ONE MORE INVASION: AIDS and ITS KOREAN STIGMAS by DAVID
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ONE MORE INVASION: AIDS AND ITS KOREAN STIGMAS By DAVID HAZZAN Integrated Studies Final Project Essay (MAIS 700) submitted to Dr. Michael Gismondi in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts – Integrated Studies Athabasca, Alberta August, 2013 2 MAIS 700 D. Hazzan TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 3 Introduction 5 Research Question 7 The interdisciplinary approach, relevant disciplines, and key themes 7 Theme 1: Nationalism, xenophobia, and the AIDS invasion 8 Theme 2: Korea’s Masculinist Culture and Neo-Confucianism 12 Theme 3: Political exploitation of the above fears 16 Conclusion 17 References 20 3 MAIS 700 D. Hazzan ABSTRACT AIDS worldwide is tainted with stigma. In Korea, local ideologies and conditions make the stigma different from the way it is applied elsewhere, and an interdisciplinary approach helps us understand those differences. This paper asks the question: What are Korean perceptions of HIV/AIDS stigma, how do they manifest themselves, and most importantly, where do they come from? I draw from sociology, history, and political science to analyze the problem, and I group the analysis into three overarching and inter-related themes. First is Korea’s sense of xenophobia and fear of the outside world. This is explained through nationalist conditioning (one country, one language, one bloodline) and a history of being constantly invaded and subjugated by larger powers. My analysis claims that HIV/AIDS is represented by Korean nationalists a different sort of “foreign invasion” that could destroy Korea’s “pure bloodline” from the outside. Second is Korea’s masculinist and sexist culture that treats women as incapable of making their own sexual decisions, especially when it comes to foreign men, who are perceived as less moral, more sexually manipulative, and more likely infected with AIDS. This patriarchal masculinity draws on the ideology of Neo-Confucianism, adopted by Koreans in the 14th century and still very relevant today. It is another source of AIDS stigma, which draw their power from other broad sexual ideologies, particularly the cult of female chastity. Third, is the populist political exploitation of HIV/AIDS as a threat to blood, nation, and womanhood by politicians, the media, and others seeking or wielding power. The paper concludes by arguing that a broad-based sexual education campaign is necessary to lessen the stigma of HIV/AIDS in Korea. But education is not enough, and further political 4 MAIS 700 D. Hazzan development is necessary to ensure multicultural integration and women’s rights, in order to reduce AIDS stigma to mythology. 5 MAIS 700 D. Hazzan Introduction Since the discovery of AIDS in 1981, sufferers of AIDS and carriers of HIV the world over have been the subject of stigma and discrimination. Herek (199) writes that people with HIV and AIDS have been evicted from their homes, fired from their jobs, and shunned by family and friends. Early surveys of public opinion revealed widespread fear of the disease, lack of accurate information about its transmission, and willingness to support draconian public policies that would restrict civil liberties in the name of fighting AIDS. (p.1106) South Korea1 has been particularly stigmatizing towards people with HIV/AIDS. A popular Korean TV drama in 2007 told a tear jerking story about an eight year old girl infected with HIV through a blood transfusion, who is then ostracized by her community (Lim, 2007). There was much sympathy for the fictional girl – but there is considerably less sympathy for actual AIDS sufferers in a country where most people don’t get HIV from “innocent” methods like blood transfusion, but rather through what is viewed as sinful or unbecoming sexual behaviour. According to the same article about the TV series, A 2005 survey showed 52 percent of 2,022 South Koreans said they would not send their children to a school where there was an HIV carrier, according to South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 40 percent of those surveyed also said HIV sufferers should be quarantined in special facilities, according to the survey. (Lim, 2007) 1 Henceforth, Korea. 6 MAIS 700 D. Hazzan In Sohn & Park’s 2012 survey of Seoul high school students, they found significant stigmatization of HIV-positive individuals (p. 28). Koreans who are HIV-positive are usually afraid their secret will leak out, and they will lose their jobs (Um, 2012). Why is this? First, we should define what stigma is, and what we mean by stigma. Stigma as a concept was described by E. Goffman (1986) as “an attribute that is deeply discrediting” (p. 5) Regarding those who have a stigma, “We construct a stigma-theory, an ideology to explain his inferiority and account for the danger he represents, sometimes rationalizing an animosity based on other differences.” (Goffman, 1986, p. 5) Sickness as a whole is often stigmatized (S. Sontag, 1978), and AIDS particularly