This is most disturbing to me. I went to Jamaica a few years ago for business. While there, I was propositioned by a young girl who looked 14, certainly she wasn't older than 16. The encounter really stuck with me and left me feeling vaguely disturbed, both that such a young girl was prostituting herself, and that she thought I was willing to partake in prostitution.

A point for comparison: when I lived in China's Henan Province, I often heard other foreigners (and occasionally Chinese people) refer to young local women (usually 18-19) who had relations with foreign men (typically a few decades older) as preying upon the men to get money, status, grades (since sometimes these were student-teacher involvements), or a visa.

There was one particular incident in which a student was threatened with severe penalties and the school authorities refused to confront the man because they felt it would insult him.

The point is that people are more willing to blame those with lower status. In the OP, the men; in the case I described, the women.

What strikes me about this video, other than the points already made here, is that they interviewed so many men involved in sex tourism. It seems to give them more of a voice than the articles and videos I've seen about female prostitutes participating in the sex tourism trade. It seems to me those pieces rarely interview the women involved, or at most interview one or two. Instead they focus on the male tourists and "experts" and so on.

It is interesting but in the end perhaps self-defeating to look for exploiter and victim in travel romances and in sex tourism. Usually each party is trading resources -- what they have (money, earning potential) for what they don't have (affection, or a semblance thereof, or unanticipated genuine romance).

Many women in fact (despite Nagel's assertion) do not look at black Caribbean men as a racialized "other." The most careful study has been done by April Gorry in Belize, where she found tourist and expat women fell for the essential man they were dating on Caye Caulker, often one who was 180 percent different from the Big Bamboo stereotype. The fact that African-American women also visit the Caribbean and West Africa for potential mates shows that these men are perceived as having something to offer compared to U.S. males, and these relationships are not often simple racial fetishes, which is actually a tremendously condescending view of black men.

I examine these topics at length in my book, "Romance on the Road: Traveling Women Who Love Foreign Men."

Jeannette,

I think those are great points. I was looking for some data on sex tourism and kept coming across photos that supposedly showed sex tourists, which were white women being carried/held/cuddled by Black men. And I just kept wondering, is any White woman who has sex with a Black man in another country automatically defined as a sex tourist? There was no clear evidence in any of the photos that these weren't meaningful relationships, or fun pairings, between two people who found each other interesting, etc. There seems to be an assumption that these two groups couldn't possibly REALLY have any connection, so the only possible explanation is that she's buying his attention, and he's simply a sexual adventure for her, which as you point out, is very condescending.

I was thinking the same thing as Stef--where are the female prostitutes and their experiences?

I found myself thinking how much this video is an advertisement in itself - the gratuitous shots of men and women grinding at a dark party with no logical flow between the previous and following clips, the slow-mo reveal of the one man's thong which supposedly demonstrates the veracity of the stereotype about black men's penises. The video revels in and relies on stereotypes as much as it refutes them. Granted it was made for the infotainment (heavy on the 'tainment') channel Sex TV, and not for some researcher's use, but it ultimately reveals a lot more about the biases of the filmmakers than about actual sexual practices in the Caribbean. As it goes with most media.

I find it disturbing that the comments here seem to be implying that the prostituted people who make up the sex tourism industry are acting of their own free will. They vast majority of people in this industry are children under 18 being forced to solicit tourists for sex in exchange for money that is passed onto a violent pimp. Focusing on the random cases of adults who chose to have sex with other adults for money undermines the truth about this horrendous reality around the world and makes sex tourism sound fun. Nicholas Kristof writes at length about this reality, and organizations such as the ECPATs around the world and Somaly Mam org are working to combat it.

It's interesting to come across this video - I wrote a commentary about this same issue 18 months ago, defining it as 'a modern form of slavery' that has evolved from African enslavement and colonialism. See:

http://www.iamcolourful.com/articles/comment/details/2144318333/caribbean/

i like sexy girls

Of course they are going to go to a black country for sex-tourism. Do you know how difficult it is for a mature or overweight white lady to pick up an asian guy when she's bigger than 90% of them? In Africa and the Caribbean, beggars can be choosers.

