Master’s Thesis - S. Spiteri; McMaster University – Department of Sociology
FEMALE SEX TOURISM IN JAMAICA: AN ARENA FOR ADAPTATION AND
RECREATION FOR MARGINALIZED MEN
By
SUZANNE SPITERI, B.A. (HONORS)
A Thesis
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies
in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements
for the Degree
Master of Arts
McMaster University
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ABSTRACT
Using semi-structured interviews, this research brings to light the lived experiences of thirteen
men informally employed as sex workers in Jamaica and concentrates on both determining the
motivations of Jamaican men involved in the informal sex trade and understanding the men's
perceptions and understandings of the tourist women with whom they become involved with.
Female sex tourism is found to be used in part as a mechanism for escaping poverty, allowing
men to provide for their families, an important area for male identity in Jamaica. The sex tourism
of Western women also allows Jamaican men an arena to both secure sexual access to women as
well as associated social status.
The link between sex tourism and racism, and the racial stereotypes that precede black men are
very familiar to the male sex workers who regard racial motivations, ranging from the desire to
experience 'something new' to wanting to engage in sexual relations with 'real black men' to be
the primary motivating factor for women who travel to Jamaica to engage in sexual relations
with local men.
Using the conceptualizations of the Rude Boy and Rasta performances of masculinity, it is found
that local men have cultivated the ability to deploy their masculinity and sexuality in ways that
maximized their desirability to tourists, allowing them to perform the stereotyped roles of
Jamaican masculinity in ways that accord to tourist women’s expectations.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to everyone who made this possible.
To my mother - you are the reason that I was able to finish this project. Thank You.
To my children, Wesley and Isaiah- You two really didn't help at all, but without you there
would be no point.
To Albert- Thank you for your continued support and readily available criticism.
To my supervisor Dr. Tina Fetner – thank you for all of your help and candid feedback.
To my committee members Drs. Melanie Heath, and Philip White – thank you
for your patience, guidance, and helpful suggestions. Your contributions have improved my
thesis in countless ways.
Lastly, and most importantly, thank you to the men who bravely volunteered their time to
share their experiences and ultimately made this project possible.
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ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………. ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………..………………...iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………………………iv
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................1
Background on Jamaican Sex Tourism...................................................................................1
Jamaican Masculinities.............................................................................................................8
Research Goals........... ............................................. .............................................................13
Methodology ...........................................................................................................................14
Being a Female Researcher....................................................................................................20
Sample......................................................................................................................................24
Recruitment..............................................................................................................................25
Data Management...................................................................................................................31
Terminology.............................................................................................................................32
Ethical Considerations.............................................................................................................32
CHAPTER TWO: STUDY PARTICIPANTS PERSPECTIVES ON MALE SEX
WORK............................................................................................................................,,,,,.........33
Motivations for Involvement........................................................................................................33
The Economic Power of Female Tourists ...............................................................................44
Sexual Motivations for Involvement........................................................................................46
Pursuit of Women Depending on Goals...................................................................................48
Three Levels of Economic Gains...........................................................................................54
Obtaining Payment...................................................................................................................58
Chapter Conclusion......................................................................................................................62
CHAPTER THREE: STUDY PARTICIPANTS PERSPECTIVES ON FEMALE
TOURISTS...................................................................................................................................66
Perspectives on Female Involvement with Local Men............................................................66
To Experience Something New.......................................... .....................................................69
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Sex with Black Men.......................................... .......................................................................71
Compliments and Expectations..................................................................................................73
Exaggerated Difference.......................................... .................................................................78
The Rude Boys...........................................................................................................................82
Rastafarians ..................................................................................................................................89
Chapter Conclusion ....................................................................................................................100
CHAPTER FOUR DISCUSSION...........................................................................................102
Reference List .......................................... .......................................... .......................................115
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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background on Jamaican Sex Tourism
The beautiful island country of Jamaica, situated in the Caribbean Sea, like most nations of the
Caribbean is economically reliant on tourism. While travel to the Antilles was at one time
considered to be quite “unwholesome”, due to the rampant spread of disease, the turn of the
nineteenth century ushered in immense growth in travel to the Caribbean as a whole (Taylor,
2003). With the industrial revolution engendering the need for periodic relief from the
“psychological stresses and strains of the factory system” , the development of the jet aircraft,
the increase in disposable income and leisure time, the Caribbean Islands emerged as a “rich
man’s paradise” as far back as 1873 (Taylor, 2003, p. 5-6). Today, Jamaica welcomes an average
of 1,951,752 foreign travelers a year, with a travel and tourism industry that employs 284,000
people, which amounts to one in every four jobs. It also accounts for 27.7 percent of the island's
Gross Domestic Product, or US$3.7 billion. While Jamaica boasts a year-round temperate
climate and unblemished white sand beaches, recent scholarship indicates that sex may be as
significant in luring tourists as the sand and the sun.
Reports of a new form of prostitution in the Caribbean began to appear in Western news media
by the early 1990’s (Kempadoo, 1996). The accounts reported a “new” phenomenon of young
men and women exchanging sex for material gains with tourists to the region. While media
reports suggested that sex tourism (as it was by then known) was a new happening in the region,
it was not completely novel to the Island of Jamaica. Despite the lack of historical analysis
detailing the emergence of tourist oriented sex work, early references suggest that an inextricable
relationship between sex work and tourism exists in the regions past (Kempadoo, 2001), with
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indications such as Frantz Fannon’s (1968) concern that the region was becoming the “brothel
of Europe”.
The term sex tourism, a protean term that attempts to capture varieties of leisure travel that have
as part of their purpose the purchase of sexual services (Wonders, 2001), typically invokes
stereotypical images of white Western men traveling abroad to affirm their supposed dominant
position within a hierarchy of gendered, sexualized, racialized, and economic power. With few
topics relating to tourism remaining more emotive and controversial, the relationship between
sex and tourism is often conceptualized as a social arena in which class, gender, race and power
intersect to reinforce the inequalities between rich and poor, white and non-white, and men and
women. The majority of research pertaining to sex tourism as a whole and in the Caribbean in
particular involves a central focus on male sex tourism and the interpersonal power dynamics at
play between the tourist and the sex worker.
Informed by deeply inscribed discourses around the natural licentiousness of men and an
apparently natural lack of sexual agency amongst women (Weeks, 1996), for the most part, sex
tourism is analyzed as an expression of male patriarchal power and of female powerlessness
(Taylor, 2001), and often, despite a growing body of evidence to the contrary, analyses of sex
tourism often dismiss the possibility of female sex tourism. While the majority of sex tourism in
the Caribbean is defined by heterosexual relations between male sex tourists and female sex
workers (Kempadoo, 2004), there also exists a significant amount of female sex tourism between
wealthy white European and North American women and young males indigenous to the
Caribbean island of Jamaica (Herold, Garcia & DeMoya, 2001), with one study asserting that
almost one third of the single or unaccompanied female tourists to Jamaica engaged in one or
more sexual relationships with local men (Taylor, 2001).The scale of female sex tourism in
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Jamaica is significantly smaller from that of male sex tourism however, with even those
researchers who argue that women should be included in the ranks of sex tourists acknowledging
that the numbers concerned are diminutive by direct comparison (Pruitt & LaFont, 1995).
Jamaica has nonetheless come to be regarded as a popular travel destination for female sex
tourists, with authors claiming that “when white women flock to Jamaica for a little fun in the
sun, the R&R they're often looking for is not "Rest and Relaxation" but to "Rent a Rasta"”
(Kempadoo, 1999). “Rent a Rasta” or “Rent a Dread”, being the popular colloquial terms
constructed by Jamaican locals to refer to the local men who cater to the search of many women
from the United States, Canada and Europe for an extraordinary sexual experience with an
"authentic" Rastafarian man (Kempadoo, 1999) while the white female buyers are referred to as
“milk bottles” due to their pale skin and black women are referred to as “Stellas” ( after the
release of the popular film “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” after which there was reportedly
a measurable increase in trips to Jamaica by single female buyers seeking young Jamaican
"boyfriends") (Shared Hope International, p.24). The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)
reports that Jamaica welcomed 1,951,752 foreign travelers in 2011, with the main visitor
producing countries being the United States of America and Canada. The gender mix of visitors
from Canada in 2011, was 173,856 males (45.9%) and 205,082 females (54.1%), demonstrating
that Jamaica has become a popular tourist destination overall, and for women in particular. One
report from Negril, Jamaica explains, “Negril is not as dreamlike as it looks. It is no longer
visited primarily for sun, sea and sand. Instead it is the destination of choice for an increasing
number of female sex tourists. An estimated 80,000 single women,
from teenagers to
grandmothers, flock to the island every year and use the services of around 200 men known as
‘rent–a–dreads’, ‘rastitutes’ or ‘the Foreign Service’ (Shared Hope International, p. 24) While
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until recently sex tourism has been most commonly understood to be a leisure activity of men
who visit tourism destinations to engage in commercial sex (Hall & Ryan, 2001), since the mid1990s, however, there has been a developing interest in the issue of ‘female sex tourism’
amongst researchers of tourism and prostitution (Jeffreys, 2003). While few studies refer to the
phenomenon of ‘female sex tourism’, preferring
instead the term ‘romance tourism’, the
phenomenon of ‘First World’ tourist women who travel to poor countries in general and Jamaica
specifically,
for sex with local men, is often discussed with a clear focus on Jamaican
masculinity.
Guided principally by the testimony of tourist women, academic studies concerned with both
Jamaican masculinity and female sex tourism tend to focus on the motivations of Jamaican men
for involvement with Western tourist women.
