The Commercialized Sex Industry and the US Military
by Diana Zhou
Overview
The following contains discussions of sensitive topics, including domestic violence and sexual assault.
Across the world, the commercialized sex industry springs up around US military bases. When there is a large US military presence, usually one finds high levels of prostitution.[1] One specific study in Thailand indicates that it is 3.5 times more likely to find commercialized sex workers within a half hour of a US military base.[2]
These commercialized sex industries occur near bases because of power imbalances due to patriarchy, political structures, and economic conditions. Through a post-colonial feminist lens, I examine how the combination of gender, power, hypermasculinity, and militarism contribute to the development of the commercialized sex industry in and around US military institutions abroad.
Introduction
The post-colonial feminist lens defines prostitution, voluntary or involuntary, as a form of exploitation of women (contrary to the argument that sex work is simply another occupation). Post-colonial feminists like Janice Raymond argue that women enter the sex industry “because they have been forced, coerced or deceived. Others enter [by personal ‘choice’] because offenders exploit their vulnerabilities including past and present sexual abuse, poverty and economic disadvantage, marginalization, and loss of self; they also use predatory recruitment tactics that can include peer or family pressure.”[3] More generally, Western feminist and political discourses argue that women from economically disadvantaged countries often experience conditions created by “problematic hierarchies of privilege and institutional power structures of the West (White, middle-class, United States and Western Europe).”[4] This hierarchy inadvertently subjugates these women to increase racism, sexism, and fetishization. However, women choose to enter the industry, this argument goes, they are all “victims” of the power structures that exploit women and their vulnerabilities for individual gain.[5] People making this case would see the commercialized sex industry around US military institutions as the result of exploitation, power imbalances, objectification, and commodification. Beyond the physical trauma, women in the commercialized sex industry also suffer from psychological fear and abuse at the hands of the soldiers and the governmental officials who are complicit in their exploitation. In this essay, I will therefore refer to the women participating in the commercial sex industry as victims of sexual exploitation. At the same time, we must not view women in the Global South as being only “a sea of poor, benighted people living under the shadow—or the veil—of oppressive cultures,” but rather women with their own agency.[6] In this case, however, the choices they have may be constrained by the power structures around them.
The exploitative sex industry around American military bases is driven in part by colonialism and neo-colonialism, as well as by practices that contribute these, such as Eurocentrism and racial fetishization. There are 670 active US military sites in overseas territories and states around the world.[7] This is one of the means by which the US extends its power beyond its borders. Those bases are populated by mostly men, accounting for 82.5% of the current 168,571 active-duty military personnel stationed overseas.[8] And the US military as an institution has a long history of either actively promoting prostitution to meet deployed soldiers’ “needs,” or turning a blind eye to it. This is then exacerbated when local women are not only objectified but fetishized, as “other.”
Women who turn to prostitution around the bases are operating in a context in which patriarchy (local and international), racism, and colonialism both reduce their options in life and ensure that American soldiers will see them as less than wholly human based on their economic circumstances, geographic location, ethnicity, and gender. Under such conditions, they are vulnerable to sexual exploitation – indeed, such dynamics may be completely normalized in ways that reinforce them.
In this essay, I will highlight how US military culture reinforces such power imbalances, leading to the objectification and commodification of women. US military culture centers around a “militarized masculinity,” wherein women are considered inferior, machismo is celebrated, and dominance is applauded. This, combined with Americans’ sense of superiority and fetishization of foreign women, especially Asian women, has led to the sexual exploitation of local women where US military personnel are stationed. In Korea and Okinawa, American soldiers hired prostitutes and many also were sexually violent, committing assault and even rape; in Iraq, the latter came to the fore. The differences in the nature of the sexual exploitation and abuse lies in the relationship between the locals and the soldiers. In Korea, the lack of military confrontations eased the Americans’ perception of locals and, meanwhile, the American soldiers fetishized the Asian women. In Iraq, conflict between the Iraqis and the Americans reinforces a deeply racist, Islamophobia — many American soldiers sought retribution against the locals through sexual violence against Iraqi women.
