who exist for them. In some ways, military prostitution prostitution catering to, and sometimes organized by, the military has been so commonplace that people rarely stop to think about how and why it is created, sustained, and incorporated into military life and warfare.
Academic interest and analysis of this issue gained momentum only in the last twenty years and still remains scant and sporadic. To boot, many have turned the feminist emphasis on women and agency on its head by glibly claiming that most military prostitutes sought out the work and life of their own free will and therefore are exercising their agency. They documented and insisted that U. In the s and s, when Asian feminists raised these connections, they tended to fault patriarchal and sexist values together with power inequalities emanating from them and the economic and political disparities among nations.
Such individuals and organizations also emphasized the compromised sovereignty of their own governments in relationship with the more powerful U. Aida Santos, a long-time activist opposing U. Even under authoritarian rule in the s, Filipinas did not hesitate to speak up and campaign nationally and internationally against the Philippines authorities and the U.
But in Korea, even progressive activists of the s and s, who fought against military dictatorship, labor repression, and the violation of human rights overlooked military prostitution as a political issue. Second, as much as some activists criticized the dominant role of the United States in the alliance relationship, others were loath to attack a fundamental institution that safeguarded Korean security.
Of course, the legal system was stacked against them. With the National Security Law squarely in place, critics of the U.
