Sex tourists are not an homogenous group

Western, white, male sex tourists have been travelling to ‘Third World’ countries for many years and there is nothing new about the sexual exploitation of local women in this context. Indeed, there is long history of sexual exploitation of women under colonial rule and western men have long projected racist fantasies onto the ‘primitive’/natural Other. But the long haul tourist industry is turning this kind of post-colonial fantasy into an item of mass consumption. Sex guides written by white western men, such as Travel and the Single Male by Bruce Cassier tap into the idea of ‘difference’ to justify the sexual exploitation of Black women in these countries. They tell tourists that prostitution does not have the same meaning in the Caribbean as prostitution in the West. The sex guides say that Caribbean women are not really prostitutes but ‘nice’ girls who like to have a good time. A key component of sex tourism is the objectification of a sexualised racialised 'Other’. As author and self-confessed sex tourist Bruce Cassier says: "You think of those incredible....women, ranging in colour from white chocolate to dark chocolate, available to you at the subtle nod of your head or touch-of-your-hat." The racist stereotype of the exotic and erotic Black woman is also an image that is used to sell sex tourism in countries like the Dominican Republic and Cuba. ‘Blackness’ and the ideology which constructs it, is part of the commodity that sex tourists are buying.

Sex tourists are not an homogenous group: they may be women or men, Black, Asian or white, homosexual or heterosexual, middle class or working class. Numerically, the main group of sex tourists are Western, white, heterosexual men. However it is important to recognise that even amongst this group, there is diversity in terms of sexual interests and attitudes towards prostitute use. Although it is necessary to recognise differences between sex tourists in terms of their sexual practices, I want to tentatively suggest that sex tourism offers all of them opportunities to affirm a particular ‘racialised’ and gendered identity. So far as white male sex tourists are concerned, it is not just cheap sex that they pursue. They also like travelling to ‘Third World’ countries because they feel that somehow the proper order between the genders and between the ‘races’ is restored. Women and girls are at their command, Blacks and Hispanics and Asians are serving them, shining their shoes, cleaning their rooms and so on. All is as it should be.