A whole bunch of Korean American and Asian American organizations and individuals have signed an opinion piece published in the San Francisco Chronicle, saying the paper's Diary of a Sex Slave series is misleading and contains cultural misconceptions.
The Chronicle stories highlight the trafficking of prostitutes from South Korea to the United States and makes extensive use of anecdotal information from one woman who says she was forced to work in massage parlors and brothels.
Certainly titillating stuff. Seems like there was a lot of research done, but there is a leap of faith that this one person is telling the whole truth. That's not to discount the issue of the smuggling of prostitutes, especially coerced or forced sex slavery, which no doubt exists. Then there are all the issues that the opinion piece brings up.
Posted by harry at October 24, 2006 12:52 PM
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while i certainly feel sorry for what one of the girls profiled had to go through, i found it unbelievably irresponsible of her to rack up $40K in shopping debt
Posted by: justme at October 24, 2006 4:42 PM
I understand, partly, why the Korean American community is upset. They get hardly any coverage in the Chronicle or any mainstream media and when they do, it's about a sex slave. Perhaps this series would not be so upsetting if there was more well-rounded coverage to begin with. Then it would just be one story among many about various aspects of the KA experience.
However, I hardly found the series to be written as "entertainment for the masses," or the photographs to be titalating, as the signers of the letter write. As a reader, I understand this is the story about one person, who is emblamatic of an underground problem, not all Koreans.
And this whole "the vast majority of whom are well-educated professionals and hardworking families" I find rather offputting. Hello model minority?
Posted by: Anonymous at October 25, 2006 11:38 PM
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