The majority of scholarship, informed by traditional notions of essential gender identity view
tourist women as passive innocents, ‘used’ by local men who are actively seeking sexual
conquests, money, a ticket off the island and maybe love (Taylor, 2011). Using Jamaican
displays of machismo drawn from their cultural gender scripts, ‘beach boys’ or local men who
engage in sexual relations with tourist women, according to this view, are seen as extortionists
praying on the vulnerability of tourist women while actively pursuing their next money making
venture or sexual conquest (Herold, Garcia & DeMoya, 2001), with being a beach boy being
perceived as allowing for the ability to earn a prosperous living far beyond basic needs for
survival (Pruitt & LaFont, 1995). ‘Beach boys’ are seen as slick working men, who make their
living scamming tourist women (Reimer, 2002).
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The Jamaican conceptualization of masculinity, which is denoted by the number of sexual
exploits as well as the number of children a man has (Gayle, 2002) has led researchers to agree
that men gain superior masculine status amongst their peers according to their number of their
sexual conquests. Accordingly, men who engage in transactional sex are assumed, from this
view, to do so in accordance with the gendered cultural script that privileges men to engage in a
variety of types of sexual relationships. Chevannes (2001) indicates that the hegemonic
construction of African Caribbean masculinity privileges a man to engage in a variety of types of
sexual relationships. This ranges from the very casual to a steady multiple partnering
arrangement , and that a man is not considered a “real” man unless he is heterosexually active. In
Learning to Be a Man, (2001), Chevannes notes that approximately 50 percent of Jamaican men
engage in polygamy or multiple relationships, a sexual practice that is seen as enhancing their
masculinity as long as all activity is strictly heterosexual. Typical male sexual behaviours include
the early onset of sexual intercourse, concurrent multiple partners, and extramarital affairs; sex
with women being the foundation of such behaviour. This hypermasculinity is equivalent in
many ways to the sexual behaviours associated with machismo in Central and South America.
(Ramírez, 1999). The concept of machismo is of crucial importance here. Lancaster (1992) states
that "machismo" is not only about relations between men and women, but that machismo is
about power relations among men too. Lancaster (1992) argues;
Like drinking, gambling, risk taking, asserting one's opinion, and fighting,
the conquest of women is a feat performed with two audiences in mind:
first, other men, to whom one must constantly prove one's masculinity
and virility; and second, oneself, to whom one must also show all the
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signs of masculinity. ( p. 236)
In Jamaica machismo has traditionally been a correlate of power demonstrated by the number of
children and wives a man has, but it is also linked to the protection of and provision for such
wives and children. Homosexual intercourse and identity are not tolerated within the dominant
discourse on masculinity. Chevannes (2001) argues that Jamaican men are often compelled into
early adolescent sexual activity and multiple sexual partnerings in adulthood to avoid appearing
or being perceived to be homosexual. Gayle (2002) note that the Jamaican male “exhibits his
manhood through sexual exploits and the higher the number of women with whom he is involved
sexually, the greater his achievement. He provides evidence of this through the number of
offspring he produces” (Gayle , 2002, p. 1995)
Virtually all existing scholarship on Jamaican ‘beach boys’ indicates that one of the main
motivations given by “the professional ‘beach boys’ for their involvement with female tourists is
economic” (Herold, Garcia & DeMoya, 2001, p. 983). Citing an extreme “pressure to establish
one’s maleness through the abilities to disperse case” (Hoope, 2004, p. 108), ‘beach boy’
masculinity is redefined to encapsulate a “masculine identity founded on conspicuous
consumption, ostentatious costumes and exaggerated performance, and not on the preferred
markers of status and personhood that traditionally inform social relations in Jamaica” (Hope,
2004, p. 108).
In addition to the focus on the motivations of Jamaican men for involvement with Western
tourist women, Jamaican masculinity is also discussed in regards to the attraction to and
connection developed between white Western women and black Jamaican men. For example,
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Pruitt and Lafont (1995) who contend that while sex tourism as practiced by men serves to
perpetuate conventional gender norms and “reinforce power relations of male dominance and
female subordination, romance tourism as practiced by women provides and arena for change”
(Pruitt and Lafont , 1995, p. 423), argue that while women travel to Jamaica and around the
world free of men and their own society's gender constraints for more control in defining their
relationships they are simultaneously drawn to Jamaica by conventional notions of masculinity.
With ideas about Jamaican masculine power being central to women's attraction to local
Jamaican men, Pruitt and LaFont (1995) argue that female sex tourists in Jamaica are drawn to
the strength and potency of a Jamaican masculinity even as they experiment with the power they
acquire through racial and financial superiority. From this perspective, the connection a Western
woman develops with a Jamaican man is generally based on her idealizations of the embodiment
of manhood, “idealizations fueled by the discourse of hegemonic relations constructed through
‘race’ in which the exotic and the erotic are intertwined (Pruit and Lafont, 1995, p. 430).There is
a well-documented link between sex, travel, and the eroticisation of the ethnic ‘Other’,
(Montgomery, 2008) and it is often argued that various forms of racism are pivotal to sex
tourism. Female Western sex tourists, are seen as being driven into relations with Jamaican men
by racist sexual stereotypes that include fantasies wherein the exotic ‘other’ is more passionate,
more emotional, more natural and sexual tempting (Pruitt & LaFont, 1995). Women are driven
into relationships with Jamaican men, from this interpretation, to feel as though they are able to
‘tame’ a man who is reputed to be the raw, highly sexed ‘other’, a real man with a primitive
manhood (Taylor, 2006). Stereotypes of black men and their sexuality and differences between
the tourists’ cultures and Jamaican cultures, and the Jamaican display of machismo drawn from
their cultural gender scripts, promote the belief that Jamaican men represent the archetypal
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masculine (Pruitt & LaFont, 1995). While the stereotypes about black men and their sexuality
extend to all Jamaican men and perhaps all black men in general, they are particularly prevalent
for the black man who stands closer to his “Affrican heritage”, in this case embodied in the
Rude boy and Rastafarian identity (Pruitt &LaFont, 1995).
Jamaican Masculinities
The conceptualization of a distinct Caribbean or Jamaican masculinity as well as the emergence
of studies of masculinity in the Caribbean can be seen as one of the most recent developments in
feminist and gender studies in that region. Traditionally, research on masculinities focused on
whiteness and masculinities. However, the advent of the sociological inquiry into masculinity in
the Caribbean took issue with the starting point of whiteness and have made it clear that such
normative categories are constructed in relation to difference (Bucholtz, 1999). Despite
ideologies of normativity , neither whiteness nor masculinity are monolithic, as their local forms
creatively respond to dominant ideologies rather than mechanically reflecting them (Bucholtz,
1999). Whiteness and masculinity are therefore terms that encapsulate both identity and
ideology. Bucholtz (1999) argues that for example, "while most males can be said to project
some form of masculinity in at least some contexts (that is, as identity), only a certain subset of
possible or actual masculinities are culturally acceptable (that is, as ideology)" (Bucholtz, 1999,
p. 444). In this regard, Connel (2001) writes of Western masculinity, "hegemonic masculinity is
not a fixed character type, always and everywhere the same. It is, rather, the masculinity that
occupies the hegemonic position in a given pattern of gender relations, a position always
contestable" (p. 76). Connell writes that while hegemonic masculinity is distinguished from other
masculinities, especially subordinated masculinities, "hegemonic masculinity is not assumed to
be normal in the statistical sense; as only a minority of men might enact it, but it is certainly
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normative"( Connell, 2005, p. 835). Hegemonic masculinity, understood as the pattern of
practice (things done, not just a set of role expectations or an identity) that allows men's
dominance over women to continue (Connell, 2005) is constructed in relation to other
subordinated masculinities as well as in relation to women. One type of subordinated masculinity
, Connell notes, is black masculinity. In practice, black men's masculinities are multiple, but at
an ideological level this diversity of gender identities is reduced to monolithic forms of
masculinity that stand counter to the hegemonic white norm (Bucholtz, 1999).
The study of masculinity in Jamaica originated with concerns over the normativity of whiteness
and over Jamaican men’s failure to fulfill their gender roles in society (Barrow, 1998). This
includes investigations into the societal implications of absent fathers, sexual violence, underand unemployment, and educational underachievement. There are several current analyses that
examine the history of the construction of masculinity in the Caribbean generally and Jamaica
specifically that are beyond the scope of this paper (for example, Lewis, 2003). These works
approach analysis from interdisciplinary perspectives including history, literary studies, and
sociology. The concept of Caribbean masculinity is a subject of significant debate between and
among scholars. The prevalence of "deviant" behaviours
including promiscuity, familial
instability, illegitimacy, visiting relationships, female-headed households, and the failure of men
to fulfill their gender roles as husbands and fathers, in Caribbean families (Barrow, 1998)
focuses the debate on whether males in the Caribbean generally, and Jamaica specifically, have
been marginalized, with boys left to fend for themselves, or whether it is in fact the privileging
of males, rather than their marginalization, that has led to an erosion of male status and authority
in Caribbean societies.
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Jamaican masculinities are a social constructions that have everything to do with the ways in
which slavery, colonialism, and now globalization have produced identity performances that are
multiple and conflicted (Hall, 2011). According to Hall (2001), intersections of history, politics,
and culture have had a significant impact on Jamaican male identity negotiation and
performances. The masculinities of the modern Caribbean were born of war, genocide, slavery
and racism (Allahar, 2001) with the subjugation of the non-white male body at the heart of the
conflicted production of Jamaican male identity (Hall, 2011). Linden Lewis (2003) argues that
colonialism in Jamaica was itself a system of patriarchy that “inscribed male domination into the
culture” (p. 103); however, under this system of patriarchy, not all men were equal. Lewis (2003)
asserts that African men in Jamaica were infantilized by the system of slavery to the extent that
they were robbed of autonomy in every sphere of major life decisions. There was an
internalization of the patriarchy that was inherent in the systems of slavery and, later,
colonialism, and this internalization was played out in conflicted relationships with women in the
aftermath of colonialism, as black men struggled to assert themselves in a social system that
privileged white and brown men. Black men were not just infantilized by the systems of slavery
and colonialism; they were also gendered as feminine to the extent that they were reduced to
dependence on the white slave and then colonial master (Hall, 2011). Under slavery black men
received a concession, allocations of leisure time, were denied consumer access by strict
regulatory systems, and could neither claim nor assert any right beyond or outside those of his
owner. According to Patterson, the black men was alienated and his masculinity dishonoured, he
was further rendered "socially dead", or not accepted as fully human by wider society (Patterson,
1982).The black man and his offspring were fed, clothed, and sheltered by white men whose
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hegemonic ideology determined that being "kept" and "kept down" were symbolic of submissive
inferiority(Hall, 2011).