History
The US Department of Defense has long recognized the attachment of the commercialized sex industries to military bases. Officials have not only failed to combat this situation but have played an integral part in the continuation of these sex industries. One historical example of this “partnership” emerged during the Korean War, where the US military set up the euphemistically named “comfort stations” with the approval of the Korean government. Because the US military remained after the armistice in 1953, the commercialized sex industry continued to boom around US military bases in Korea. By 1958, the commercialized sex industry exploited an estimated 300,000 women. After the military junta takeover in 1980, the Korean government officially recognized the “camptowns,” or areas surrounding the military bases, as “special districts” which became “deeply stigmatized twilight zones” only catering to American troops and off-limits to Koreans.[9] Over the years, camptowns developed into fully commercialized towns with bars and karaoke and became critical to the resurgence of the South Korean economy.[10] In 1991, American soldiers contributed one billion dollars to the Korean economy (1% of their GNP).[11] The fiscal benefits of the camptowns cemented the symbiotic relationship between the South Korean government and the American military. The Korean government began to patronize its commercialized sex industry. Official records showed “male officials strategizing to encourage GIs to spend their money on women” and “officials offer[ing] classes in basic English and etiquette to encourage women to sell themselves more effectively and earn more money.”[12] Both the US and the South Korean governments also authorized official STD testing sites for the women in the camptowns. It was an organized, sanctioned sex industry operating at the behest of the US military. The institutional access to Korean women reinforced American soldiers’ perception of Korean women as the feminine, submissive “Oriental Other” serving the masculine, domineering West.[13]
https://youtu.be/oRr5t9kw2C4?si=upd_hq87ZzfvQlAo
How Asia Fetishization enabled the commercialized sex industry for US troops to boom in South for Years
US soldiers exercised a false sense of American moral and racial superiority that reinforced their misogynistic norms.[14] Unfortunately, they were abetted by male Korean leaders in a deeply patriarchal society. “Jeon,” a survivor of the camp towns, who now lives on public assistance and could only remain in the camptowns due to the stigma around her, says:
“Women like me were the biggest sacrifice for my country’s alliance with the Americans… Looking back, I think my body was not mine, but the government’s and the U.S. military’s.[15]”
Itaewon’s Hooker Hill, known for being frequented by US military personnel during the war, was controlled by the US and South Korean police. Sex workers were regulated: they were required to carry venereal disease cards, and those who tested positive for STDs were sent to the “monkey house” in Sinchon-dong, where they would be treated before being allowed to come back.[16]
To this day, Itaewon’s “Hooker Hill” continues to be frequented by prostitutes and their customers, which still include US soldiers and civilian personnel.
Picture link: https://backpackerlee.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/itaewon-hookers-and-food/
After South Korea’s economic growth in the mid-1990s, Filipina, Russian, and Soviet Republic women replaced South Korean women (who could stop working at the camptowns and seek other economic opportunities) to work in the camptowns for US soldiers. To aid this transition, the Korean government created the E-6 “entertainer visa,” which allowed promoters and owners of the “entertainment venues” to recruit these women overseas as singers or dancers.[17] After the promoters and owners brought the women into Korea under the E-6 visa, they confiscated their passports and charged them a fee that the women had to pay off by working. This became a kind of inescapable indentured servitude as the promoters or owners charged the women hidden fees or money, and the women struggled to pay off the debt. Institutionally, the South Korean state assured “immediate arrest, fines, imprisonment, or deportation” for any woman attempting to escape and violent retribution would be imposed on those indebted by the debtors.[18] In 2004, after intense protests from feminist organizations and legislators, the Korean government outlawed prostitution and the US followed suit. Both governments began monitoring camptowns and banned US soldiers from venues suspected of prostitution or trafficking.[19]
However, a culture of protection grew as the military police shielded the bars and GIs from US authorities. Ko Dong-Hwan from The Korea Times reports that there are still active camptowns, also known as “entertainment districts,” near US military sites.[20] In one unclassified report, the US Army in Korea Area IV command published a list of known prostitution or trafficking establishments in the three entertainment districts of Daegu, Waegwan, and Busan in their area in 2021.[21] Testimonies from retired soldiers stationed in Korea say that the soldiers simply came up with inventive ways to seek out new venues and avoid detection.[22] Similar circumstances arose in Vietnam and Japan. Anywhere that the US military went, a commercialized sex industry, furthered by militarized masculinity, sprung up next to it.
