When I lived in Seoul, Korea, I lived with a very nice, and very cute, woman that was the assistant manager of a hostess club in Itaewon, Seoul, Korea. Of course everyone in the club were transgendered -- most pre-operative, one or two post-operative.
In Seoul there are only three hostess clubs where the hostesses are transgendered: the very famous Yobo-Yobo Club;, Bocachio's (my girlfriend's club); and a tiny club that I never caught the name of (and all three are within 200 feet of each other).
Anyway, Bocachio Club usually had about 8 or so women working there. What always amazed me is that roughly half of them had actually done their 30 months of mandatory military service that is required of every male in South Korean.
One of my g-f's best friends was in the Signal Corps of the ROK army. Her friend said that the whole time she was in the ROK army she had a boyfriend, and had quite a few guys lined up waiting for her to break up with whatever boyfriend she had at the time. A very popular soldier on her base. She said that, if a person is transgendered or gay, they have one chance to avoid military service, before induction. After that, the ROK army could care less who or what you are. The ROK army needed bodies, very badly. They have a standing army of 650,00 in a country of 45 million.
Another of my GF's friends was the tiniest girl working in the Bocachio Club. She couldn't have been more thqn 5' 5' tall, and she must've weighed around 125 pounds. She was a tank driver in a ROK army armored brigade. I started calling her Tank Girl after the Lori Petty movie. How that litle slip of a thing could man-handle a tank around is beyond me.
So how did my G-F avoid doing her mandatory service? Easy, she got a letter from her doctor saying that she was gay. The doctor refused to write that she was transgendered, only that she was gay. Her and her high school friend (a transgendered girl she met at her all boys high school) went down to a ROK army base in Seoul. They were dressed as any 20 year-old Korean girl would get dress. They each had to talk to an officer individually. Said officer yelled at them; accused them of being cowards; that they weren't gay, just slackers; that the army needed them; just about every argument the officeer could come up with to make them go into the army. And he did the same thing to my G-F and her friend at the end of the interview -- he gave them his phone number and told them to call him.
Anyway, how many of the transgendered women do you think ever joined the military? I'm willing to bet some of the black girls have. Not a slam against them. But, coming from a very poor environment, maybe not completely sure of what their future should be, I could see that the military offered a way out, if for no other reason but to take a breath and think of their future.
Also, the last that I had read, Brazil still has a mandatory militray service. How easy is it to get out of? I'm willing to bet that is very easy. Also, Thailand has mandatory militaray service but it is ridiculously easy to get out of. Especially if you are a katoey.
Any other stories girls and the military?
(BTW, if anyone wants more Korea stories and posts, let me know.)