While it is beyond the scope of this present research to discuss in detail how the masculinities of
enslaved black men were constructed and violently repressed within the hegemonic structure of
white male owned and ruled colonialism, it is essential that one be aware that when discussing a
Caribbean or Jamaican masculinity we are discussing a differentiated, marginalized,
subordinated and stigmatized masculinity that struggled violently to exist.
The link between past and current stereotypes of black men in the Caribbean illustrates the extent
to which understanding constructions of black male identity in Jamaica, in particular, calls for
understanding the extent to which the history of the country has produced constructs of
masculinity that are complex and contradictory (Hall, 2011). Even though the work on
masculinity in the Caribbean is underdeveloped, there is a sense in which one can identify core
assumption about men and masculinity from the literature, as well as from the literature on the
Caribbean family. What emerges from the literature are two caricatures of Caribbean men and
masculinity. Firstly, while Jamaica specifically, and the Caribbean in general, have produced
world leaders in the arenas of literature, the arts, and politics, there are still enduring Western
caricatures of the Caribbean male as breezily self-assertive, yet devoid of substance, exotic, and
anti-intellectual. These caricatures are uncannily similar to the stereotypes attending images of
the black American male (Allahar, 2001), stereotypes that can be directly traced back to white
slave owners' characterizations of enslaved black men as “Quashee” (Lewis, 2003). Slave owners
coined the term “Quashee” to represent their ideological characterization of black men, as
"Quashee" was patient, submissive, happy-go-lucky slave who was also irresponsible, lazy, and
childlike (Whitehead, 1984). In his 1808 account of Jamaican slave society, John Stewart
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described "Quashee" as "patient, cheerful, and commonly submissive, capable at times of
grateful attachments when uniformly well treated". The second characterization that emerges of
men and masculinity in the West Indies, directly linked to the stereotypes of black sexuality that
flourished during slavery, is the image of Caribbean male as powerful, exceedingly promiscuous,
derelict in his parental duties, often absent from the household and, if present, unwilling to
undertake his share of domestic responsibilities. The Caribbean male also comes across in this
literature as possessing a propensity for female battering, and a demonstrated valorization of
alcohol (Lewis, 2003).
In the context of the Caribbean, the weight of history and culture can never be overstated.
Slavery and indenture have exerted tremendous pressures on the construction of masculinity,
forcing adjustments and accommodation to circumstances over which men at times had no
control (Lewis, 2013). Two major performances of masculinity, performances that can be
largely understood in context of Jamaica's postcolonial history, have come to characterize
Jamaican performances of masculinity: Rude boys and Rasta (Hall, 2011). These Jamaican
performance of masculinity have challenged Western notions of ideal manhood and reinvented
and legitimized Africanized conceptions of manhood (Hall, 2011). Both performances of
masculinity, the Rude boys and Rasta, challenge both the legitimacy and dominance of white,
Western norms of male performance for black, Jamaican masculinity, as both the Rude boy and
the Rasta legitimize and resurrect performances of black masculinity that are distinctly African
(Hall, 2011).
Research Goals
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With the notable exception of the work of Herold, Garcia, and DeMoya (2001), who conducted
interviews with ‘beach boys’ in the Dominican Republic, the existing literature is focused almost
exclusively on the experiences of the tourist women involved in the informal sex trade in
Jamaica, with a perceptible absence of analysis of the lived experiences of Jamaican ‘beach
boys’. The meaning of tourist/ local relationships is thus determined by the testimony of tourist
women, the social consequences, motivations, and ‘strategies’ of ‘beach boys’ is accordingly
largely speculated through interviews with men in other Caribbean countries.
The existing published research is somewhat distant from the Jamaican men it reports on, this
research will attempt to give a voice to the Jamaican men who have generally been spoken for by
the tourist women they become involved with and by men on other islands. The current research
will concentrate on the lived experiences of Jamaican men who engage in transactional sex with
tourist women and seeks to determine the motivations of Jamaican men involved in the informal
sex trade. Specifically, this research project will, using the conceptualizations of the Rude Boy
and Rasta performances of masculinity, seek to illustrate how men involved in transactional sex
with white tourist women perform their masculinity to accord to the raced expectations of these
women.
Methodology
As the aim of this research project was to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of the
Jamaican men regularly involved with tourist women, face-to face, semi structured qualitative
interviews were chosen as the primary methodological tool in the study. Using some prepared
questions and probes whilst still allowing for the exploration of new themes and ideas that
emerge as a result of the interviewee’s response, semi structured interviews allows for the
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examination of areas most relevant to each interviewee. By using open-ended questions,subjects
were encouraged to expand on their own experiences (Patton, 2005). Thus, a wealth of detailed
information was obtained from the local men who participated in my study that I feel would not
have been effectively collected using another methodological tool.
The resort town of Montego Bay was chosen as the location for this particular study mainly due
to its renown as a haven for North American, European, and British tourists, including sex
tourists. Montego Bay, the capital of St. James Parish and the second largest city in Jamaica by
area and the fourth by population is a popular tourist area that has long since earned the title of
“tourist capital of Jamaica” (Gayle, 2003), with a ratio of residents to visitors at 17:7 and
based on my preliminary exploratory trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica. The town of Montego
Bay was chosen due principally to the sheer availability of tourist women and local men
formally and informally employed in the tourism sector.
A total of thirteen (13) interviews with Jamaican men were conducted for this study. Each
interview lasted between thirty (30) and sixty (60) minuets. All of the interviews were conducted
on resort property, in a mutually agreeable location that provided both for privacy and my own
safety.
While previous sociological inquiry both guided my research questions and shaped my research
design and methodology, the intent of this research was neither to prove nor disprove any of the
theories regarding ‘beach boys’ advanced by previous scholarship, but to concentrate on the
interviewees’ interpretations of life events, personal experiences and their understanding of the
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informal sex trade and to contribute to a process of continuous revision and enrichment of
understanding.
Polit and Hungler (1999) describe interviews as a method of data collection “in which one
person, an interviewer asks questions of another person, a respondent, [and] are conducted either
face-to-face or by telephone” (Polit & Hungler, 1999). In this study, as noted, all interviews
were conducted on a one-to-one basis, between me, the researcher and the sample of Jamaica
men regularly involved with tourist women. According to Appleton (1995), collecting data
through an interview methodology has many advantages including the finding that control over
the interview process lies with the interviewer who can put the interviewee at ease by the use of
effective interpersonal skills and the willingness to reword questions as necessary. In this
particular study, the ability granted by the chosen methodology allowed me not only the ability
to develop connections and rapport with study participants but also to navigate language barriers
by reworking, reframing, and rewording questions to garner considered and thorough responses.
While I understand local Jamaican patois, I do not speak the dialect, and the use of semistructured interviews allowed me the opportunity to seek clarification and explanation for
specific patois and local slang terms. Moreover, using semi-structured interviews allowed me to
reword and expand on questions that study participants felt were ambiguous or unclear, and
which may otherwise have been misinterpreted by respondents.
Perhaps surprisingly, the majority of responses were provided by participants not speaking
patois. While some individuals spoke patois for some responses, the majority of responses were
provided in articulate or slanged English. The few responses that were provided in patois are
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presented in patois in the findings sections, in order to maintain the integrity of the opinion or
perspective they were chosen to demonstrate.
The literature also reveals the disadvantages of interviews as a method of data collection
(Robson, 2002). They are costly and time consuming both in terms of organizing and travelling
to the interviews and the length of the interview itself. For obvious reasons, this study required
travel from Ontario, Canada to Montego Bay, Jamaica, resulted in the total duration of my
fieldwork to be just under one (1) month. The need for access to Jamaican men who actively
sought relationships with tourist women in such a short period of time required me to situate
myself, for both observations and interviews, in a resort environment. While previous
researchers recount taking up residence outside of the resort environment, primarily to facilitate
their ability to write and work away from the boisterous resort atmosphere and to avoid suspicion
from locals and tourists alike, the short duration of my stay required a closer proximity and
opportunity for uninterrupted observation.
For the purposes of this study, I completed two pilot interviews with fellow graduate students to
gain the skills necessary for a successful in-depth interview. However, the process of collecting
data through interviews was a learning experience for me. As the study progressed I gained more
confidence and skills in handling the interview process and eliciting the views and perceptions of
the study participants. While I was not entirely unprepared for the possibility, I experienced two
substantial setbacks in the collection of data, namely being mistaken for a female sex tourist and
being accused of an inability to fully comprehend the plight of poverty and ‘blackness’.
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From my previous exploratory trip to the region, I was fully aware that as an unaccompanied
single woman in Jamaica I would become the recipient of unsolicited advances, flirtation, and
often harassment from men involved in informal sex tourism. I was thus prepared to negotiate
the boundaries between the roles of researcher, tourist, heterosexual woman, and visitor, I was
however unprepared for men who had been recruited into my study to assume that I had
fabricated my study goals to attract and entice male sex workers. Having traveled to Jamaica
with my biracial children and having been seen around the resort property with my children
apparently led many men in and around the resort environment to believe that either I was a
well-seasoned sex tourist or that at the very least I would be interested in (or at least not opposed
to) sex with black men. With the signing of an IRB informed consent and my persistent
assertions of my adverse position to personally engaging in transactional sex and the continued
clarification of my research intentions and goals, the majority of men I interviewed, were able to
understand the true nature and goal of my research and ceased their open invitations for sexual
involvement. The shift in behavior in men who began to understand my real intentions and hopes
was evident as all flirtation and sexual innuendo was abandoned in favor of communicating well
informed and perceptive opinions on the Jamaican sex trade. One study participant, after the
clarification of my intentions, surprisingly put back on his t-shirt that had been previously
hanging from his back pocket in order to conduct the interview. I was however unable to
interview three (3) men that I had recruited for my study because of the persistence of their
sexual advances and the derogatory comments, directed at myself and my children, after I
continued to decline their advances. In one particularly upsetting instance I was accused of
bringing my children along for my trip to “flaunt” my liberal ideals regarding interracial
relationships in an attempt to attract a great number of black men.
