Korean Military Wives in The Women Outside: Witnessing Violence

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of the U.S. military presence on the lives of Korean women in South Korea. Its primary evidence is The Women Outside, a documentary made by J.T. Orinne Takagi and Hye Jung Park, which looks specifically at camp towns, the sex work industry, and the personal experiences of women married to American soldiers. The two main narratives are drawn from Yan Hyang Kim and Chong Sun France, two Korean women who dealt with abuse, prejudice, and social stigma during and after marriages to American military men. Kim’s story details abuse in her first marriage, her remarriage, and her move to the U.S., where she faced racial prejudice. France’s story focuses on the negative consequences of her abusive marriage, which resulted in the death of her child and a 20-year prison sentence. Theorists like Cynthia Enloe argue that sex work is “naturalized” in military settings, and Heisoo Shin writes that Korean women were exploited as “dollar-earners” for American soldiers. According to Silvia Federici, women’s exploitation is a part of larger global economic systems, including neoliberalism and the international division of labor, which perpetuate gendered violence and economic hardship. Ultimately, this paper argues that a revision of the dominant narrative of the U.S. military’s role in South Korea is required, recognizing how structural violence and exploitation create gendered hardship for wives and sex workers in Korea.