ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Youn focuses on the sexual issues facing the elderly population. By doing so he has highlighted many of the entrenched values that impede the progress of sex therapy in this country and also the cultural values that underlie sexual relationships. In Korea, it is considered socially unacceptable to talk about sex and the concept of sexual pleasure is an extremely gendered one. Elderly people in Korea grew up with the idea that sexual pleasure was a privilege of being male and that women were to sexually satisfy their husbands. Domestic violence is a problem worldwide, but in this chapter Youn links it to the refusal of wives to have sex with husbands that they may not even like. Fast forward a generation and you will understand the family dynamics that many young Koreans face. Sexual violence and sexual harassment also appear to be issues that one must be sensitive to in the experience of Korean women of any age. Korean men, like the gentleman Youn describes in his case, are ill-equipped for relationships with assertive women and seem especially unprepared for sexual equality and the likely expectation of future generations of Korean women for sexual pleasure.
Although the population of Korea is aging, it is unlikely that the older generation will seek the help of a sex therapist. But it is possible that the younger generation will do so. The advent of sexual medicine, the sexual content available over the Internet and through other media sources, alongside the improving status of women, will challenge existing cultural standards regarding sexuality and may make sex therapy and other psychologically based treatment approaches more accessible to Koreans.
