[WHY] Why is sex still a taboo subject in Korea?

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Published: 24 Jun. 2023, 07:00 Updated: 26 Jun. 2023, 17:48

[WHY] Why is sex still a taboo subject in Korea?

This photo shows installations made from condoms at a condom exhibition in Seocho District, southern Seoul, in 2020. [YONHAP]

Humans have inhabited the Earth for approximately six million years, yet one of the most basic instincts known to man is still considered taboo in Korea: sex.

It has always been the elephant in the room to the point where children and teenagers in Korea are oblivious and feel awkward discussing the subject. There have even been media reports of "wrap condoms" — teenagers using plastic bags or cling wrap as contraception.

The question is, why weren't they using proper methods?

Some teenagers were quoted in reports as saying that buying condoms is "embarrassing," as Korean society frowns upon minors associating in any way with sex.

On Jisik In, Naver's Q-and-A service similar to Quora, there are posts from users asking if such methods are as effective as regular birth control, with some users adding that they were "too ashamed to buy condoms." Others asked what would happen if the plastic bag ripped during intercourse and whether using plastic bags if they are washed beforehand is acceptable.

Some teenagers also shared their experiences, including being asked to provide identification when trying to buy condoms at a nearby convenience store or the clerk even refusing the sale.

According to a 2021 survey conducted by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, 34.5 percent out of 60,000 middle and high school students who have had sexual experiences responded that they "sometimes" or "never" used birth control.

Only 67.8 percent said in a separate 2021 Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency survey that they had received sex education at school within the past 12 months. This is lower than 2018's 78.6 percent and the lowest percentage since 2011.

This picture shows a sex education class in school. [JOONGANG PHOTO]

What’s wrong with sex education in Korea?

Many Koreans say that they did not learn much about the topic during their school years, as sex education tends to be evasive in discussing sensitive subjects. It was also too short, consisting of only a class or two led by the health teacher.

"What sex education? All I remember is watching some videos, and I don't even remember what they were about," Shin Suh-ji, a 19-year-old student living in Incheon, said. "No one pays attention in class because they're so vague and don't give you the specific details, let alone demonstrate how to use contraceptive methods."

The Ministry of Education recommends students in each grade from elementary to high school receive at least 15 hours of sex education every year. But it isn't part of the official curriculum; it's included in the cross-curricular lesson plan, meaning that teachers aren't required to teach them during normal school hours.

Considering the high priority Koreans place on subjects like math or English that are necessary to go to college, compared to others such as P.E. or art, it is not surprising that schools neglect sex education.

Teachers have been raising concerns that they are unsure of what they are allowed to teach students under these restrictions.

"Teachers know how bad sex education used to be and still is, which is why a lot of them try to make the class more informative and useful," an elementary school teacher told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

"But when a teacher goes into the details, they sometimes get phone calls from angry parents demanding why their kid learned about sex in school when they should be learning math equations instead. It becomes a dilemma as sex isn't something that we can sweep under the carpet, but at the same time, there isn't a definite set of guidelines on how to properly handle the matter.

"I mean, everyone knows the sperm meets the egg story, but no one is willing to let kids know the how," the teacher added. "The entire process [of sex] is omitted. That's just how Korea is."

Poster of Netflix’s “Risque Business: Japan" (2023), hosted by Shin Dong-yup, right, and Sung Si-kyung [NETFLIX]

How conservative is Korea about sex?

It is only in recent years that the media actively started covering sex-related topics. Shows such as JTBC's "Witch Hunt" (2013-15), a talk show discussing relationships and sex, were popular for their straightforward approach to subjects perceived as too risky to talk about in public.

Hong Sung-woo, a urologist better known by his alias Dr. Jomulju, gained over 219,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel for his sex education videos that tend to be blunt yet lighthearted. Instead of giving a vague "the birds and the bees" story, he approaches the topic of sex in a more playful manner that garners laughter, like featuring oversized stuffed toys in the shape of animated penises.

Despite these efforts, Korea remains a conservative country in terms of sex. Comedian and show host Shin Dong-yup, a regular on "Witch Hunt" and its sequel on Tving, also starred in Netflix's "Risqué Business: Japan," which premiered earlier this year. But Shin soon came under fire for "crossing a line."

The show, rated 19 and above, explores the adult entertainment business in Japan to "demystify the taboo experience," according to Netflix, and while it was the third most-watched show in Korea, Shin was accused of "promoting pornography," an act that is still illegal in the country. Angry viewers even demanded that Shin be dropped from SBS's "TV Animal Farm," a family-friendly educational program about animals that he also hosts.

In a video by YouTube channel "Turkids on the Block" featuring urologist Hong Sung-woo, better known by his alias Dr. Jomulju, Hong is shown introducing oversized stuffed toys in the shape of animated penises in his urology clinic. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Why do Koreans disapprove of sex education?

Premature sexualization is the largest reason why some argue against sex education.

“They think that sex education instigates sexualization from an early age and that it will prompt students to become sexually active, as well as promote homosexual relationships,” Lee Sun-young, the director of a sex education center in Ulsan, said. “But that’s not the case. Sexual intercourse isn’t the only thing that we teach in sex education: It’s only around 3 percent of the curriculum.”

Sex education, Lee stressed, includes an entire spectrum of complex topics ranging from gender equality and sexual minorities to bodily changes during puberty and pregnancy.

Unesco has issued international technical guidance on sexuality education that it has incorporated in its comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), a curriculum-based learning system for each age range and development stage.

Experts say that this doesn’t necessarily mean that most Koreans are against sex education. Instead, they are louder — like “speaking into a megaphone” — in voicing their disagreements. Though the number of opponents is a tiny part of the entire Korean population, they aggressively file complaints against schools or local government offices.

