Kirsti Clapsadle WGS 415 Final Paper Sex Tourism Abroad Some places are known for their

r inviting cultures, or their delicious foods, others for their music and dance. These images are not always accurate and often lead to a false reputation or unrealistic expectations. Tourists assume the participation of the natives is voluntary and that the service of traveler is necessary. In the sex tourism industry, the participation of the tourist is definitely necessary to keep the demand of the market, but the market itself does little to assist the natives in enhancing their lives, and in fact, deteriorates the quality of life. The chain of events that occurs in most tourist industries is as follows: tourists would like to travel to a new and beautiful place and they are led to believe that their business helps the economy of the foreign industry grow. The tourists continue to travel to these locations and the natives develop a dependence on the tourists business, thus reinforcing the original belief that the tourists were needed to assist their economy in the first place. In reality, the natives could offer other services that would not bring on the tourists that exploit and reconstruct their homelands image. Stereotypes are created and expectations are developed so that the land to be traveled to believes it must support in order to be supported by the tourists.

Haunani-Kay Trask writes about cultural prostitution in Hawaii in Lovely Hula Hands, defining prostitution as the entire institution that defines a women (and by extension the female) as an object of degraded and victimized sexual value for use and exchange through the medium of money. The prostitute is a woman who sells her sexual capacities and is seen, thereby, to possess and reproduce them at will, that is, by her very nature (145). This is a good definition of prostitution, for the most part, however we must consider that prostitution is not always by women, and it is not always of a degraded and/or victimized mentality. That being said, Trasks definition is most often the truth, so we will continue to use this definition for the purpose of this writing. Unfortunately, the combination of tourism and prostitution is not uncommon, both figuratively, as Trask writes, and literally. Another unfortunate aspect of tourism is the assumption that one place is better for sex tourism than others. This is unfortunate because it is assumed that the prostitutes work this job by choice and prefer that life, and/or it is ignored that this is not usually the case. For example, a simple Google search of sex tourism locations (Google provides best sex tourism locations as the top option in the suggestion list below) provides the searcher with many recommendations on where to go for sex tourism, offering links for Most Popular Sex Tourism Destinations, Recommended sex tourism destinations, and European Sex Tourism Destinations. This only proves the point that these places are known for their prostitution. Following this last link, European Sex Tourism Destinations, we find a list that includes De

Wallen, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Reeperbahn, Hamburg, Germany, Soho, London, England, Rue St. Denis and Pigalle, Paris, France, and Rue dAerchot, Brussels, Belgium. There are descriptions of each location, along with safety concerns. This is quite problematic, because it voices nothing about any other sorts of concerns, the natives points of view being just one example. De Wallen is one of the most popular tourist destinations, and the industry caters to that. De Wallen is also home to marijuana selling coffee shops, Erotic Museum, sex shops, peep shows and sex theaters. Oddly enough, the district is also where you find the oldest Amsterdam church , Oude Kerk. It now has to share the neighborhood with Belle - bronze statue of a sex worker. If this sin city sounds enticing go there before it is too late: although prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, Amsterdam authorities have recently clamped down on the sex business following reports on organized crime involved in human trafficking and pimping. Safety concerns : this is the most touristy of the red light districts, and police presence is strong; steer clear of the drug addicts and coke dealers and you will be fine. This description voices the difficulties that a tourist travelling to De Wallen may encounter, emphasizing the police presence as an issue, rather than a positive occurrence, even though the purpose of the police presence is to prevent human trafficking, a huge concern in prostitution. The positive effects of the police are omitted, leaving the reader

with a negative view on their presence. While this article is written by no one of any known authority or reputation, it is public for any viewer to search, and is even in the top three options of the search that I previously mentioned. A more reliable source, For Love or Money? Fantasies and Realities in Sex Tourism, by Kamala Kempadoo, talks of another location as the brothel of Europe. Kempadoo describes how the sex tourism industry has continued to grow in the Caribbean from the 1960s through today (115). The sex tourism that the Caribbean is known for makes it the perfect location for travel, as it also has the image of beautiful white beaches and sun all day long to make for the perfect stereotypical tourist destination. That the area is known for landscapes similar to Trasks Hawaiian Islands only adds to the effect of the areas literal prostitution. We can also easily transfer Trasks comparison that the islands themselves are prostituted, but we will focus on the human prostitution. Another article that Kempadoo had a part in, Fantasy Islands, by Julia OConnel Davidson, and Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor, edited by Kempadoo, has a few interviews with tourists. One sex tourist says When youve got a goddamn female announcing the NBA basketball game These females go into the mens locker rooms, but the males cannot go into the ladies locker rooms. Most of these girls are dykes anyways (39). While this is not obviously related to prostitution, this individual represents the type of person that utilizes sex tourism. He is sexist and has negative

thoughts toward women and therefore does not have respect for the women that he buys for the day. To add to it, some sex tourists act as if they arent even paying for prostitutes, but more for general services: Theyre not like prostitutes They stay with you all day They rub in the sun tan oil, bring us the towel, she even washes your feet. What English tart would do that?... The problem is getting rid of them. Once youve bought them, they stick to you (Davidson 39). This statement explains itself rather well, describing the annoyance that a relationship deeper than solely sex brings to the tourist. He wants only to exploit the womans body. He may want to also exploit the land, but there should be a separation between the two, just as one would separate two mistresses in order to enjoy them both fully. A 1970s advertisement for the Caribbean pictures a woman with her face positioned as if to say oh, laying on the beach in a bikini with a man smiling from behind her. The caption below says The best kept secret in the Caribbean. We can assume this pair is not a couple, because what would be the point in keeping it a secret if they were? What this advertisement is pretty obviously expressing is that you will have sex in the Caribbean, but not with someone you are in a relationship with. Even if this woman is not a prostitute, the purpose of the ad is to sell sex to the tourist which makes it a form of prostitution nonetheless.