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I was further met with intense suspicion from a few men that I had approached to inquire about
participation in my study. While the majority of men I spoke to and approached were both
willing and eager to share their life stories and perspective with me, a few men were resentful of
the nature of my inquire. I did not approach individuals with the presumption or allegation that
they engage in transactional sex with tourist women, but rather presented a sort of curiosity about
the phenomenon. From the great minority of individuals I spoke to I, as a non-black woman,
was accused of representing ‘Babylon’ in its attempts to suppress the sexuality of black men, and
of wanting to propagate racist ideals and principals. One individual who had approached me after
observing me speaking to several study participants suspected that I was attempting to gather
information about the sexual practices of Jamaican men to report it back to an “agency that
blamed black men” for the global spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Another surprising
incident occurred when a Rastafarian man, who had grown suspicious of my presence on the
resort, confronted me with the accusation of racism. This individual, who had somehow garnered
some information about my study, was convinced that the true nature of my research was to
uncover a genetic difference between black men and white men. In addition, the assertion that I
could not possible “overstand” the tribulations of poverty due to my presumed class status was
surprisingly disheartening. As a non-black woman affiliated with a Canadian university my class
status was assumed to be upper-middle class which rendered a few potential participants
unwilling to participate in my study due to the perception that I would be unable to understand
the plight of their ‘blackness’ or their poverty.
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Finally, as interviews are a form of self-report, the researcher must assume that the information
given by the interviewee is accurate (Bums & Grove, 1987). Because the data sought in this
research concerns subjective insights and perceptions and although this is not a threat to validity
another ethical dilemma regarding this research on sex tourism was the assurance that honest,
valid qualitative data would be collected from participants. While I clearly conveyed my hopes
for honest and forthcoming responses I am forced to accept that the information related to me by
the study participants was merely their subjective understanding of the trade, and does not
necessarily speak to an objective ‘truth’ about the industry.
Being a Female Researcher
While being a foreign women permitted me unproblematic access to Jamaican men engaged in
transactional sex, it also forced me to be cognizant of my social position as a female and as a
female researcher. The idea that all stages of social research are gendered has been discussed
extensively in the literature (England, 1994). According to Kosygina (2003) a great number of
texts are devoted to reflection on how gender influence researcher/respondent interaction.
Male respondents are often seen as being more reclusive and less enthusiastic than woman about
sharing their lives and experiences. According to Finch (1993), the reasons why women can be
more enthusiastic about talking to a woman researcher, lie in the social experience of women and
their expectation that the researcher, as a woman, shares with them this social experience and
can, therefore, easily understand them. Finch asserts that “Women are more used than men to
accepting intrusions through questioning into the more private parts of their lives... Through their
experience of motherhood they are subject to questioning from doctors, midwives and health
visitors; and also from people such as housing visitors… who deal principally with women as the
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people with imputed responsibility for home and household. As subjects of research, therefore,
women are less likely than men to find questions about their life unusual and therefore
inadmissible.” Finch further concludes that “when the interviewer is also a woman both parties
share a subordinate structural position by virtue of their gender. This creates the possibility that a
particular kind of identification will develop (Finch, 1993)”.
According to the explanation provided by Finch (1993) men are more reluctant to talk with a
woman interviewer, because, firstly, they are less used to being questioned, and, secondly, they
do not expect the researcher to understand them because she (the researcher) does not have the
same social experience as they have.
During the course of this present research, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to
interview both local Jamaican males and females. While the information garnered from the
female respondents surpasses the scope of this present analysis, the experience allowed me to
become privy to the differences between interviewing men and women. Although, my research
dealt with personal and sexual experiences and perceptions, I found that women were ultimately
more likely to share details from their personal lives as well as appear to “forget” that my
principal identification was as a researcher, and began to treat me as just another women with
whom they were engaged in ‘girl talk with’. During my interviews with women I was able to
encourage women to continue by expressing emotion and participating in a more conversational
style of interview.
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I did not adopt the same strategy of a conversational question/answer format during interviews
with men. In order to avoid the possibility of the male participants involved in this study
interpreting a conversational question/answer format as flirtatious I maintained my principal
identification as a researcher. This allowed men to interact with me in a way which they believed
was appropriate for communication with a researcher, as compared to the manner they believed
appropriate for communication with both a female and a female tourist. By maintaining a
professional distance between me and the research participants I was able to ease my fear of
losing control of the interviews and was therefore able obtain detailed responses to my carefully
poised questions.
While the men who participated in my study were often observed and overheard discussing their
numerous sexual conquests with other men, the majority of respondents, at least initially,
displayed reticence in discussing these matters with me, a female researcher, presumably because
I am a woman. Additionally, although the participants who participated in my research provided
me with a wealth of information, there remained the impression that they felt that I was unable to
understand a lot of their experiences as men. For example, a number of respondents would
clarify their responses to questions, by carefully noting how “men understand things” or how
“men feel about things”. For instance, one respondent, while detailing how he felt that
penetrative sex with women was necessary for his well-being, carefully explained to me the
value and importance of sex, as if, as a women I could not possibly understand the significance
of sexual intimacy.
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According to Goffman (1959) “when an individual plays a part, he implicitly requests his
observers to take seriously the impression that is fostered before them" (p.50). Impression
management, also called self-presentation, is the process by which individuals attempt to control
the impressions others form of them (Goffman, 1959). Individuals manage their behavior and
personal characteristics in the presence of others in an attempt to create a specific impression on
their audience. Thus, an individual may seek to create different impressions on different
audiences based on his or her specific goal for the interaction. Being a female researcher, I was
forced to accept that the narratives and information provided to me by my study participants may
have been presented in an attempt to create a specific impression on me, and on the information
that I report. My interview participants were all adept at dealing with foreign women and
accustomed to conveying opinions and information they felt women wanted to hear, because this
research is chiefly focused on sexual practices, I was forced to accept that the exaggeration of
sexual prowess and conquests might have been used as a device for the management of
impressions by study participants. Also, despite the open and candid information presented by
the male participants, I was likewise forced to accept that participants might be less likely share
information that might portray them in a negative way, specifically with a foreign woman.
Sample
All but one of the thirteen (13) interview participants, a portrait artist who’s 20 plus years of
contact and observation of both male sex workers and tourist women proved invaluable to this
study, informed that they had taken part in a romantic or sexual relationship with one or more
tourist women during the summer of 2013. Nine (9) of the twelve (12) participants interviewed
were employed by the beach resort, and three (3) in tourist oriented shops and service centers
located off of resort property. The men who participated in this study were young, physically
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attractive and in good shape and ranged in age from 20 to 31. All of the men who participated in
this study were black. All of the participants who participated in this study advised that they
were unmarried, however six (6) advised that they had dependent children and one (1) that he
had a steady Jamaican girlfriend.
Recruitment
Because male sex workers cannot be recognized by their clothing or outward appearance, but
rather their frequent interactions with female tourists that include flirtation, open displays of
affection, and, at times, harassment, during the observation portion of my research I took note of
men who appeared to be involved in transactional sex with tourists female based on behaviors
such as appearing in public with numerous tourist women, frequenting establishments that were
known locally as tourist hangouts, speaking openly about experiences with female tourists, and
otherwise demonstrating a proclivity for “hustling” tourists for money.
With the assistance of a personal friend who was employed as a hostess at one of the resorts
main restaurants and the aforementioned portrait artist, I was pointed in the direction of men they
felt were involved in transactional sex with tourist women. Towards the end of my fieldwork, I
began approaching men that who either I had identified as being involved in sex tourism or had
been identified as such by the two aforementioned informants. Pursuant to my research protocol
I did not approach potential study participants with the presumption or allegation that they were
involved in the informal sex trade, but rather approached them asking if they might be willing to
share what they know about the trade.
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I was further approached by tourist and local women who were eager to share their perceptions
and views on the research topic. While I had received IRB approval to interview local Jamaican
women as well, the limited scope of my research prevent me from detailing the opinions and
ideas expressed by these women, despite engaging in lengthy conversations with these women.
Due to the relatively small size of the resort, word of my research spread rather quickly amongst
employees and visitors. Following my first three (3) interviews I was approached by several men
who had gained knowledge of my study and who wanted to volunteer their participation. A total
of seven (7) interviews were secured in this fashion, with the remaining six having been
approached by me using a snowball sampling technique.
Overall, I had few problems in the recruitment of study participants and was overwhelmed by the
generosity of time and honesty that was contributed by participants.
Data Management
Qualitative research produces a large amount of rich data, which needs to be systematically and
logically analyzed (Miles &Huberman, 1984). The interview data were subjected to a two-stage
analysis method described by Miles and Hubennan (1984) as data reduction. Data reduction
refers to the process of 'selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting and transforming' the data
(Miles &Huberman, 1994), as the researcher elicits meanings and insights from the words of the
respondents (Marshall &Rossman, 1989) Firstly, the interviews were tape recorded and then
transcribed verbatim, I then listened to each tape, transcribed each tape myself and then read
each transcript several times in order to familiarize myself with the data. In the initial stages of
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data reduction each line of interview transcript was numbered according to the question number
it related to from my interview schedule. Sixteen (16) separate folders were compiled, each
containing the question and responses for each question on the interview schedule. Following
this initial coding, to make the data more manageable, the data in each of the sixteen (16)
question folders were re-analyzed and broken down into several categories and subheadings
depending on the emerging themes. Highlighter pens and margin notes facilitated management
of this level of analysis. The data was then compiled in a tabbed binder containing the twenty
(20) most prevalent themes that accorded to my research aims. Just as there is a need to look at
the accuracy and trustworthiness of various kinds of quantitative data in different ways, there is
also a need to look at qualitative methods for the different ways in which to ensure the quality of
the findings. Researchers need alternative models appropriate to qualitative designs that ensure
rigor without sacrificing the relevance of the qualitative research (Krefting, 1991). Guba (1981)
proposed such a model for assessing the trustworthiness of qualitative data. Guba's (1981) model
is based on the identification of four aspects of trustworthiness that are relevant to both
quantitative and qualitative studies: (a) truth value, (b) applicability, (c) consistency, and (d)
neutrality (Appleton, 1995).