“If we want to prevent sexual violence, then it is important that we teach children that they have the right to consent and that no means no,” Lee said. “But people who disapprove of sex education make very misleading assertions — they make it seem like we’re recommending younger people to have sex whenever they want. No expert would ever suggest that.”

In 2015, the Education Ministry published a standardized sex education manual that was distributed to every school in Korea which subsequently faced backlash for being "sexist" and "having distorted views on sex." As of now the manual is unavailable to view. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

How is the government or experts trying to solve this issue?

Throughout the years, the Korean government, which is responsible for managing the Korean sex education curriculum, has made efforts, most of which have been criticized as poor management or response to an issue.

In 2015, during the Park Geun-hye administration, the education ministry published a standardized sex education manual that was distributed to every school in Korea. It was even available to download online. It was a major project: It took the then-government two years to come up with the guideline, which cost 600 million won ($468,000), but it was immediately criticized by experts and the general public for being “sexist” and “having distorted views on sex.”

The manual included some questionable information like “Girls are susceptible to mood, while boys are susceptible to nude,” and recommended readers to “refrain from creating a situation of being alone together with a friend of the opposite sex.” Another section of the manual suggested that dating abuse happens when a woman doesn’t pay for dinner.

The education minister at the time said that it was “a misunderstanding” and these were only examples of “prevalent gender role stereotypes,” but proceeded to remove the problematic content from the manual. The move did not help make the manual any less controversial, however.

The manual has now been taken down from all online platforms, and the education ministry has yet to release an updated version. Instead, the National Education Commission under President Yoon Suk Yeol recently passed a review of the 2022 Revised Curriculum, which removed the terms “gender equality,” “sexual minority” and “sexuality.”

“The words ‘sex,’ ‘gender’ and ‘sexuality’ are linguistic terms for the characteristics of sex, but now we can’t teach them to students anymore?” Lee Myoung-hwa, director of the Aha Sexuality Education & Counseling Center for Youth in Seoul, said.

The same goes for sexual minorities, she added, saying, “just because we’re telling [students] what homosexuality is, it doesn’t simply mean we’re encouraging kids to invert their sexual identities and ultimately increase the number of gay people. It’s pure common sense.”

The illustrations, from the Korean version of “The Love Book” (2001) by Pernilla Stalfelt, were used as evidence by Rep. Kim Byeong-wook in arguing that sex education books "promote homosexuality" in his questions during an audit to the education minister in 2020. [KIM BYEONG-WOOK]

In other instances, sex education has caused political mudslinging among the conservative and progressive parties not only on how these topics should be dealt with but if they also should even be mentioned to children at all.

Three years ago, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family recalled seven children’s books among 199 that were chosen as part of a project called “Nadaum Books” that were to be sent to schools to help raise children’s awareness on gender and sex.

“They may be sex education books for children, but there are too many phrases of concern that are too explicit. This isn’t a matter of whether they help children become aware of gender sensitivity. It’s about how these books are glamorizing and stimulating homosexuality,” Kim Byeong-wook, a conservative People Power Party lawmaker, said at the National Assembly in 2020.

The debate over the Nadaum Books project became so messy that despite initially introducing them as one of the most respected and widely-used books in the sex education field in the world, the ministry withdrew the project in its entirety.

Ulsan is another major victim of society’s inertia. Ulsan was the first city in Korea to introduce the CSE into the public school system in 2021 and 2022 and win funds to make sex education mandatory for fifth graders and first-year middle school students. This came after an incident in 2020 when an elementary school teacher in the city assigned first graders homework to wash their underwear and made sexually harassing comments on photos of the assignment.

But the whole project has been halted due to budget cuts from the Ulsan Metropolitan Council after the city’s educational superintendent Noh Ok-hee died late last year.

The Korean version of Per Holm Knudsen's "How a Baby is Made" (1971) [JOONGANG PHOTO]

The illustrations, from the Korean version of Per Holm Knudsen's "How a Baby is Made" (1971), were used as evidence by Rep. Kim Byeong-wook in arguing that sex education books are "too explicit" in his questions during an audit to the education minister in 2020. [KIM BYEONG-WOOK]

How can the social discourse change for the better?

Experts say that a new norm is required, which can only be achieved by increasing the effort and budget for more academic research on sex education.

One possible approach is to benchmark other nations such as Switzerland, the first country in the world to make sex education mandatory in public schools since 1994, or Japan, which has a wider range of academic and research materials on adolescent sexuality.

“There aren’t enough statistics from the Korean government,” Aha Center’s Lee said. “The only data available shows the age at which adolescents started having sex and what percent have had a sexual experience or have used contraception. But what about parents’ opinions on how we should educate our children? How efficient can we say that our current sex education system is without that? And what exactly is the long-term plan?”

The lack of in-depth studies means that when disagreements arise, it is one side’s word against another’s due to the lack of evidence. And with the rise of online sex abuse crimes, including the so-called Nth Room case and more, adolescents need to be educated on how to protect themselves in the digital environment.

“Of course, not everyone can agree on the same thing, which is why we need to be rational when it comes to deciding on a new norm here,” Lee of the Ulsan sex education center said. “Even though we have international guidance [from Unesco], our society has rejected it, and I feel like it’s going to take Korea a very long time to finalize a manual that is also universally acceptable in terms of human rights.

“I’ve met with students for the past 17 years, and from what I’ve seen, their view on sex isn’t that promiscuous or negative,” she continued, “which is why we must never discredit it. No one can call sex an obscene act when it is a basic human instinct.”

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]