Healing through Gender Inversion in Korean Possession Trance Rituals
TDR/The Drama Review September 1, 2020 Liora Sarfati 1 citation
Korean shamanism (musok) attributes physical, social, and mental health problems to supernatural intervention. Male practitioners who become healers in this female-dominated field engage in cross-gender behavior that Korean society often stigmatizes as homosexuality and labels a mental illness. Musok, however, interprets these behaviors as responses to demands from the spirit world, offering an alternative framework that destigmatizes them.