The racial taboo is perhaps the only thing going on for most of those couples, which is why they rarely lead to anything meaningful unless there is a con-artist involved.

hiiii

I think the beste destination for sex tourism is Thailand. Thai escorts promote it!

This is not always the case, I have been married to a caribbean man for 10 plus years and its real love. I have been cheated on by white men, but not by my husband.

Leave the married ones alone!

I am a very happily married white man, and I think that women who grt sexed by black jamacas is very blessed and lucky especially the women who are married and happy to be the wife that is getting her husbands blessing. I believe in my heart that if more men would let their wife be who they are and who they are not. I nlove it when my wife wants a black man instead of a white guy.

Ps They are better for your wife and she is better for them. I like bold black men that want my wife because she is married, my wife likes them because they are not married to her. Lot more freedom to please other mrn that happened to be black.

It boost hers and mine self esteme. llove my wife even deeper after she admits how great black men are to her.

Hi all.

I just wrapped up a documentary on the Kuta Cowboys, the beach boys of Bali who're quite the draw for female sex tourists too. Although the thread is primarily about the Caribbean, I believe there are enough similarities between the 2 destinations (and others like it).

Jeannette, I like your point about seeing this as both sides trading resources, as opposed to in the exploiter-victim context. (In fact you were on my list of people to interview for the film. Unfortunately, I didn't have the $ to fly to Baltimore.) One of the most amazing things about the Cowboys is that they don't see themselves as victims. They love their work (teaching surfing, mostly), and are proud to be desired by so many women. I had to adopt a light-hearted approach in the film because anything too serious would be misrepresenting them.

Unfortunately, the same isn't true for women prostitutes. Kathryne's points are all too real. Many women in Asia who're in this trade were forced into it, some by their own parents. This is not the case with the Cowboys.

Which probably answers Stef & Maggie's question. I'm guessing there aren't many female prostitutes in such videos because - if Bali is anything to go by - society still attaches shame to women who do it. In Bali, female prostitutes seek customers at night, in bars and clubs. The beach boys do it in the bright of day, half-naked and with bright smiles.

I would like to add, though, that eventually the beach boys often become victims of their own success. When they get older, women don't want them. And since most never picked up any useful skills when the money came easily ("all we have to do is sleep with women"), things get pretty rough.

Hope this was of some value to the thread. You can check out the film trailer at www.cowboysinparadise.com

I'd be happy to contribute more if you're interested, albeit from limited Asian perspective.

Sex tourism in kenya is great. Its like a part time job here, i work there during free time and am male. Send ur questions to sulemanib@gmail.com to know more.

Sex tourism in kenya is great. Its like a part time job here, i work there during free time as a beach boy. Send ur questions to sulemanib@gmail.com to know more.

WARNING: Might be offensive to some !

The relationships are sexual - you don't pick up everyone you meet on a tour home. Such sex tourism is rampant in asia[mostly men while travelling!] they "utilize" the services. Thailand, Vietnam and China are notorious for that.

So here goes equality for both genders!

C'mon, after all they're just 'trading resources' and these could be meaningful relationships and who are we to judge anyway? These white American women are good at heart and just having a little fun, and it can't really be the same as creepy men exploiting young, underprivileged girls who don't know any different, can it?

You might want to clean up these comments - they look like a lot of sleazy advertising bots for sex tourism.

Not all Black men are like this. Total sterotype. My hubby and I have been married for over 10 years and we is great. I hate that slutty, bar type women think all black men are out just for sex. It's not the case, its a sterotype.

Like the other poster said, Leave the married one's alone. Women need to look out for eachother, not other women's husbands.

Lots of apologists for sex tourism posting above and some of them at least definitley appeart to be actual white, female sex tourists trying to "justify" their grubby little fetishes. What annoys me is the appaling double standards about female sex tourism; the sex tourists and their apologists try to deny the fact that it is sexual tourism at all; if this fails, they then try to rationalise it and even claim that they are flying half way across the world to have "relationships" with black men. However, this tolerant and understanding view is rarely found in the hysterical denunciations applied to male sex tourism. I've always wondered why the huge scale of sex tourism experienced in the Caribbean by white women is glossed over? It is a large part of the tourism industry there, yet this fact does not get aired very often.