Legislation
To understand the legislation around outlawing and prosecuting prostitution related to the presence of the US military, one must understand the Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA). A Status of Forces Agreement is intended to “establish the framework under which U.S. military personnel operate in a foreign country and how domestic laws of the foreign jurisdiction apply toward U.S. personnel in that country.”[23] Depending on what was negotiated, it may be shared jurisdiction or complete jurisdiction to one party (where one party “has the power to exercise ‘all criminal and disciplinary jurisdiction’”); in most cases, when the crime concerns an American against an American or Americans under an official duty, then the responsibility for prosecution falls to the US.[24]
The United States also maintains its own legislation specifically related to the US military governing the protection of trafficked persons and the prosecution of trafficking cases. In 2002, George W. Bush signed National Security Presidential Directive 22 (NSPD 22), a “‘zero tolerance’ policy towards trafficking in persons among members of the armed forces,” which was implemented by the Department of Defense under DOD Instructure 2200.01.[25] Additionally, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) holds jurisdiction over the conduct of all military personnel,[26] so in conjunction with NSPD 22, President George Bush signed Executive Order 13387 in 2005, where patronizing a prostitute became a specific, chargeable offense under Article 134 of the UCMJ.[27] However, the US often manipulates the jurisdiction in favor of US soldiers. A quick glance into the number of civilian complaints filed compared to the official arrests and trials of US soldiers stationed in Okinawa affirms the domestic policy and institutional bias that favor American soldiers.[28] A later DOD Strategic Action Plan created by the Combating Trafficking in Persons Program found DOD’s compliance with 2200.01 inadequate. It strove to reduce the “risk and incidence of trafficking in persons within DOD garrison and deployed military operations.”[29] However, this has not led to a drastic decrease in the presence of commercialized sex industries around US bases because these laws are poorly implemented and face the barrier of the infamous US military culture of protection.
US Military Culture and Its Effect on Okinawa
The ineffectiveness of much of the legislation intended to protect women from exploitation is directly tied to the current culture of the US military. First, within the US military perspective, masculinity and femininity are socially ascribed normative behaviors for a given gender.[30] The female identity is often seen as life-giving, whereas the male identity is seen as life-taking.[31] This is not unique to the US military, though it tends to be exaggerated within the institution. Thus, among American troops, masculinity traits tend to merge perfectly with militarized personalities, highlighting “toughness, violence, aggression, courage, control, and domination.”[32] The life-taking and life-giving rhetoric helps legitimize unequal gender relations as well as the use of military force.[33] This exaggerated idea of “manhood” then comes to rely on the devaluation of gendered others as well as those othered by race or sexuality.[34]
These conditions make sexual exploitation more likely. Considering women inferior and commodified is part of “a masculinity centered on demonstrating one’s strength and dominance over others who are considered weaker, inferior, and deserving of being dominated.”[35] It is especially prominent “‘in places where there is an ethnic difference between GIs and sex workers,” where “military prostitution can also reinforce societal beliefs about supposed racial and ethnic superiority, and the naturalness of some people serving and others being serviced.’”[36] Given the immense power of militarized masculinity, there is a substantial power disparity between the military and the women military personnel come in contact with, fostering a culture of militarized sexual violence based on gender, region, race, and class.
This culture of militarized masculinity also links to the military culture of self-protection. Because men normalize this behavior in their barracks, when an outsider, whether the government, the press, or the people themselves, questions this, the military closes rank and forms a circle of protection. The NCIS case files in the military bases of Okinawa, Japan best illustrate this pattern. Suzuyo Takazato, co-chair of the feminist group Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence and chair of the Rape Emergency Intervention Counseling Center Okinawa, reported:
“Both the US and Japanese government want to minimize people’s awareness of the number of crimes committed by US service members on Okinawa. They think if this information becomes public, it will harm US-Japan relations. They believe that US-Japan relationship should take priority over the rights of Okinawans.”[37]
The US has used the SOFA to manipulate what “on-duty” means and “impeded Japanese police’s ability to interview suspects,” such as only “[requiring] suspects to be handed over to Japanese authorities after charges have been filed.”[38] This disregard for the locals’ rights demonstrates the roots of imperialism often found in militarized masculinities — members of the US military have often seen themselves as being above local law; in Japan, this meant that they implemented the SOFA to protect American soldiers who broke the Japanese law and prevent them from being held accountable. Thus, militarized masculinity is a never-ending cycle of incubation, encouragement, and protection of the exploitation of women by US military forces abroad.
