By 
If you are in the Shinchon area and are looking for something interesting to do, besides head down to the Hongik University area, there is always the Erotic Art Musuem you can check out instead:
Nestled behind the Hyundai Department Store next to Sinchon subway station, the Erotic Art Museum would be easy to miss save for a shiny golden replica of Michelangelo’s David outside that evokes both the elegance of some exhibits and the tawdriness of others.
The museum’s gregarious director, Won Myung-ku, did not stumble onto this calling by chance. A former worker in the tourist industry, he was blessed with the opportunity to do extensive traveling, during which time he came across and collected traditional craftworks dealing with sex from as far as Malaysia, Thailand and Africa. These experiences brought home to him how few such artifacts he had seen from his homeland.
“A culture of sex has been lacking in this country,’’ he said, “and I want to contribute to increasing the level of sex education among Koreans.’’
I find it very ironic that Mr. Won thinks Korea lacks a culture of sex when you are literally surrounded by the sex industry here. Just about every US Army camp and Air Force Bases have clubs that offer prositution right outside the main gates. Than there are multiple red light districts in every city here, not to mention the barber shops, massage parlors, and tea shops that offer their own sex services.
He did have some interesting things to say in regards to sex within the Yangban class during the Chosun dynasty:
Under Korea’s obligations as a vassal of China, sons of Koryo monarchs were required to live in China for a time, during which they would both find a wife, and learn of the more liberal and sophisticated sexual mores of the Chinese court. By contrast, as Choson kings set about applying a rigorous form of Confucianism to Korea, beliefs about sex, especially as far as women were concerned, became suffocatingly straight-laced.
As with many a stridently conservative society, however, hypocrisy and quirky sexual behavior flourished. Sex toys used by women of the “yangban,’’ or Korean aristocracy, are on show at the museum, along with coins engraved with lewd pictures that were redeemed at contemporary equivalents of brothels by children as young as 12, who, having been forced to marry young in order to escape the clutches of Chinese suitors, had to learn about sex in a hurry.
Won believes that Choson sexual attitudes retain an unhealthy influence on modern Korean society. With an often disarming candor, he expounded on the dangers of repressing sexuality, saying that to sully the pleasure humans naturally derive from sex is to cultivate the practice of deviant, even dangerous, sexual acts. Of course, one man’s deviant behavior is another man’s night at home with a video, but Mr. Won cited the example of genital piercings, using some large pictures to support his claim.
Elsewhere, there is a wide array of phalluses, used for everything from preventing disease to promoting fertility to fighting infidelity. Apparently, in Choson times it was believed that if women in the village were committing adultery, it was a sure-fire sign of too much “umgi,’’ the feminine form of “ki,’’ or the “life-force’’ which is central to much Eastern philosophy and medicine. The placement of a large wooden phallus in the village was considered the best way to deal with this problem.
Maybe we need to put some of these phalluses out on our military bases as well.