so (S. Sontag, 1978, Herek 1995). Particularly relevant to AIDS is the “symbolic stigma” that goes on top of the regular stigma. According to Herek (1999), “Symbolic AIDS stigma results from the social meanings attached to AIDS. It represents the use of the disease as a vehicle for expressing a variety of attitudes, especially attitudes toward the groups perceived to be at risk for AIDS and the behaviours that transmit HIV.” (p. 1110) Korea is a historically ethnically homogenous country, subject to repeated invasions from its neighbours and abroad, and with a strong antipathy to difference. Sexuality is constrained both by Neo-Confucianist norms inherited in the 14th century from China, and by blood nationalism. Politicians exploit fears of another “invasion” in describing AIDS, and as a result, people with HIV/AIDS, or people suspected of having HIV/AIDS, are subject to widespread discrimination. HIV/AIDS is also used as a proxy for other, less “acceptable” forms of discrimination. 7 MAIS 700 D. Hazzan This paper will use an interdisciplinary approach to explore the ideologies that surround HIV/AIDS stigma in Korea. Research Question My research question is: What are Korean perceptions of HIV/AIDS stigma, how do they manifest themselves, and most importantly, where do they come from? The interdisciplinary approach, relevant disciplines, and key themes HIV/AIDS stigma can be viewed from an innumerable number of disciplines: health studies, religious studies, sociology, psychology, anthropology, gender studies, political science, and many more. In Korea, practical disciplines regarding HIV/AIDS stigma can also include history and law. For the purposes of this study, I have chosen three main disciplines to focus on: sociology, history, and political science. The best way to explain and integrate these often-overlapping disciplines is to work them into three themes. These themes are: First, Korea’s sense of xenophobia and fear of the unknown, which is explained through nationalist conditioning (one country, one language, one bloodline) and a history of being constantly invaded and subjugated by larger powers. HIV/AIDS is almost always represented as being “foreign” to Korea. It represents a different sort of “foreign invasion” that could destroy Korea from outside. Sociology, history, and political science all play a 8 MAIS 700 D. Hazzan major role here: sociology explains how it functions in a social setting, history as to how it came about, and political science as to how it’s used to maintain hegemony and power. Second, there is Korea’s masculinist and sexist culture that treats women as incapable of making their own sexual decisions, especially when it comes to foreign men, who are perceived as less moral, more sexually manipulative, and above all, more likely to be infected with AIDS. This relates especially to the ideology of Neo-Confucianism, adopted by Koreans in the 14th century and still very relevant today. It also relates to broader sexual ideologies, particularly the cult of chastity. Sociology and history are also key in this area: women’s subjugation is a common sociological preoccupation, and history examines where it comes from and how it manifested itself unto the present time. Political science is somewhat less important here, though there are power relationships involved that are important. Third, there is the exploitation of both the theories above by politicians and others seeking power. This relates to political science almost exclusively, and is a theme that deserves less scrutiny compared to the others, since it is wholly derivative of them. Theme 1: Nationalism, xenophobia, and the AIDS invasion Nationalism in Korea, like elsewhere in the world, is a new phenomenon that most people believe is very old (Anderson, 2006, p. 5). Most common in Korea is a form of “blood nationalism”, which dates back to an early 20th century revival of the legend of Tangun, the mythical “father” or the Korean people. “Based on a masculinized construction of the nation as patrilineal family, […] Tangun [was sanctified] as the originator, the bloodline, of the Korean nation.” (N. Kim, 2008, p. 24, italics mine.) As Korean nationalists saw it, this myth 9 MAIS 700 D. Hazzan gave Koreans “their own pure bloodline”, especially in contrast to their Japanese occupiers (Myers, 2010, p. 27). More recently, “a survey conducted in South Korea in December 1999 […] found that 68.2 percent of the respondents in South Korea consider ‘blood’ the most important criterion for defining the Korean nation” and as a result of this racialized notion of nationality, “South Koreans feel much stronger attachment to Korean residents in Japan (62 percent) and the United States (63 percent) than they do to Japanese (18 percent) or Americans (17 percent) living in Korea.” (G.W. Shin, 2006, p. 2-3). AIDS is perceived as a direct foreign attack on the nation’s pure bloodline. Cheng (2005) notes that “Rather than an issue of individual health, HIV/AIDS is construed as a national and nationalist concern.” (p.