Okinawa’s Red-Light District
Case study: Iraq
In Iraq, US military culture also fostered physical, legal, and economic coercion wherein women were forced into sex work. Iraq is generally overlooked in the topic of commercialized sex zones around US military bases; more of the literature has been focused on Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Iraq is a predominantly Muslim society, where attitudes toward sex are repressive and sex work is deeply stigmatized. Despite this, the US-led war in Iraq from 2003-2011 led to the burgeoning of a commercialized sex industry driven by the same kinds of structural attributes and societal attitudes towards Iraqi women that existed in the Asian countries.
Under the US SOFA in Iraq, article 12 stated, “The United States shall have the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over members of the United States Forces and of the civilian component for matters arising inside agreed facilities and areas: during duty status outside agreed facilities and areas.”[39] However, as in Japan and Korea, the SOFA offered maximum protection for Americans. The Department of Defense can define “on duty” and “agreed facilities and areas” as it wishes to force the transfer of criminal cases from local authorities to US jurisdiction. Once that is achieved, US authorities often dismiss the cases or ensure that the perpetrators will only receive minimal punishment.
Before diving into the actual circumstances in Iraq, the situation for women in pre-occupation and during the occupation of Iraq needs to be outlined. Even before the US invasion, decades of war created room for human trafficking gangs that took women for sexual exploitation and prostitution.[40] Primarily, they targeted “women and girls [who were] from poor families in search of employment.”[41] At times, “police officers [were] sometimes also implicated in the trafficking network.”[42] After the US-led occupation began, the fragility of the Iraqi state contributed to this cycle of violence as the state failed “to crack down on armed militias, criminal gangs and Islamist groups who [targeted] women systematically.”[43] Both before and during the occupation, there was a lack of a “second option,” as Iraq’s deeply patriarchal society does not offer women institutionalized protection against their abusers. Human rights organizations report that “women’s shelters do not exist in south and central Iraq,” which means that women do not have the option of medical care, food, shelter, and supportive services after they leave their pimps or abusers.[44] This lack of women-centered support exacerbates prostitution, as women do not see a way to survive outside of their exploitive environments (either their pimps or abusers) and “are afraid to report [their exploitation] because of the stigma, poor accountability, and fear of retribution or ‘honor killings.’”[45] Honor killings, rooted in some interpretations of Islamic law, “target women whose actions—actual or suspected—violate the honor of their families, an honor that depends on the sexual purity of its female members.”[46] Thus, there were structural and cultural complicities of the Iraqi government and society from before and during the US occupation that foster an environment of exploitation of women.
Iraqi women refugees fleeing Basra, southern Iraq, on March 30, 2003
Picture link: https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2023/03/20/1164272335/iraq-war-20th-anniversay-photos-american-invasion
In an infamous, 2006 war crime case in which five US Army soldiers raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl in Al-Mahmudiyah, Iraq, the US soldiers’ attitudes towards Iraqi women showed a complete disregard for the women’s humanity.[47] When Lt. Col. Richard Anderson, the judge of the military tribunal, asked one of the defendants, Spc. James Barker, why he did it, Barker answered:
“I hated Iraqis, your honor… they can smile at you, then shoot you in your face without even thinking about it.”[48]
Barker’s statement reflected the general negative relationship between Iraqi civilians and American soldiers. The US forces have been implicated in dozens of deliberate violent attacks against women, including the massacres of Haditha in 2005 and Mukaradeeb in 2004, signaling a total disregard for Iraqi lives.[49] From Barker’s statement, it can be inferred that the sexual exploitation of Iraqi women[taw1] is not due to fetishization. Rather, it is justified by hatred and a desire to punish Iraqis for what the soldiers are going through. The Army Justice Advocate General attorney assigned to the case, Will Fischbach, recounted the situation leading up to the massacre:
“That unit… I think at that time… had suffered more casualties than any other unit in the entire conflict. They lost their platoon leader… had been quite literally blown up… his body dismembered… due to an IED. Two squad leaders had been shot in the face by two Iraqis… that everyone thought was a friendly face… It plays on your psyche.”
