Sex tourism as economic aid



Middle-aged women jetting into Jamaica for sex don't see themselves as using prostitutes, writes Julie Bindel.

Two flights are due into Montego Bay Airport, one from Toronto, the other from London. Clinton waits on the beach for the new arrivals, hoping that one of them will bring him good fortune. "I look for the milk bottles," he says, explaining how ultra-white skin is a giveaway, "the ones who've just arrived. Milk bottles that need filling ..."

Negril, with its 11-kilometre stretch of pristine sand and turquoise sea, attracts the majority of Jamaica's 1.3 million tourists every year, primarily from the United States, Canada and Europe. It is known as a "swinging" resort.

Many white Western women come to Negril for precisely that. Clinton is one of hundreds of young men working the beach and, like most of the "beach boys", he is desperately poor. His primary income comes from accompanying lone female travellers who want sex with Jamaican men.

He lives with his family in a shack with no electricity or running water. In contrast, the hotels and apartments that line the beach are luxurious, with rooms costing $US200 ($300) a night. While some beach boys may be content to have their meals paid for, the goal is marriage to a Westerner and a ticket out of poverty.

Clinton has a "regular girlfriend", a 45-year-old Canadian professional who comes to see him four times a year. "She's a good friend and she looks after me. Sends me money when I can't pay my rent." Clinton says he works "in the tourist industry" and won't admit he is a beach boy. "If I take a tourist out, and she wants to help me out as a friend, give me money and let me stay with her in the hotel, what's wrong with that? Of course I have sex with them, but that's because I'm not gay - I like women."

Clinton's current "girlfriend" is a 50-year-old grandmother from the US, whom he met the day before.

Negril, like some resorts in the Dominican Republic and Cuba, is known as a place where white middle-aged women come in search of what they call the "big bamboo". British researchers Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor and Julia O'Connell Davidson found that the usual analysis of sex tourism did not allow for the possibility of women as buyers of sex, because "prostitute-users are, by definition, male, and this assumption is shared by many researchers and theorists".

The two researchers interviewed 240 women holidaying in Negril and two similar resorts in the Dominican Republic. Almost a third of the interviewees had engaged in sexual relationships with local men during their holiday. Though 60 per cent admitted to certain "economic elements" to their liaisons, they did not perceive the encounters as prostitute-client transactions, nor did they view their sexual partners as prostitutes.

Those who admit to coming to Negril for sex believe they are helping the men and the local economy by giving them money and gifts.

HIV and AIDS figures reflect the fact that condom use by the beach boys is sporadic. In the tourist areas, the number of those infected is higher than elsewhere on the island. Last year, an estimated 20,000 adults and children out of a population of 2.6 million were living with AIDS or HIV - a figure that had more than doubled in two years.

Ms Sanchez Taylor and Ms O'Connell Davidson suggest that the reason many female tourists are able to delude themselves into believing they are not prostitute users lies in their racialised power over the men: "Racist ideas about black men being hypersexual and unable to control their sexuality enable them to explain to themselves why such young and desirable men would be eager for sex with older and/or overweight women, without having to think that their partners are interested in them only for economic reasons."

You just love posting non basketball stuff on a basketball board huh...

Of course I have sex with them, but that's because I'm not gay - I like women.

hahaha, what brilliant reasoning. touché!

Interesting phenomenon. Why go to a foreign country and pay for sex when you can get it at home for free? Are these sex tourists (men and women) so repulsive that no one will have sex with them unless they are paid? Or is it just a power trip?

Posted by EnySpree:

Well its not just white women going to jamacia for sex. Its everyone going to the west indies, Mexico, or anywhere with a beach for sex. You can throw the cruises in there too.

Women in general think its ok to become sluts if they are on vacation. Same way men will **** everyone that wants to **** them. Women are looking for a muscle guy with a huge wee wee and guys are looking for the stripper looking bimbo with a big and shapely everything.

So what exactly is the debate here?

Pretty much. Kinda sad to be honest.

Middle-aged women looking for sex? What a revelation!

They don't have to go all the way Jamaica, not when they can catch the subway into the city and holla at me.

If they look good, of course. Don't want no ugly woman.

Listen here 4949, don't get all offended by a study that happens to show women traveling around the world to get their fling on looking for a Johnson that can make their heads climb the head board.

Most have never heard of women going to the extremes with no daily attachment or contact with their 4 times a yr lovers.

These women to me are repulsive ! Still making the black man think the only thing he got going on is his Johnson ! Some things never change, most of these women wouldn't get caught dead with a black man in the states.

Huh ?

here's something for those overly sensitive posters around here... if you don't want to read about a certain topic, don't click on it... preaching from a soap box doesn't change the reality that these things really do go on in the world... no one is posting any racist content to offend anyone here, so calm down & go read another thread if this one isn't to your liking.

Posted by Solace:

Posted by TMS:

here's something for those overly sensitive posters around here... if you don't want to read about a certain topic, don't click on it... preaching from a soap box doesn't change the reality that these things really do go on in the world... no one is posting any racist content to offend anyone here, so calm down & go read another thread if this one isn't to your liking.

Not in this thread, perhaps. Some of the other threads posted recently were clearly questionable, at best. Informative threads are great. Articles posted based on conjecture, without any factual evidence, and some nasty suppositions were taken offense to earlier. This particular poster has a rep for posting such, so I can understand others having a short leash with it.

Very good Solice.

I think the post that playa posted, certainly has nothing to do with anything. These posts are put here to get a rise! And he's quick to jump on it when you do. So with that test, tested and confirmed (to myself) I beleive the reason playa is posting such material (fact or not, relevant or not) is telling me that playa may be suffering from an (correct me if you can) 'inferiority complex'. Very understandable as to why. The post that caught my eye needs to be addressed in a different way. On a personal basis, I don't believe in such garbage (and i'll call it garbage), whether it's true or not, but that's not the point. The point is why is it being posted in the first place? To get a rise! Why? You can except two answers to this. It's either to belittle (why?), or can be accepted as an underlying problem. In other words, if playa keeps his social concerns straight, on an even level, then it has merit. When he goes off path, then what are we talking about here? What am I' doing here? I'm simply trying to avoid this from getting out of hand. It's simply another way of addressing the context and the way the context can be taken out' of context. I choose to read and adress this post, because I see something that I want to address. I know people are afraid to say something about it, for fear that they might hurt someone, or get into some kind of trouble. I don't believe in being quiet, but I don't think you should say anything, not unless you have a very good point to get across. You guys can choose to not open the thread and read it. And I don't drink bigpimpin. I don't desguise or hide my emotions. I'll just come out and say it, as long as I keep it in some kind of context because that is what this kind of thing is. My thoughts, your thoughts they all cut two ways. It's not a very comfortable position to be in on either side.