Episode 3

by: Jasmine Kan

Episode 3: “I’ve Never Once Loved Myself #Rotten Roots”

Screenshot of Yi-na’s boyfriends (Timestamp: 3:48)

The episode focuses on three major points: Yi-na, the roommate’s behaviour and thoughts after finding out Yi-na was a “prostitute” and jealousy. For Yi-na, it is regarding her job as an ‘escort’ in terms of where and how she scouts for boyfriends, who her boyfriends are and her inner thoughts about her job. For the roommate’s reactions, Ye-eun is disgusted whereas the rest seem indifferent. As for jealousy, each roommate is jealous or envious of another roommate of a quality/life they have. This can be seen in a cyclic form where:

Ji-won is jealous of Ye-eun’s seemingly perfect relationship with her boyfriend.
Ye-eun is jealous of Yi-na’s ability to stand her ground with men.
Yi-na is jealous of Jin-myeong’s tenacity of not choosing the easy path like she did.
Jin-myeong is jealous of Eun-jae lack of financial worries.
Eun-jae is jealous of Ji-won’s ability to express her opinion openly.

Throughout the episode, prostitution is explored through the character Yi-na who is an ‘escort’. According to Lee Jinkyung, prostitution is “as a necessarily transnational phenomenon that exploits gender, class, race and national hierarchy” (Lee 2010: 4). Using this knowledge, this essay will explore how modern-day prostitution is portrayed through Yi-na.

Figure 1: Screenshot of Yi-na’s boyfriend limiting her expenses (Timestamp: 5:24)

Lee describes prostitution as a form of necropolitical labour due to its “disposable” (Ibid.: 6) nature. This nature can be seen through Yi-na’s self-imposed dispensability. She is ‘hired’ to be a rich man’s girlfriends via escorting and/or sexual services. In exchange, she is offered extremely high pay which she uses for her materialistic desires. Her job as an ‘escort’ is seen as “disposable” (Ibid.: 6) during the scene when one of her boyfriends lowers her spending limit (Figure 1) and she tells the audience it’s time to find someone new. Her ability to understand the nature of her job’s dispensability forces her to ‘dispose of’ herself out of any ‘relationships’ she enters, reinforcing the “disposable” (Ibid.: 6) nature of her labour.

Figure 2: Screenshot of Yi-na talking to Jin-myeong about the “easy way” (Timestamp: 26:21)

Additionally, Lee discusses how prostitution, from the worker’s perspective, is a “means of surviving” (Ibid.: 8). Coming from a lower-class family, Yi-na began at the social hierarchy’s lower end, already making it difficult to survive. However, by selling her body, she superficially climbs the social ladder and shows it via the materialistic goods she possesses. Although it appears her reason for escorting is for her materialistic desires, another reason is to avoid financial burden, making her form of surviving being living comfortably. This can be seen when she tells Jin-myeong “There’s an easy way” (Figure 2), showing a contrast between Yi-na and Jin-myeong on how they choose to survive.

Figure 3: Screenshot of Yi-na’s clothing in episode 3

Compared to the history of prostitution, Yi-na does not appear to be forced into her job. Although she is being exploited for her body, she is shown to be fully conscious of this exploitation. This can be seen when she is scouting her a new boyfriend in the lounge, demonstrating her freedom of choice when choosing whom to escort, unlike the prostitutes historically (Lie 1995). Surprisingly, she exploits her own body through her choice of clothing. She usually wears clothing to emphasize her legs, which is a form of beauty commodity in Korea (Epstein and Joo 2012), or body (Figure 3) to attract male attention. Her indulgence in this attention highlights autonomy in modern-day prostitution.

Overall, modern-day prostitution is portrayed as autonomous, disposable and a form of survival. Through Yi-na’s character, we see the benefits of this form of labour, however, the exploitation and unstable nature of it highlights the risks involve and how it may not be as different as to what prostitution is historically.

Word count: 446

 

Bibliography

Epstein, Stephen, and Rachael M. Joo. “Multiple Exposures: Korean Bodies and the Transnational Imagination.”The Asia-Pacific Journal 10, no. 1 (2012): 1-19.

Lee, Jin-kyung. Service Economies: Militarism, Sex Work, and Migrant Labor in South Korea. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

Lie, John. “The Transformation of Sexual Work in 20th-Century Korea.” Gender and Society 9, no. 3 (1995): 310-327.

 

Discussion Questions

Please note: Questions 1 and 2 can be controversial and offensive. Feel free to comment on other parts of the episode if you don’t feel comfortable discussing this topic.

1. A lot of young women in North America talk about having a ‘Sugar Daddy’ to help fund their financial needs or materialistic desires, similar to Yi-na. What are your opinions in engaging in these activities? Is it an effective method?
2. Escorting doesn’t always include sexual activity and can be considered a job based on the fact you are offering your time to earn money. However, because of the unconventional nature of it, it has a reputation of being “dirty”, as Ye-eun comments throughout the episode. Why do you think this reputation exists? Or, if you think its “dirty”, what is your reasoning behind it?
3. As mentioned in the summary, there is a cycle of jealousy or envy within the Belle Epoque household. Interestingly, each of the qualities mentioned is something that creates an issue for the character possessing that quality, for example, because of Ji-won’s expressive and social justice nature, she is unable to get a boyfriend. Based on this cycle of jealousy and example, what is the episode trying to tell us?