https://youtu.be/vK5tFIfYpAY?si=6NoldXFjzkhw-sbr&t=1229
Army JAG recounts prosecuting the Mahmudiyah Massacre
The young victim in question was not involved with any form of insurgency, but these soldiers targeted her because of her nationality. This hatred, in combination with the training and inundated ideologies of being “life-takers” and wielding the firepower to do so, created the perfect storm for sexual violence against Iraqi women, wrongly justified by the disregard for their humanity.
In Iraq, during the US occupation, the same dynamics that occurred in Asia led a commercialized sex industry to spring up around US military bases. Patriarchy, economic inequities, racism and White Supremacy, and the very fact that the US military could occupy Iraqi territory and act with impunity meant that a sex industry would be established for US servicemen. And, indeed, US personnel and local militias were able to smuggle vulnerable women onto or near bases, creating an Iraqi version of “camptowns.” As reported by Chandrasekaran, an embedded journalist in Iraq, ““during the American occupation in Iraq following the toppling of Saddam Hussein, in 2003 and 2004, the Coalition of Provisional Authority (CPA) run by the US military, allied forces (Britain, Poland, Australia, Spain, and Italy), and private defense firms (e.g., contractors such as Halliburton) established a 7-square-mile American enclave in central Baghdad,” known as the “Green Zone.[50] It became a haven for the commercialized sex industry, frequented by soldiers and contractors, as “military rules and Iraqi customs did not necessarily apply to its inhabitants.”[51] The same occurred by the Balad Air Base, an Iraqi base requisitioned by the US Army and renamed Joint Base Balad in 2008. American men from the base, both military and contractors, would frequent a hotel close to the base, the al-Burhan, where the hotel manager was running a smuggling and prostitution ring.[52] Investigators found that four women had moved onto the base as housekeepers, but also were prostituting themselves under a pimp from the hotel.[53] While the reports did not indicate the presence of sexual violence, it can be inferred from the nature of sexual exploitation and commercialized sex industry that violence likely occurred during prostitution. Only in this case, it could be exacerbated by the racism and hatred of Iraqi women held by the American soldiers. When investigators wanted to report the prostitution to the US government, they were stopped by authorities and terminated from their roles.[54] The culture of protection from the military and authorities, afforded only to those who echo their psyche of “militarized masculine men,” once again closed ranks. No official investigation or prosecution ever resulted from the sexual exploitation of Iraqi women at Joint Base Balad.
The Green Zone in Baghdad
Picture link: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iraq-baghdad-green-zone-guns-troops-violence-looms
Joint Base Balad
Picture link: https://en.mehrnews.com/news/170203/Rockets-hit-an-airbase-in-Iraq-s-Saladin-report
Conclusion
The presence of commercial sex industries around American military bases in Korea and Iraq affirms the following:
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There is a broader culture of militarized masculinity (misogyny, fetishization, Islamophobia, white supremacy) and protection of their own (military’s poor investigative mechanisms and a desire to prosecute under current legislation) that fosters the growth of commercialized sex industries around US military bases.
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Women who are involved in the commercialized sex industry around US military institutions are often involved, both involuntarily and voluntarily, as a direct result of the displacement and economic havoc brought on by the US military forces.
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Patriarchal and conservative societal attitudes exacerbated the conditions in both countries. There is a culture of protection on both sides, where both the US military and the host governments wish to avoid embarrassment, wink and nod at soldiers’ “needs,” potentially benefit financially, and thus resist prosecution, leaving the women unsupported.
