An Mi-seon’s book Eonni, Let’s Go On Together
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By Kim-Go Yeon-ju
Published Jan. 11, 2017
Translated by Marilyn Hook
※ Kim-Go Yeon-ju,
the author of this article, is a feminist scholar and the author of Slightly Different Children, A Slightly
Different Story, a book about youth in the sex trade (published by Ihu in
2011).
“Eonni!”
This
word is used by young women to call older women, but it’s also used by many
women as an affectionate term of address with no relation to age. The title “Eonni, Let’s Go On Together” brings to
mind two women’s interlocked hands and energetic steps. The term eonni is affectionate, the clasped hands
are warm, and the steps are spirited. Who might these two be, and where might
they be going?
Women
who’ve escaped sex trafficking
Eonni, Let’s Go On Together (An
Mi-seon, Samin Books, 2016) is the third book published by the Central Anti-Sex
Trafficking Support Center of the Women’s Human Rights Institute of Korea. It
first published Congratulations (Park
Geum-seon, Shanti Books), a collection of the stories of women who have left
the sex trade becoming self-supporting, in 2008, and What I Do Best (Park Geum-seon, Shanti
Books), the story of women who leave the sex trade and start new lives, in
2015. But while these two books dealt with female victims of sex trafficking,
the latest has a slightly different focus.
Everyone
knows that female victims of sex trafficking are everywhere. The only reason we
don’t see them is because we have chosen not to. But there are people who have
not turned their backs but stayed at these women’s sides like school seatmates:
anti-sex trafficking activists. In our society, which not only ignores female
victims of sex trafficking but also actively excludes and marginalizes them,
there is no question that the activists by their sides are unusual beings. This
book is the story of these unusual beings.
The
activists draw on their experiences to discuss the experience of sex
trafficking for women and what “self-supporting” is exactly. Their stories of
aiding women in becoming self-supporting go past the concept of economic
independence to encompass community solidarity and social change. In addition,
activists working with teenage girls in shelters and alternative schools talk
about the realities of youth sex-trafficking and social views of it. The book
also has separate sections on the red-light districts that still exist in
Jeonju, Busan, and even Jeju Island, which is known only as a tourist area.
Activists
rescue female victims of sex trafficking, eat meals with them, sleep in the
same room, and accompany them to the police station and the courts. Sometimes
they go to the women’s weddings, and the first birthday parties of their
children. And every now and then, they attend their funerals. They keep watch until
the end for these women, who are murdered or kill themselves.
Their
bond is this deep, but their physical distance is sometimes closer, sometimes
farther. This is because the lives of female victims of sex trafficking have
ups and downs. And for some women, ending their relationship with activists is
part of the process of leaving sex trafficking behind. Activists watch the ups
and downs of female victims’ lives with patience. And they respect the
decisions of women who choose to sever contact. In any case, what activists do
most is listen to women’s stories, crying with them, and share their everyday
lives, laughing with them.
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The front and back
covers of An Mi-seon’s Eonni, Let’s Go On Together (Samin Books, 2016)
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Challenging
the virgin/whore dichotomy
In
order to write this book, author An Mi-seon, who has long been recording the
stories of women’s lives, went diligently all over the country – to Seoul,
Busan, Pohang, Daegu, Gwangju, Jeju, etc. – to collect activists’ precious stories.
There is no small number of books based on interviews with social activists in
a certain area. But this book is distinguished by the focus on the
interviewees’ voices. An Mi-seon wrote the book, but the activists are the
narrators. And while the activists may be the narrators, the protagonists are
female victims of sex trafficking.
So, Eonni, Let’s Go On Together reads as a
book written by jointly An Mi-seon, activists, and female victims of sex
trafficking. The lines between author, narrator, and protagonist blur. It isn’t
important who is which – and in fact this is the message of the book.
Activists
say that female victims of sex trafficking are the same as them. “They are
women just like us, people just like us.” They say this is because of the fact
that, though everyone’s age, class, hometown, nationality, race, and
experiences are different, they all have their own wounds and stories of
misfortune as women. And because of the fact that, when someone extends a hand
to them, the women discover their intrinsic strength to overcome pain.
Activists
say that, actually, they aren’t the only ones extending a hand. This is because
they have grown and found healing through spending time with the female victims
of sex trafficking. The victims have also extended their hands to the
activists. Each side has accepted the others’ hands, making mutual support and
healing possible.
In
this way, this book shows how meaningless it is to distinguish between female
victims of sex trafficking and “average” women. This message challenges the
strict virgin/whore dichotomy of our society. Women involved in sex trafficking
and the activists who try to help them would seem to fit perfectly into this
dichotomy. But activists are firm in their protests that, in their experiences,
these labels don’t actually apply.
In
reality, there are sometimes cases in which female victims of sex trafficking become
activists. There is also no small number of men who approach activists engaged
in outreach and offer them money to join the sex trade. This shows how
prevalent the sex trade is in our society.
Activists
insist that the sex trade is dangerous for all women because it treats some of
them as things that can be bought and sold, and that the sex trade is a problem
of a culture and a social structure that don’t respect women. So activists
believe that sex trafficking victims are no different from them and identify
them as women just like them, living in the same times. Activities in support
of female victims of sex trafficking are especially valuable in that they
remind the activists that they [the activists] are also women.
Sex
trafficking is the problem of a society that doesn’t respect women
But in
our society, in which prejudice and stigmatization related to the sex trade are
strong, working in support of female victims of the sex trade cannot but be
seen as an “extreme” job. Activists struggle alone, with very little governmental
or legal support. Despite this, there are many activists who have stood fast
for 10 or even 20 years. The source of the strength that allows them to do this
is none other than the female victims of sex trafficking. Sometimes the
activists fight with the female victims, cry because of them, or feel upset at
them, but the victims show them nearly every day what hope and courage are.
If the
activists are understanding and patient, the female victims of sex trafficking
always reveal the hidden strength that they possess. Eonni who didn’t know how to ride the subway learn how, they begin
to sing in front of others and express their thoughts and feelings – these
changes are a series of miracles. Watching these women put so much effort into
life gives strength to the activists.
Perhaps
because of this experience, activists have a surprisingly similar message
despite the diversity of their life histories and regions and the different
ways they volunteer. The message is “sex trafficking is really happening, and it
is a form of violence against women.” They agree that “our society is
disintegrating without a safety net and these women are the victims of that,”
but also that “being part of the sex trade is just an incident that happens
during their lives, it’s not their whole identities.” Because of this, they
urge change in a society that “willingly helps female victims of domestic
violence and sexual assault, but keep its distance from and is prejudiced
against sex trafficking victims” even though they are victims of the same type
of violence.
Ultimately,
this book presents an alliance of women who have broken down barriers and
grasped each others’ hands. Of course, there are times when individual women
let go of others’ hands. But there is no need to worry, because another woman
by her side will hold out her hand. And because, as they keep moving forward
silently, the woman who let go will reappear and grasp their hands again.
The
reason that women are able to travel this difficult road without tiring is that
they aren’t the first to do so. They aren’t pioneers forging a path. Countless
women before them walked and walked for a long time to create the path. The
women today are merely following it. That’s why they can walk it without
collapsing. There were eonni who
walked before them, eonni
who walk hand-in-hand with them
now, and eonni who follow them. In this way, women’s solidarity continues
on, transcending time and space.
Activists
and female victims of sex-trafficking speak with every fiber of their bodies:
“We are stronger the more we unite.”
* Original article:
http://ildaro.com/sub_read.html?uid=7730
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