Truth value asks whether the researcher has established confidence in the truth of the findings for
the subjects or informants and the context in which the study was undertaken (Lincoln & Guba,
1994). It establishes how confident the researcher is with the truth of the findings based on the
research design, informants, and context. In quantitative studies, truth is often assessed by how
well threats to the internal validity of the study have been managed as well as the validity of-the
instruments as a measure of the phenomenon under study (Sandelowski, 1986). Sandelowski
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stated that 'a research instrument is valid when there is confidence that it measures what it was
intended to measure' (Sandelowski, 1986). A qualitative study is thus deemed credible if it
reveals accurate deceptions of individuals' experiences and
"that the people having that
experience would immediately recognize it from those deceptions or interpretations as their
own" (Sandelowski, 1986).
Following the completion of data collection and subsequent coding of the data I presented some
of my findings to two (2) of the study participants who expressed keen interest in the results of
my research. Following my research study protocol, I was provided with contact information for
these individuals and was thus able to communicate with them regarding my findings. The aim
of this exercise was to present study findings to respondents to check the credibility of the
analysis and to see if the findings reflected the informants’ own experiences and perceptions
about the topic.
Applicability refers to the degree to which the findings can be applied to other contexts and
settings or with other groups; it is the ability to generalize from the findings to larger
populations. In the quantitative perspective, applicability refers to how well the threats to
external validity have been managed (Sandelowski, 1986). Payton (1979) defined external
validity as the ability to generalize from the study sample to the larger population and noted the
importance of sampling technique in its establishment. Specific strategies have been identified
for ensuring the applicability and truth value of a qualitative study to reduce the threat of 'elite
bias', or the, "overweighting data from articulate, well-informed, usually high status informants"
and the threat of the 'holistic
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fallacy' (Miles & Huberman, 1994) which can occur as the researcher becomes more certain that
his/her conclusions are correct (Bums & Grove, 1987).
In this study I repeatedly referred back to the interview and questionnaire data when developing
the themes during data analysis as a set to prevent both 'elite bias' and 'holistic fallacy'. I
continuously questioned the conclusions I was drawing and always paid particular attention to
any exceptions to findings and was careful to not have my expectations reflect in my
conclusions.
Two perspectives to applicability are appropriate for qualitative research. The first perspective,
which I believe is applicable to my research, suggests that the ability to generalize is not relevant
in many qualitative research projects. A strength of the qualitative method, is that it is conducted
in naturalistic settings with few controlling variables (Appleton, 1995). Each situation is defined
as unique and thus is less amenable to generalization. Consequently, as Sandelowski (explained,
generalization is somewhat of an illusion because every research situation is made up of a
particular researcher in a particular interaction with particular informants (Sandelowski, 1986). It
is important to note that the intent and purpose of this research project is not to garner a
statistically representative sample of Jamaican men involved in the phenomenon of female sex
tourism but to garner insight into the lived experiences and perceptions of the trade.
Applicability, then, is not seen as relevant to my qualitative research because its purpose is to
describe a particular phenomenon or experience, not to generalize to others. Accordingly, the
findings the data yield are not meant to be generalized to the population of men engaged in
transactional sex in Jamaica or elsewhere.
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The third criterion of trustworthiness considers the consistency of the data, that is, whether the
findings would be consistent if the inquiry were replicated with the same subjects or in a similar
Context (Appleton, 1995). In quantitative research, reliability is the criterion concerned with the
stability, consistency, and equivalence in the study (Sandelowski, 1986). In contrast to
quantitative research which aims for repeatability of measures and consistent responses,
qualitative research “emphasizes the uniqueness of human situations and the importance of
experiences that are not necessarily accessible to validation through the sense” (Sandelowski
1986). It is the extent to which repeated administration of a measure will provide the same data
or the extent to which a measure administered once, but by different people, produces equivalent
results.
Because the reliability of the data elicited is dependent upon the competency and ability of my
researcher skills, as the research tool, I attempted to maximize consistency of the data by
maintaining use of my interview schedule, which was standardized in order to increase the
consistency of the data collected, whilst not hindering the free flow of thoughts and opinions
made available through open ended interviews. To achieve consistency in my skills as a
researcher I conducted two pilot interviews with fellow graduate students to begin to work on my
skills in questioning and responding. In addition, during my field work it was evident that my
skills progressed and my interview technique developed the quality of data also improved.
Accordingly, the first two interviews I conducted in the field were excluded from my data
analysis, based on my own perception of their poorer quality. Reliability was also addressed in
terms of the equipment employed in the interview. A tape recorder was used to record all
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interviews, thereby increasing reliability. It is however important to remember that the
interviewee’s responses may not have always reflected the reality of their situation.
The fourth criterion of trustworthiness is neutrality, the freedom from bias in the research
procedures and results (Sandelowski, 1986). Neutrality refers to the degree to which the findings
are a function solely of the informants and conditions of the research and not of other biases,
motivations, and perspectives (Guba&Lincoln, 1994). While I took steps to preventing interview
bias, it is possible that interviewer bias may also have been present simply because of my own
experiences with Jamaican men both involved and not involved in the sex trade. However, I tried
to overcome this by maintaining a neutral stance and not presenting my own perceptions during
data collection.
Terminology
A salient issue in the study of sex tourism is that of labeling and identifying the individuals and
groups involved. According to previous research, Jamaican men who are engaged in
transactional sex with women with self-identify or have the labels “gigolos,” “rent-a-dread”,
“hustlers” or ‘beach boys’ imposed on them. When questioned regarding the label or
terminology that best describes their activities the respondents answered in various ways, some
accepting and others denying their involvement in sex work.
In my own work, I opted to use the term “study participants” and “men who participated in this
study”. While it is my belief that the men who participated in my study were in fact engaged in
sex work, many of my respondents rejected the notion that they were involved in the
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transactional sex trade, and I have accordingly elected to respect their adamant rejection of labels
in describing their actions.
Ethical Considerations
Research studies that focus on stigmatized activities, such as sex tourism, have the potential to
involve risks of protecting both the research participants and the researchers, with protecting the
identities of informants being an issue that affects researchers conducting in-depth studies of
specific populations, particularly those that can be considered vulnerable. To minimize the risk
of identification, all participants in my study have been randomly assigned pseudonyms, some
details, including locations and personal identifiable traits have been altered to protect
anonymity.
CHAPTER TWO: STUDY PARTICIPANTS PERSPECTIVES
Motivations for Involvement
Virtually all existing scholarship on Jamaican ‘beach boys’ indicates that one of the main
motivations given by the ‘professional beach boys’ for their involvement with female tourists is
economic (Herold, Garcia & DeMoya, 2001). Ranging from the short term material goals of
acquiring free meals, drinks and entertainment, to the intermediate and long terms goals of cash
remittances or sponsorship for citizenship or residency abroad, the supposed primacy of
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economic motivation is well documented. While poverty and sex work appear to be inseparably
linked in the scholarship concerning female sex workers, treating females engaged in both formal
and informal sex work as victims of poverty, the preponderance of academic studies concerning
Jamaican male sex work sees ‘beach boys’ as extortionists praying on the vulnerability of tourist
women while actively pursuing his next money making venture or sexual conquest (Herold,
Garcia & DeMoya, 2001), with being a beach boy being perceived as allowing for the ability to
earn a prosperous living far beyond basic needs for survival (Pruitt & LaFont, 1995).
According to previous scholarship the ability to earn a prosperous living has significance for the
Jamaican ‘beach boys’ that extends far beyond meeting basic needs of survival, as there exists a
great “pressure to establish one’s maleness through the abilities to disperse case” (Hoope, 2004,
p. 108) in Jamaican culture. Informed heavily by scholarship regarding Jamaican dancehall
culture, a culture that encompasses Dancehall’s music, fashions, art, and ideologies, ‘beach boy’
masculinity is redefined to encapsulates a “masculine identity founded on conspicuous
consumption, ostentatious costumes and exaggerated performance, and not on the preferred
markers of status and personhood that traditionally inform social relations in Jamaica” (Hoope,
2004, p. 108) but on the markers of status prescribed by the dancehall. The conspicuous
consumption demanded of men in Jamaican dancehall culture includes consumption of status
generating products, such as: foreign travel (Jamaica/diaspora), diamond and platinum jewelry,
Rolex watches, Italian leather shoes, luxury cars (latemodel – Benz, Volvo, stretch limousines,
SUVs), brand-name sunglasses, expensive cellular phones, and expensive European and Parisian
designs/clothing (Hope, 2004) . It is exactly these markers of status that are described as
Jamaican men’s motivation for entrance and continued participation in the tourist oriented
informal sex trade, in this context the motivation of escaping poverty is not discussed.
