Women washing the dead: More female morticians in South Korea as taboo fades

Record ID: 1587326

  • Title: Women washing the dead: More female morticians in South Korea as taboo fades
  • Date: 17th November 2020
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (FILE - NOVEMBER 25, 2019) (AGENCY POOL) MEMORIAL ALTAR OF LATE SOUTH KOREAN K-POP STAR AND FORMER MEMBER OF SOUTH KOREAN GIRL BAND "KARA", KOO HARA
  • Embargoed: 1st December 2020 10:17
  • Keywords: Confucianism Seoul South Korea death embalming funeral funeral directing mortician occupation sex crimes students suicide taboo women
  • Location: SEONGNAM, SEOUL, INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA / TOKYO, JAPAN
  • City: SEONGNAM, SEOUL, INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA / TOKYO, JAPAN
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA002D53E7GN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF DEAD BODY
    Park Bo-ram, a 30-year-old funeral director in South Korea, says she still cannot forget the moment she washed and dressed the body of a female teenage student who had committed suicide. There were older signs of self-harm which the family members were not aware of.
    Park recalls the parents of the teenager were immensely grateful even in the midst of their sadness that it was a female mortician who had handled their young daughter's body.
    In South Korea, more women are taking up the job as a mortician once held entirely by men in a still conservative society, driven by a growing demand for women's bodies to be handled by other women.
    With recent deaths of female celebrities and prominent figures as well as a surge in violent sex crimes targeting women in the past years, gender sensitivity is changing the way families bid farewell to their deceased female kin.
    "Most of the young people's cause of death is suicide. Many of them are women, and the bereaved families, especially when it was (due to) suicide and (the deceased is) a woman, feel more comfortable if we handle the body," Park said.
    South Korea's suicide rate is the highest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with a suicide rate of 24.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019, compared to OECD's average of 11.3. Over 4,000 were women - including the apparent suicides of young female K-pop artists - Koo Hara and Sulli.
    In the early 2000s, only about a third of mortician students were women, while now women make up around 60% of students, said Lee Jong-woo, a professor of embalming at Eulji University.
    "With Confucian ideology, South Korea used to consider death as a taboo in the past and had a negative perception on whether women could handle such work, but the perception has been changing," Lee said.
    The trend comes amid growing calls for crackdowns on sex crimes and violations, including a rash of hidden camera crime, "revenge porn" and online networks that blackmail women into sharing sexual and sometimes violent images of themselves.
    "I felt uncomfortable when my classmates of another gender touched my body, even when I was fully dressed," said Park Se-jung, 19, a second-year student majoring in funeral directing.
    "I sure wouldn't want them to touch, wash and dress my naked body even when I were dead. I am determined I should be the one bidding those women a proper farewell," she added.
    (Production: Daewoung Kim, Hyunyoung Yi)
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