As we have seen in the film Heading South, men are not the only ones who partake in the prostitution of the other. Women also pay for sex from natives of the land to which they travel for their vacation. This prostitution, however, is usually more discreet, as the woman is often embarrassed or looking for more of the connection than just the sex. She wants to be noticed for her beauty and often disregards the fact that it is prostitution altogether by paying in gifts rather than money in order to be less conspicuous. For her, she receives a short-term relationship because she is wanted by this man and he receives her sex and gifts in return. There are, however, women who are not ashamed to admit that it is prostitution and they pay in cash for the services provided by the prostitute. In reality, the woman who is more blunt has a better point of view, because she isnt completely ignorant in the matter of the conditions in which she is having sex. She recognizes the prostitution for what it is and knows that the man she is having sex with is doing it only for the money. Unfortunately, the recognition by this woman does not change the fact that she is still partaking in the prostitution. While she knows what she is doing, she may not realize the conditions under which the prostitute is working. For example, she may believe that, being male, he gets more enjoyment out of it than would a female prostitute. Men enjoy sex, and being paid for it is just an added bonus. However this is not usually the case. The prostitute in Heading South, for example, has a family and did not begin down his path by choice, but rather by circumstance. He was actually raped at the age of only 15 or so, not consenting to the

sex performed by the woman of about 50 years of age, after being fed by the woman multiple times. The woman never explicitly uses the word rape, of course, because she has the view that men want sex and that he wanted her. The problems with all of the different types of sex tourism are the assumptions that go along with them. The people who take part in the sex tourism have built up and supported the idea that everyone involved is voluntarily participating and would do so no matter what the circumstances, but in most cases, the prostitutes have just been doing their job for so long that they play it off well. They really have no choice in the job they do because of the situations they are in in life. In other cases, those paying for the sex simply choose to ignore everything that lies beneath the sex. They want to participate, but without the complications of knowing anything that goes on beyond the bedroom. For example, one man writes of his idea to travel to Amsterdam because 1. It is legal and the women do HIV checks every few months 2. I am looking for any woman, just not Asian (like in Thailand), on a forum for English-Speaking Germans. He proceeds to ask for further ideas on where to go to find legal prostitution. Later, another user asks his reasoning for wanting to do this and he replies by saying that there arent many blondes in his country and that he knows many people who travel to have sex because it is inexpensive. To him, it is casual and normal, and there is nothing behind it except for sex and money. He involves no emotion or idea of what prostitution might mean.

There are truths behind the surfaces of all types of tourism that are not seen unless you dig deeper. In general tourism, it is usually ignored that the locals rarely see even a penny of the profits made by tourists. If we look at medical tourism, we see that tourists take advantage of the cheapness of medical care abroad, bringing the value of the country down, cheapening the perceived worth of the citizens there. And when we look at sex tourism more deeply, we can see that the people behind it are not merely machines, but souls with lives outside of prostitution. They have families that need to be supported and mothers that wish they could have done better. They have been through situations much worse than those any of their customers could ever imagine, and they are capable of hiding all of this in order to continue on with their fight for a better life. Often, they know that their quality of life will not get much better, and that they will be stuck doing this job until they can no longer perform their duties, but they believe that it is their only choice. There may be occasions where this is not the case, and they enjoy what they do, but that is a rare case. Sex tourism is a highly supported industry, but the prostitutes involved gain very little. They continue to struggle to get by even with the support of clients. They see only a portion of the money they earn from doing their job that degrades their worth as a human. If we use Trasks definition, the customers assume that it is in the nature of the prostitute to be just that. If the prostitutes and customers alike do not learn to suffice without, and figure out that this industry is little but a burden, this cycle will never end.

Works Cited 1970s CARIBBEAN Dominican Republic Vintage TOURIST Advertisement. Advertisement. Flickriver. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.flickriver.com/photos/christianmontone/tags/tourism/>. Alex. "European Sex Tourism Destinations." OpenTravel.com. N.p., 29 July 2009. Web. 08 June 2012. <http://opentravel.com/blogs/european-sex-tourism-destinations/>. Davidson, Julia O'Connell, and Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor. "Fantasy Islands." Ed. Kamala Kempadoo.Sun, Sex, and Gold (n.d.): 37-53. Web. Kempadoo, Kamala. "For Love or Money? Fantasies and Realities in Sex Tourism." Sexing the Caribbean (n.d.): 115-40. Web. "Recommended Sex Tourism Destinations." Toytown Germany. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 June 2012. <http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/index.php/t123496.html>. Trask, Haunani-Kay. ""Lovely Hula Hands": Corporate Tourism and the Prostitution of Hawaiian Culture."From a Native Daughter (n.d.): 136-45. Web.