Under these circumstances, the prevalence of the commercialized sex industry around US military institutions cannot be addressed without first eliminating the culture of militarized masculinity and protection, the underlying societal and economic situations, and the attitudes of the host government. Enacting effective policy will depend on the type of commercialized sex industry in each case. In Korea feminist movements and the broader media have had some success and built some momentum to stop the sex industry around military bases from, and latest developments also point to the judiciary being an influential actor. In a 2022 landmark ruling, for example, the Korean Supreme Court ordered the state to pay between $3 to $8 million won in restitution toward each of the 122 plaintiffs, who all worked in government sanctioned brothels to service American soldiers from 1957 to 2008. [55] The court ruled that the Korean government actively endorsed prostitution “in order to maintain the political alliance with the U.S. and for economic reasons, such as foreign currency earnings.”[56] In Iraq, NGOs or government organizations could combat the preconditions of sexual exploitation by establishing more networks for women to work, live, and receive healthcare. Generally, there can be more internal military investigation and education towards addressing militarized masculinity, not only for the sake of combating prostitution but also creating a safe work environment for the minority of women serving in the forces. The latest Workplace and Gender Relation Survey of Military Members conclude that 33% of active component women experience sexual harassment or assault.[57] Regardless, it is evident that only by addressing patriarchal norms, both in the US military and in the localities where its bases reside; by extending respect, services, and opportunities to local women; and by ending the US military’s complicity in creating a culture of impunity can progress be made toward eliminating the commercial sex industry around US military installations.
References
[1] Michael Shively et al., “A National Overview of Prostitution and Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction Efforts, Final Report,” Office of Justice Programs (US Department of Justice, April 30, 2012), accessed December 31, 2023.
[2] Abel Brodeur, Warn N. Lekfuangfu, and Yanos Zylberberg, “War, Migration and the Origins of the Thai Sex Industry,” Journal of the European Economic Association, November 9, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvx037.
[3] Raymond, Janice G, “Not a Choice, Not a Job: Exposing the Myths about Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade,” Choice Reviews Online 51, no. 07 (February 20, 2014): 51–4158, https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.51-4158.
[4] Weiss and Enrile, “The US Military–Prostitution Complex, Patriarchy, and Masculinity,” 407.
[5] Weiss, Eugenia L., and Annalisa Enrile, 'The US Military–Prostitution Complex, Patriarchy, and Masculinity: A Transnational Feminist Perspective of the Sexual Global Exploitation of Women', in Kristen Zaleski, and others (eds), Women's Journey to Empowerment in the 21st Century: A Transnational Feminist Analysis of Women's Lives in Modern Times (2019; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Oct. 2019),
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[7] Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment, “Base Structure Report – FY 2023 Baseline,” Department of Defense, September 30, 2022, accessed December 31, 2023, https://www.acq.osd.mil/eie/Downloads/BSI/Base%20Structure%20Report%20FY22.xlsx.
[8] Department of Defense, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy, and Defense Manpower Data Center staff, “2022 Demographic Profile,” Military OneSource (The Inner City Fund, 2023), https://www.militaryonesource.mil/data-research-and-statistics/military-community-demographics/2022-demographics-profile/.
[9] David Vine, “Women’s Labor, Sex Work and U.S. Military Bases Abroad,” Salon, accessed October 10, 2023, https://www.salon.com/2017/10/08/womens-labor-sex-work-and-u-s-military-bases-abroad/.
[10] Vine, “Women’s Labor, Sex Work and U.S. Military Bases Abroad.”
[11] Katharine Moon, Sex among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations (Columbia University Press, 1997), https://doi.org/10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim200070130.
[12] Vine, “Women’s Labor, Sex Work and U.S. Military Bases Abroad.”
[13] Chungmoo Choi, “Nationalism and Construction of Gender in Korea,” in Dangerous Women Gender and Korean Nationalism (Routledge, 2012), 14, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203379424-5.
[14] Maria Höhn and Seungsook Moon, “Introduction,” in Over There: Living with the U.S. Military Empire from World War Two to the Present, by Maria Höhn and Seungsook Moon (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), 20.
[15] Vine, “Women’s Labor, Sex Work and U.S. Military Bases Abroad.”
[16] Taejin Hwang, “‘Re-Membering’ South Korea’s Militarized Landscapes in Pax Americana: Post-Cold War US Military Camps, Camptowns, and Former Camptown Women,” International Journal of Korean History 28, no. 2 (August 31, 2023): 181–218, https://ijkh.khistory.org/journal/view.php?number=585.
[17] Vine, “Women’s Labor, Sex Work and U.S. Military Bases Abroad.”