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Poverty has been a persistent feature of the Jamaican landscape in the post emancipation period
(Anderson, 2001). Jamaica has used a consumption based methodology for the definition and
estimation of the incidence of poverty since 1989. All persons consuming below an estimated
poverty line are deemed to be in poverty. This state of being poor is evidenced typically not only
by an inability to procure the requisite means of subsistence, but also in deprivation of access to
such public goods as basic education, healthcare, housing, transportation, safe environments and
employment (Jamaica National Development Plan , 2009). The prevalence of poverty in Jamaica
in 2013 was 17 percent and many of the factors impacting poverty have an inter-generational
dynamic and according to the Jamaica National Development Plan (2009) include low
educational attainment levels, low income earning capability, inability to access basic social
services, lack of economic opportunities leading to underemployment, unemployment and low
wage employment , poor rural development impacting the opportunities and livelihoods of rural
households and high levels of risk due to natural hazards and poor environmental practices.
The Jamaican economy has become increasingly reliant on tourism and remittances for its gross
domestic product (GDP) and less so on bauxite/alumina, as it was before the global economic
recession. The declining sugar industry was replaced by tourism in 1965 in terms of foreign
exchange generated (Smith, 1976). The service industry now accounts for approximately 65% of
the GDP, of which tourism revenues total approximately 10% (CIA World Factbook 2013).
While low earnings and price inflation are contributors to poverty, the presence of extensive
unemployment is a major predictor of economic hardship. This economy has been blighted with
consistently high unemployment rates and considerable national debt. With a Jamaican
unemployment rate of approximately 14%, with the highest numbers of unemployed citizens
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falling within the 25-34 age group for both males and females (Statistical Institute of Jamaica
2013) and a total of approximately 17 percent living well below the poverty line, with 26% of
Jamaicans living in poverty being aged between the ages of 12 and 24 (CIA World Factbook
2013). The impact of unemployment on the youth Labor force may be appreciated from the fact
that close to 100,000 persons between 14 and 24 years of age were recorded as unemployed in
2008. This large pool of unemployed youths represented 52% of the total estimate of 200,000
unemployed workers, translating to seven out of 10 unemployed workers in Jamaica being below
the age of 30. Investment in education is generally expected to reduce the risk of unemployment,
but it has demonstrated that that is not the case for young men in Jamaica (Gayle, 2002) .
Whereas there is a demand for unskilled male labour, particularly in agriculture, those young
men who have achieved secondary education cannot find a commensurate increase in their job
opportunities. According to the book Poverty in Jamaica: Social Target or Social Crisis, young
males with no secondary education had an unemployment rate of 12.9% in 1998, but the rate was
more than double for those with some secondary education (Gayle, 2002).
The importance of economic motivation was very clearly conveyed by interview participants
during this study with ten (10) of the thirteen (13) respondents indicating that the prospect of
financial gain was their chief motivator for involvement with tourist women. Despite the
inclination for academics to point to dancehall culture and desires of a prosperous living as
incentive for Jamaican men’s participation in the sex trade, all interview participants indicated
that their entrance into sex work was at least partly motivated by a desire to escape poverty.
One ‘beach boy’ noted:
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Why I want to be involved with these women… simple, its opportunity. If I’m a
poor country yute living on Jamaica’s North Coast where I regularly come into
contact with these women I would do almost anything to be involved with these
women. There aren’t many opportunities to prosper in Jamaica, so if you’re lucky
enough to find one of these women willin to leave you a little something or send
you something you might be good.
Another argued:
…so as soon as a man come to the beach an’ start hustle an’ start to get that kinda
attention, then him start think twice. Him stop think ‘bout fi hustle an’ start tink
‘bout fi gig. The worse, fi him go out wit de woman,an’ she gi’im like $200 to
$300 [U.S.] fi put inna him pocket, an’ him hustle fi whole week an’ nah make
dat. Him tink, ‘Wait…hustlin’ fi foolishness. Me need fi start fuck dem tourists
here.’ So ah dat’s how it go. You link up wit’ other tourists, link up wit’ other
gigolo, an’ you learn de game.
For some of the men who participated in this study, the sexual conquest of tourists is a major
objective, as will be discussed in detail in the following section. Nevertheless, both in this
research as well as in previous studies, one of the main motivations given by the professional
‘beach boys’ for their involvement with female tourists is economic.
All of the interview respondents in this study, with the exception of the freelance portrait artist,
indicated that their current rate of employment compensation, and the rate of compensation they
could expect based on their educational background and skills was the Jamaican minimum wage
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of $ 5000 Jamaican Dollars (approximately 51 Canadian Dollars) a month, a wage that all
interview participants considered as insufficient for survival.
According to the men who participated in this study, the insufficiency of the wage compensation
available is the incitement to become economically involved with tourist women.
One beach boy, upon recalling his entrance into ‘work’ as a ‘beach boy’ said:
This is how you create a culture of corruption. Most people cannot get by on their
regular salaries and have to resort to other measures. It is the norm here in
Jamaica. Some gonna sell rocks or whatever, Im gonna mek these women have a
nice time and hope they left me with something. I never even thought twice about
my links.
After the transportation costs to get to and from said job, yu lucky fi have two can
ah baked bean to your name by week's end....it's fucking ludicrous. Plus, that may
be the minimum wage, but you only get it if boss man shows up on friday fi put it
in your hand...mine him owe you likkle bit of it..., I work hard yu know..
Another noted:
People come to think you have big job if yuh for resort, You get paid $340 US
per month after taxes, not a week you know, roughly US $85 per week. People
always think that workers out here a get big money. Little do they know a pay
cheque to pay cheque ting a go on. As them pay light bill and rent and buy food
money next to done. Someone can work at a fast food restaurant in America and
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make US $250 per week while a Jamaican that works on shift at resort as a trained
chef would get US $85 per week. My point is this… a fuckreydat! For the lack of
a better word.
Another argued:
The Jamaica minimum wage is US $43 per week, that is unacceptable by all
standards of living in these times when everything a rise except the average man
pay check. Wha people haffi do fi survive? It hard fi honest hard working people
make a life for themself and their family. I have fi do what I have fi do… I work
50 hours a week here and have fi spend the rest of my time chatting up this
woman and this woman, just to have enough to survive, the political text book
answers naw cut it nuh more.
The participants in this study, apart from confessing the severity of their economic hardship,
indicated that the minimum wage work that is available to them is physically demanding hard
work. The ability to improve their financial situations by attending to tourist women is therefore
seen as “good work” that is not physically demanding and allows for the earning of an income
that may greatly surpass the income grossed through the minimum wage employment that is felt
to be insufficient for survival.
Despite the assertion that Jamaica's masculine identity is founded on conspicuous consumption,
ostentatious costumes and exaggerated performance, and not on the preferred markers of status
and personhood that traditionally inform social relations in Jamaica (Hope, 2004) not one of the
participants of this study mentioned foreign travel, diamond and platinum jewelry, Rolex
watches, Italian leather shoes, or luxury cars as motivation for involvement with tourist women .
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In addition to being able to afford housing, food and other necessities the men who participated
in this
voiced a desire to be able to provide for their families, including their children,
girlfriends, and parents.
One participant noted that “a man is supposed be able to provide for him family, for his children
and his woman. A man needs money for that."
Another participant argued:
Roun my way, the women dem depend on their man to be the head of the family,
to keep a roof over them head and keep their bellies full. In any normal family,
there has to be a head. Somebody has to have final I was always taught it was
the man's place to be the head.
Another noted that "as long as the inability of government to raise the standard of living or the
employment rate causes hardship to the average man he is gonna have to hustle to provide for his
babies."
In accordance with Kempadoo (1999, p. 25) who writes, “An exchange of sex for material and
financial benefits with a female tourist […] reaffirms conceptions of ‘real’ Caribbean manhood,
creating a space for the liberation of a masculinity that, within the international context is
subordinated to an economically powerful, white masculinity” the men who participated in this
study reported feeling that they remain in control as they express their masculinity and sexual
prowess through behaviors with women tourists. While studies (Padilla, 2008) have reported an
intense stigma associated with Western male sex workers, the men who participated in this study
reported that their engagement in transactional sex fit with their concepualizations of
masculinity.
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One participant noted;
Being a Jamaican man is not an easy task, you hear “Datdeh, is a man” for only certain
things that are valued in men in Jamaica. You have to be a gyallis, have to have a bag of
kids from different mothers, cause in Jamaica the ultimate measure of the worth of a
Jamaican man is his ability to conquer the fairer sex. To be in this game, your doing it for
the money, but you doing it to be a man too.
Another;
To be a man, a real man, means certain things in Jamaica and everywhere, it means you
can get plenty women and you are able to be a father. This flex lets me make money but
makes me feel like a real big man.
Anger Towards Tourists
During discussion on poverty in Jamaica, many of the men who participated in this study
presented a sort of anger directed at the Western tourists who possess very considerable
economic privilege. Acutely aware of the average cost of a one week all- inclusive vacation at
the Jamaican resort where the study participants were located (between $1500 to $2000 for two
travelers), the study participants often defended their pursuit of financial gain from tourist
women by referring to them as “spoiled” or “greedy”. It was the prevailing opinion amongst the
men who participated in this study that life abroad is “too easy” and that ‘tourist dollars’ might
as well be spent on them.
One ‘beach boy’, visibly angered the income disparity between Jamaicans and tourists, argued:
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Yuh see these women haf money fi spend, she gonna spend some $99,000 (Jamaican)
dollars to come her for a week! She have more than immamake all year to spend on one
week! Talking bout she need to relax! I need to relax! Nuh sir, if she have $25
(American) dollars to spend on a one plate of chicken and rice and peas ( referring to the
prices at Jerk Hut restaurant located just off hotel property that catered to foreign
travelers) she have nuf money fi leave me some. I don’t fucking care, I hear people say
we takin advantage of these women, they taking advantage of us. They come Yard, sit
pon the beach, enjoy our weather, our sun, our water, our people and left us with
pollution and foreign disease. Nuh sir!
Another stated:
Im not the type to begrudge anyone for what them have, but it seems to me yall have to
easy , you see nuf vacationers here that is spoiled, feel entitled, come to Yard and feel
they deserve everything…Let me put it this way.. what one week flight, hotel and food
cost you can, support my family for a year. I understand the whole system is set up to
keep the good man down, but sometimes you guys just look greedy.