I am a single young mulato lady of 26 years of age. i have been single for the last 4 years and I have worked hard during those 4 years. I think that if I choose to go to one of these escort resorts in the Caribbean than it is my right to do so. I actually set my eyes on one called charlisangels in the Caribbean. They are very legit, have great service and provide all inclusive packages in 5 star accommodations.

I think it is very wrong to put every interactions between white men and black girls and that between white ladies and black boys as exploitation and or prostitution.I actually did my M.Sc thesis on these interactions in Ghana which is a very big destination for both female and white male tourists. As a black African man, I started out from the perspective that it is sheer exploitation and another form of exploitation. But to my surprise, i discovered some of the white men and women actually are interested in genuine romantic relationships with the black girls and boys respectively. Although there are some interactions that are pure prostitution. But I also came across some white ladies and men who are actually interested in long term romantic relationships. Moreover, I also met few ones who are interested in having colored children but not necessarily in marriage to the blacks. i also observed that some of the black girls who prostituted actually developed feelings and emotions for some men not because of their money. Similarly, i noticed that some white ladies developed genuine romantic feelings for the boys culminating in longer stay and blossoming into loving relationships. These were indeed strange to me There was just that chemistry after a while. Even though these men knew that the gilrs are prostitutes, they still carry on normal relationships which sometimes is very intense to the extent that some eventually settled down with them taking the girls out of prostitution. I have about three white white women who have been going to the same boys for the past two years in Ghana and we do speak on phone. Its difficult to classify this as prostitution. Two of them are in fact planning to settle down with their black boys in Ghana very soon. Similarly, I interviewed some white ladies who look for these Rasta boys from the point of view of spiritual connections. There are so many interfaces and complexities out there. I found the relationships or interactions more complex than I had imagined. Of course there are some that are devoid of monetary exchanges and feelings/emotions .Just pure one night stand out. Pure lust or fantasies such that after sex encounters, there is no exchange of pleasantries between the white ladies and black boys. I think it might be better to treat each relationship on its own rather than outright generalization of all the relationships/interactions. Nevertheless, the issue of power relations is very pronounced in these interactions.

To the guy going on about how men are seen as exploiting the women when they go for sex tourism but that women are glossed over is because the men are creepy and sleazy and the women are not. I've seen the scene in Thailand and itt is disgusting the way the men treat those women. They act as if they own them and use different ones every day...bascially it is just fu..ing. The women however...and I am not one by the way...have a totally different attitude toward their men and that is the difference! It's much the same in the western world anyway...men f..k and women make love.

why can do this

→ Every message is a smile ... every word is like a kiss but when you touch me ...remember this ... my life is full with happiness

san

let them all get hanged on. women are sexually overwhelming the world. they've started paying for men for sex.viva boyz

if you want to dew it why not? injoy life!!
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While watching this I was not surprised to find my country Dominica there. It is something I have observed but not researched. I love the work of Joan Nagel, her work just puts a voice to my observations while I am home on vacation.

jah rastafari www.rentarasta.com covered this years ago!

If women or men go on holidays and part of that fun includes sex so what? .
As regards the wealth and resources gap between rich lady/poor boy or rich man/poor girl being equal to prostitution or in modern day-speak "human trafficing" I want to say that a huge number of marriages in the USA and elsewhere are a domesticated form of prostitution.
We're now under the supervision of the liberal intollerant politically correct moral police. Lesbian man-haters are well represented among these moral taliban. The old style Catholics would give you a break but this new breed of mis-fit-fucks have no human feelings.

And yet when men do it they are vilified. Just more double standard.

nothing surprises me, horny old women think are still riding the cock carousel

This is why white culture loves to push the idea that black men chase white women when the truth we all know is that white women LOVEEE black men and would sell their left arm for a piece