[18] Vine, “Women’s Labor, Sex Work and U.S. Military Bases Abroad.”
[19] Vine, “Women’s Labor, Sex Work and U.S. Military Bases Abroad.”
[20] 고동환, “The Curse of E-6-2,” The Korea Times, October 31, 2018, accessed December 31, 2023, https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/10/177_255570.html.
[21] United States Forces Korea, “USFK Off Limits Areas As of 27JUL21,” U.S. Army, July 27, 2021, accessed December 31, 2023, https://www.usfk.mil/Portals/105/Documents/OffLimits/Area%20IV%20Off%20Limits%20As%20of%2027JUL21.pdf?ver=as8HswYsbea6oCwNH_u3XQ%3D%3D.
[22] Vine, “Women’s Labor, Sex Work and U.S. Military Bases Abroad.”
[23] USAF Legal Office, “Status of Force Agreement (SOFA),” United States Air Force Academy, accessed October 29, 2023, https://www.usafa.af.mil/Portals/21/documents/Leadership/JudgeAdvocate/SOFA.pdf?ver=2015-10-30-115236-060.
[24] Anna Belle Hoots, “Severing the Connection between Sex Trafficking and U.S. Military Bases Overseas,” Fordham Law Review 88, no. 2 (November 2, 2019): 740, https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5636&context=flr.
[25] Hoots, Severing the Connection Between Sex Trafficking and U.S. Military Trafficking and U.S. Military Bases Overseas,” 744-745.
[26] 10 USC Ch. 47: Uniform Code of Military Justice.
[27] Exec. Order No. 13387, Amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States” (2005), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2005-10-18/pdf/05-20944.pdf.
[28] Jon Mitchell, “NCIS Case Files Reveal Undisclosed U.S. Military Sex Crimes in Okinawa,” The Intercept, December 15, 2021, accessed October 17, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2021/10/03/okinawa-sexual-crimes-us-military/.
[29] Hoots, Severing the Connection Between Sex Trafficking and U.S. Military Trafficking and U.S. Military Bases Overseas,” 745.
[30] Beniamino Cislaghi and Lori Heise, “Gender Norms and Social Norms: Differences, Similarities and Why They Matter in Prevention Science,” Sociology of Health and Illness 42, no. 2 (December 13, 2019): 407–22, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13008.
[31] Inger Skjelsbæk, “Sexual Violence and War: Mapping Out a Complex Relationship,” European Journal of International Relations 7, no. 2 (June 2001): 220, https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066101007002003.
[32] Maya Eichler, “Militarized Masculinities in International Relations,” The Brown Journal of World Affairs 21, no. 1 (2014): 82, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24591032.
[33] Eichler, “Militarized Masculinities in International Relations,” 83.
[34] Eichler, “Militarized Masculinities in International Relations,” 83.
[35] Eugenia L. Weiss and Annalisa Enrile, “The US Military–Prostitution Complex, Patriarchy, and Masculinity: A Transnational Feminist Perspective of the Sexual Global Exploitation of Women,” in Women’s Journey to Empowerment in the 21st Century: A Transnational Feminist Analysis of Women’s Lives in Modern Times (Oxford University Press, 2023), 403–20.
[36] Weiss and Enrile, “The US Military–Prostitution Complex, Patriarchy, and Masculinity,” 403–20.
[37] Jon Mitchell, “NCIS Case Files Reveal Undisclosed US Military Sex Crimes in Okinawa,” The Intercept, accessed October 10, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2021/10/03/okinawa-sexual-crimes-us-military/.
[38] Mitchell, “NCIS Case Files Reveal Undisclosed US Military Sex Crimes in Okinawa.”
[39] Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, Status of Forces Agreement between The Republic of Iraq and the United States of America, November 17, 2008, 16, https://www.dcaf.ch/sites/default/files/publications/documents/US-Iraqi_SOFA-en.pdf.
[40] Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt. “Conspiracy of Near Silence: Violence Against Iraqi Women,” Middle East Report, no. 258 (2011): 34. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41408006.
[41] Al-Ali and Pratt, “Conspiracy of Near Silence,” 35.
[42] Al-Ali and Pratt, “Conspiracy of Near Silence,” 35.
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