Gender, Power, and Sex Tourism Essay (Critical Writing)

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Given the fact that Denise Brennan’s book, “What’s Love got to do with it” is more descriptive then analytical, in its essence, it would be very naĂŻve to expect this book to provide us with the insight on whether international tourism facilitates global inequality (!), as suggested in assignment’s instructions. This book simply allows us to have a better understanding as to what prompts Dominican women in Sosua to become sex workers, because it reveals such their decision as being much more complex then usually assumed. Apparently, the “sex tourism” industry does not only allow Dominican women to earn money but also provides them with possibility of legal immigration to Western countries, by the mean of marrying their decadent White clients: “For Dominican women, it (sex industry) offers not just employment but also the hope of economic and social mobility” (Brennan 14). “What’s Love got to do with it” contains an extensive number of life stories about the Dominican women, who were able to immigrate to U.S., Canada, Britain and Germany, after having became “romantically involved” with often senile men from these countries, who come to Sosua to enjoy the tropical sun, while taking an advantage of the fact that they are White and that their wallets are filled with money. As Jamaica Kincaid had put it in her short story “A Small Place” (where she describes the realities of tourist business in Antigua): “You disembark from your plane. You go through customs. Since you are a tourist, a North American or European – to be frank, White – and not an Antiguan Black… you move through customs swiftly” (Kincaid 4). Therefore, the fact that many Dominican women choose the careers of sex workers makes absolutely perfect economic and moral sense, simply because it allows them to improve their social status. Thus, the suggestion that sex tourism contributes and complicates conditions of underdevelopment and global inequality is wrong in its very essence. If anything, such tourism actually facilitates the improvement of living standards in Third World countries, simply because it brings in money into these countries’ economies. For example, in Thailand, the sex tourism is considered to be the country’s third largest (unofficial) industry.

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As it appears from reading Brennan’s book, Dominican women know perfectly well that it is only through immigration to Western countries that they will get a chance of attaining a social prominence. And the only way for them to do this, is to “fall in love” with one of their White clients, as it is only the White men that can actually believe in sincerity of Dominican women’s romantic aspirations: “The women dream of European men “rescuing” them from a lifetime of poverty and foreclosed opportunities… Foreign tourists promise the possibility of economic stability as well as new ways of consuming – and maybe, even of romance, better treatment, and greater gender equity in the household” (Brennan 21). We can argue long and hard, as Brennan does, as to whether sex tourism is “moral” or “immoral”, but since it represents one of the means of generating a commercial income, it will always remain an important factor of socio-political life in Third World countries. It is important to understand that, after having been liberated of “White oppression”, the former European colonies, such as Dominican Republic, had been set on the course of economic and cultural decline. The today’s so-called “developing” countries are not really developing – they are rapidly descending into the state of primeval savagery. The example of Haiti, which used to be the most prosperous European colony in the whole world, while under the French rule, and which is now nothing short of a hell on Earth, substantiates the validity of this thesis better then anything else. The reason for this is very simple – as history shows, the native citizens of Third World countries can only advance culturally and economically for as long as they maintain close social contacts with Whites. Once these contacts are being cut off (“struggle against the legacy of colonialism”), people’s existential status quo in such countries becomes instantly re-established: they turn into what they have always used to be, before the arrival of European explorers – savages who live in primitive huts, made out of dirt, who eat cockroaches for breakfast and who drink out of rain paddles. Therefore, the sex tourism industry in Third World countries actually represents the ingenious possibility for these countries to maintain contacts with the West – thus, benefiting these countries in variety of different ways. It is only Western neo-Liberals, such as Brennan, who never experienced what it means being constantly hungry, can come up with the idea that sex tourism results in poor becoming even poorer. Quite contrary – the establishment of sex tourism industry in Third World countries allows fairer distribution of material riches, throughout the world. Such countries as Dominican Republic have no mineral resources, no technological base, no educated professionals, no developed agriculture – all they have are tropical beaches and many nice looking women. Therefore, the rise of sex tourism industry is such countries have been historically, politically, and economically predetermined. In her study “Tourism and Colonialism: The Experience of the Bahamas”, Catherine Palmer says: “Tourism (in Bahamas) is firmly entrenched as the leading industry, contributing 70% of the gross national product and accounting for 2/3 of all employment” (Palmer 794). In other words – in Third World countries, tourism, and particularly sex tourism, is nothing short of the mean that allows these countries to maintain their national sovereignty. The Global economy is only concerned about exploring deferent possibilities of generating commercial income; therefore, Dominican sex workers are best described as people who were able to adjust to the realities of Globalization. They make money, while enjoying the stay in five stars hotels with their White clients – what can be better?

Bibliography

Brennan, Denise “What’s Love got to do with it: Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic”. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.

Palmer, Catherine “Tourism and Colonialism: The Experience of the Bahamas”. Annals of Tourism Research. (21) 4. (1994): 792-811.

Kincaid, Jamaica “A Small Place”. London: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Gender, Power, and Sex Tourism." November 6, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/gender-power-and-sex-tourism/.

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