Another recounted an instance when he was forced to explain his perceptions of bilateral
exploitation.
One time one old country woman asked me how come I can take advantage of these
woman, me a laugh, tell her cha how come all the people dem can take advantage of us.
You understand… these tourist come to Jamaica and use our resources and honestly
abuse our women and children and we are left to struggle here, that aint fair, you on
vacation sure but you can see this shit aint right. And worse the Jamaican government
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gonna use up all the taxes we pay to make ads for these tourists to come. Most places
were the government charges you taxes, there is some kind of social services, not here
nope. You broke and hungry, most your gonna get is a food hamper, cause the
government is doing the job of the cruise ship captain and trying to get the tourists.
Another stated:
Yuh see these big whales come in thinking they running this shit and we have to smile
and laugh and tell her she sexy, and what have you. Nobody can tell me this shit is easy.
It ain't fucking easy. I don't want to do this shit but hey I want to eat too, so guess I can't
have it both ways. Nobody can tell me shit, if these whales have money fi spend she
gonna spend it on me.
Several researchers documenting male sex tourism in underdeveloped countries often cite
tourists who justify their sexual exploitation of local people with rationalizations that the local
sex workers are so financially destitute that their sexual transactions are in fact “helping out” an
impoverished person (O’Connell Davidson, 2000). The men who participated in this study
attempted to justify their own involvement in transactional sex (and the possible perception that
they are exploiting tourist women) by pointing to the gross income disparity between Jamaicans
and travelers to the region. By pointing to the income disparity and to the opinion that Western
women are “spoiled”, the men who participated in this study justify their own behavior by
insisting that the women they become involved with can afford the financial remuneration
expected as well as by pointing to what they perceive to be as bilateral exploitation, in that they
express that any exploiting of women that they are involved with, is justified by their feelings
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that the female tourists that they are involved with are in turn exploiting them and Jamaica’s
resources.
THE ECONOMIC POWER OF FEMALE TOURISTS
In order to include women within the ranks of sex tourists, researchers (Taylor, 2001) describe
them as having economic power over local men. It is clear that Western women tourists do
possess very considerable economic privilege in comparison to the Jamaican men with whom
they engage in romantic and sexual relationships. But the extent of this privilege in the sexual
relationships between foreign women and local Jamaican men that take place is not so clear.
According to some of the men who participated in this study the economic privilege enjoyed by
the female sex tourists is diminutive in comparison to the power of male dominance.
One study participant noted;
I have had the problem before of women thinking that because they have a little
superiority in terms of money they are going to run me. Rasta man no get run by no
woman! No Babylon woman that's for sure. Jah created man and women equal,
everyone there is a certain role that is needed to maintain order and
women come from France or Germany and think that their role as a
because they have some more moment. But even the bible says
but to
sometimes
woman is changed
one man is worth two
woman, that's the order and that is important to be maintained.
Another noted;
At first, I mean initially, foreign women do have a bit of power, they do, I guess, at first,
control the situation with a man, but that can only last for so long. After
man is the man and a woman is just a women, when it
isnt going to change the real situation.
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Another revealed;
A woman from foreign, if she is worth the pursuit anyways, is always going to
have a
little more than me, but that's just one aspect a relationship. Where she has
some
control over her money, I am the Jamaican and the man, and when she is here, I have control
over all things Jamaica. I know where to go, where to take her, all stuff like that.
In the opinion of other men who participated in this study the economic privilege enjoyed by the
female sex tourists is considerable and able to command the attention and often the actions of the
local men.
One participant noted that "making money isn't hard in itself, it's having to put your pride aside
and let some woman control you".
Another participant argued;
Hard as it is to admit it, it just makes zero sense to deny it, the biggest reason that men
are involved (with tourist women) is for the cash, and they always end up doing what the cash
commands so they can get their hands on it.
While it is clear that Western women tourists do possess very considerable economic privilege in
comparison to the Jamaican men that they engage in romantic and sexual relationships with,
this research has failed to demonstrate the role of this privilege in the sexual relationships
between foreign women and local Jamaican men. It is however important to note that researchers
on both sides of the debate agree that foreign women’s economic privilege is only able to hold
the men’s sex class privilege at bay temporarily and in quite specialized settings (Jeffreys, 2003).
Sexual Motivations for Involvement
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While the importance of economic motivation was very clearly conveyed by interview
participants during this study, the majority of participants, communicated that the prospect of sex
with tourist women was too an incentive for involvement in the informal trade.
One “beach boy”, who self-identified as Montego Bay’s Casanova, when asked about his
primary motivation for involvement with tourist women responded:
Sex. Plain an simple, sex. For me it’s not complicated at all… You know, there are all
these women here, and I can give you this reason or that reason for why I want to be
involved in relationship with them, but when it comes down to it the answer is just sex…
If you went to a jam an asked men there how come you here, they can tell you all the
reasons they want but the truth is they are looking for woman fi sex…. Women are a
natural kind of beauty, all women regardless of their shape, size and color, that you can't
find anywhere else in the natural world. That's what this is all about, never before in my
life that I have so much opportunities with ladies from everywhere in the world.
Another participant responded “to be honest, I'm just looking for a little fun, I’m a young man,
just wanna spread my seed and enjoy the life”.
Another study participant responded "ummm… A little pleasure in the bedroom really, aint no
different than everyone else, its really just a complicated flex for a little bit of sex.”
The men who participated in my study, while clearly conveying the importance of economic
motivations for their entrance and continued involvement in the Jamaican informal sex trade,
also communicated that the pursuit and enjoyment of sex with tourist women too acts as
incentive for involvement.
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Pursuit of Women Depending on Goals
Noting that financial gifts could not be expected from each tourist women the men who
participated in this study indicated that they pursued different ‘types’ of tourist women
depending on their motivations for involvement with them. The interview respondents indicated
that when their primary motivation for involvement with tourist women is the desire for sexual
conquest, their preference for women is described as young, attractive and preferably blond and
blue eyed women. Western tourists are seen as being motivated by racist sexual stereotypes in
their involvement with Caribbean men and women (Jeffrys, 2003), with both Caribbean men and
women ‘constructed in tourist imaginations as racialized-sexual subjects/objects – the
hypersexual “Black male stud” and the “hot” Brown or Black woman’ (Kempadoo, 2001, p. 50).
Female sex tourists, according to researchers, employ fantasies of Otherness in their interaction
with Black men in the Caribbean. Coincidentally the black male respondents in this sample
unitized similar racially constructed sexual imagery of the white women they become involved
with. As one respondent recounted:
In Jamaica, black women are a dime a dozen. If I have the option I’m going to
choose the white women all of the time. I love white women, I think they are
beautiful and they know how to treat their man.
Thai women, for example, are uniformly held by white male sex tourists to Thailandto be more
affectionate, loyal, innocent and natural than white women. Thai women are described as being
not at all like the women of The United States, Canada, England or Australia. “heyare kind,
nurturing, caring, feminine and genuine”.Similar to the Western men who employ notions of
difference and ‘Otherness’ to differentiate their Western female sexual partners from those in
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South East Asia, the Jamaican men who participated in this study also utilized this discourse of
difference to describe their preferences for white women. One study participant argued:
Don’t get me wrong, I love women, all women, but I especially love white and
blond women, Polish women especially. I love how they look. And….they don’t
act like Jamaican women, they don’t carry on like Jamaican women. They are
more calm, relax, don’t mek a big fuss all the time… I had a Polish women come
check me for two weeks, she just calm and relax and leave me be.
With 76% of Jamaica’s population being of black African descent, the respondents who
articulated their preference for white tourist women argued that the presence of white tourist
women allowed them the opportunity to try “something new”, a “new experience” and
“different”. As one respondent who was employed by the beach resort carefully noted:
I can't pick up one day and travel ah foreign to find different different women. In
Yard almost all woman is black, where I live at all the women is black, I take the
bus all the women is black, I do my shopping all the women is black, I come here
(to the beach resort) and oh my gosh now there all different kinds of women,
White women, Spanish women, Chinese women. Now I can chat to different
kinds of women, not all the time black woman.
Another participant suggested that "maybe these ladies come to Jamaica and say we exotic, but
maybe we see them and say they are exotic. Everyone wants to try something new and different
once in a while, you know”.
Another participant argued:
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Black women are more aggressive, simple as that. It’s not their fault, and it goes
back to slavery days. When we were taken from Africa, the white people them
were scared that the black man would rise up and take them out, so they stopped
the black man from being able to be a real man. Because of this the black women
had to pick up the slack and had to be like the man, in the home and with the
children and stuff, they had to be more aggressive and tough. White women aren’t
aggressive, they are more kind….caring. They gonna help you out without all the
cussing and fussing. They sweet, when someone ask me why I prefer to be with a
white girl I tell’em at least she gonna make me a sandwich when she done drain
me like dirty bath water, aint no way a Jamaican is gonna fix me a sandwich.
Another participant noted:
You ever hear why most young Jamaican girls start getting involved with
sex? Money. That is big thing , women only wan have sex for money.
Some time dem mother doan have any money an’ dem have sex fi food,
an quick the pikkny learn they doan have give it away. So if you a big
man an doan have any money you not gonna be lookin a Jamaican
woman.
Also speaking to the perceived expectation of Jamaican women for financial remuneration from
sexual partners another participant argued:
Most times the girls looking material things...lets take for example a man come
pass on the road and dem a walk and holla to a girl, she will say, go weh,
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she not interested, not in the least. But mek the same man start roll up in a nice car
the next day and now all of a sudden, she interested. Thats just how it works, no
money, no chat. Sometimes you want to talk to a girl and you tell her yu
like her
an she would say “move and go on your way you have no money.
While foreigner travelers are often seen attracted to locals who exude an “otherness” that
they consider exotic (Herold, Garcia & DeMoya, 2001), with Pruitt and LaFont explaining
foreign womens’ perceptions of Jamaican men as “the exotic Other has been constructed as more
passionate, more emotional, more natural, and sexually tempting.” (1995). My research has
demonstrated that, Western women, especially those with blond hair and light eyes, are
considered exotic and attractive in areas where the more common phenotype includes darker
eyes, hair, and complexion.
Consistent with previous scholarship (Herold, Garcia & DeMoya, 2001) the men who
participated in this study confirmed that their preferences for tourist partners is dependent on
their primary motivation for involvement at that time. While the majority of men reported to
prefer young and attractive, preferably blond women, when anticipating sexual conquest alone,
when financial gain is desired the men who participated in this study report to seeking out the
company of older ( aged 40 or older) white women, overweight women, and other women who
may not be considered traditionally attractive. While the men who participated in this study
considered every woman who had travelled to Jamaica alone or without the company of a man as
potentially interested in the a romantic or sexual experience with a local man (or men) they
believed that older or overweight women were often more open to the idea of involvement with a
local man because of their perceived inability to “find a man back home”. The participants
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considered many of these women to be more accessible than the traditionally attractive blond
women they desire for sexual conquest, because having men pay romantic attention to them was
a unique occurrence for them. They further believed that these women are also more likely to
provide financially for their local boyfriends, and are considered more “generous” and “bighearted”. Holding the assumption that female travelers to the island that perhaps do not accord to
traditionally held notions of beauty, are intently interested in the sexual or romantic company of
local Jamaican men, the majority of respondents in this study indicated that when desirous of
financial gain they will “target it” on these women and “shower dem wit sweet talk” including
praises of beauty and sexiness. According to the study participants, these women “fall in love”
more easily and are therefore more likely to provide money to the beach boy, as well as more
likely to provide remittances to him upon her return home.
One interview respondent remarked:
A one thing me notice though, the majority a the woman dem who come from farin fi
sex, and are willing to sped nuf money on it, is some ole washed up whale who generally
cant get a man abroad fi give dem a serious look. The good thing for me is we Jamaicans
have a strong stomach and tend not to discriminate.
According to Romero-Daza & Freidus some women whose body shapes fall outside Western
ideals may be regarded as more voluptuous and sexy when they travel to other countries and
therefore receive more attention and feel more attractive to locals (Romero-Daza, &Freidus,
2008). In Gringas and Otavalenos: Changing tourist relation, an article who examines the
romantic and sexual relations between young foreign women and in indigenous men in Otavalo,
Ecuador, Meisch explains that “the ideal body type [in Ecuador] is more womanly than the
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impossibly slim American ideal, so that young women who consider themselves fat or otherwise
unattractive suddenly discover that they are considered beauties, and the experience is heady”
(Meisch , 1995). My research too has demonstrated that Jamaican men involved in transactional
sex with tourist women are aware of these ideals and often seek out relationships with foreign
women who are overweight or fall outside the ideal of Western beauty because they tend to be
more receptive to their advances.
Three Levels of Economic Gains
In accordance with previous scholarship, the men who participated in this study confirmed the
three levels of economic gains which motivate involvement with tourist women. According to
the men who participated in this study the bulk of economic gains achieved by ‘beach boys’ are
short term ends, that often include free meals, drinks and admissions into nightclubs and similar
events, small amounts of money or gifts left behind upon the tourist woman's departure from
Jamaica. Short term ends can also include the ability to take a hot shower in the female guest’s
hotel room or spend the night with them (against official resort policy).
As one ‘beach boy’ noted:
If me a meet a woman and she feelin me, she gonna pay for my meals and drinks
maybe, maybe I fuck her right and she gonna leave me a $50 (American) dollars
when she dun leave, it all depends yuh know ... Sometimes a woman gonna wan
give you dis and dat, leave you bunch new clothes and money, and sometimes she
just gonna go.
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Another participant noted “it's possible that you can receive money, gifts, invitations to parties
and bars, trips around the island, and paid drinks and meals, ita a good gig”.
In addition to the short term economic benefits, many of the men who participated in this study
reported receiving or having previously received what is commonly considered intermediate
level economic gains.
One of the men who participated in this study reported receiving monthly remittances from a
“girlfriend” residing in the United Kingdom, another advised that he had received a large “loan”
intended to repair the fictitious hurricane damage caused to his home. He recounted his tale:
Ahhh, this one I feel bad for, in 2009 there was a woman here and we got to
talking and whatever and I ended up telling her that my house was badly damaged
by hurricane Ivan in 2004, I had a feeling she wasn’t gonna leave me anything, so
I kept on talking bout my house, how the roof popped off and how it dropped in
elevation and all this crazy stuff. On the last day before she went to go home she
calls me and tells me she has something for me, so im thinking shes gonna leave
me $100 dollars or some shit, let me tell you this woman gave me a loan of like
$5000 American dollars to fix up my house! Holy Jesus Christ, I didn’t even
know what to do, I was so happy I ran all the damn way home. It is funny though,
cause ifyou really think about it what the hell was this women thinking, I was like
18 years old, how the hell did she think I had a house?
One ‘beach boy’ advised that his Canadian “girlfriend” travelled to Jamaica annually to spend
time with him, he informed that she had purchased a vehicle for him upon her last visit so that
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they would have a readily available means of transportation during her vacations. Noting that
intermediate level financial gains are often not received by male sex workers simply as gifts but
rather as investments foreign women have made, one participant noted:
Most of the time me hear these women say this and this is “for us” she might
gonna buy me some property but she say its “for us”, they make it like an
investment so when they come check me again, we have a spot or a car and
things like that.
According to the men who participated in this study the far most desirous economic gain
available is the ability to migrate abroad through family class sponsorship. All of the men who
participated in this study reported having known a fellow ‘beach boy’ who had moved to
“foreign” with a woman he had met during her Jamaican holiday. In addition, all the men who
participated in this study regarded the possibility of meeting a woman that would be willing to
sponsor their entrance in to another country as by far the biggest economic motivation for
involvement with tourist women, indicating that the pursuit of tourist women is often used as
both a survival strategy and an advancement strategy. One ‘beach boy’, who considered the
prospect of meeting a women, who would sponsor his departure from Jamaica, stated “If you
want a break you have to link up with white woman who will take you a foreign. Then you’ll get
a break”.
One ‘beach boy’ who spoke of his desire to find a woman to “file for mi” noted:
I know nuff Jamaican men who left Yard with women to go foreign. Nuff of
them fall ‘in love’ with them when there in JA but as soon as they get that green
card or visa and reach foreign them gone. For me, when I met a new woman I try
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hard mek her fall in love wit me. I’ll marry her, breed her, whatever she
want…..just file for mi.
Another respondent, who had unsuccessfully applied for a visitor’s visa to Canada, stated:
In Canada and the U.S they don’t want to let Jamaican’s in because we have a
certain reputation of being kind of fancy and maybe not ever leaving. But from
when you find woman willing to file for you, they don’t tell you nothing. The
only chance yute have to mek it is to find woman to file for them.
Commenting on a fellow ‘beach boys’ immigration, one participant noted:
The stress alone in Jamaica will kill you. But guess what... not everywhere. I
know nufyute who migrated from here. They up in Canada and US takin life easy.
This one guy, we called him skallywagz, met one nice girl here, she fike for him,
him marry her, they have a big house now, a pack of kids and hes good. He drive
a teansit bus making nufmoney , That's the goal, make it somewhere where you
don't need to worry yourself no more.
When questioned about their desire to leave Jamaica some of the men responded that it would be
their intention to leave Jamaica and remain abroad with the woman who had sponsored them,
starting a family and a life together. Others reported that while their goal was to go foreign
through family class sponsorship they had no intention of remaining with the woman who had
sponsored them or abroad.
One beach boy commented:
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The end goal for me is to get a sponsor to take me either to the US or England,
work two three jobs, save up enough money and come back to Jamaica. If you
have money Jamaica is paradise, and I want to come back to paradise with enough
money to enjoy my life.
Another, who would allegedly remain with the woman who sponsored her assuming she
maintained her ability to financially support him remarked “you nah haffi worry about me, as
long as your money right. You take me to America an you money right, we cool, your money run
out, I ah run out too”
Consistent with the existing scholarship, the men who participated in this study confirmed one
of the main motivations for involvement with female tourists is economic, ranging from short
term material goals such as obtaining free meals and entertainment, spending nights in tourist
resorts and receiving small amounts of cash, to an intermediate level of obtaining money for
transportation such as a motorcycle or car or a gift or loan to purchase property or start a small
business. For most of the men who participated in this study the prospect of trips to North
America or Europe or being sponsored through marriage or family class sponsorship to live and
work in either of those geographic areas, was considered the highest possible economic goals,
one that the majority of respondents strived to achieve.
Obtaining Payment
With regard to seeking compensation from tourist women, specifically for short term material
goals, the men who participated in this study informed that they never directly ask for a specific
sum of money, but instead use a variety of tactics to “play up” their dire financial situations, in
hopes of motivating the tourist women’s generosity. For example, they reportedoften suggesting
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to women that they would like to accompany them to dinners or nightclubs but that they were
unable to pay for their meal or admissions. Other approaches to obtaining short term financial
ends include speaking excessively about the gravity of their financial plight. Another approach
reported was the exaggeration of financial circumstances, where the study participant fabricated
stories told to tourist women. For the study participants, appealing to women’s empathy and
sensitivity is a far more rewarding and dignified option than directly requesting a specific some
of money.
Noting the perceived benevolence of tourist women emotionally involved with ‘beach boys’, one
participant commented:
Hmmm, that’s tricky, I learned a long time ago that you never ever want the
woman to think she is paying for sex, she gonna catch a bad vibe about that for
sure. You have to be smooth about it if you are looking to make some cash. Most
of the time the woman that come and are experienced in these kinds of things are
ready to just give it up, but sometimes you have to ease into the conversations.
One time, as an example, I took this girl to where my mom live in New Kingston,
from when she saw how we livin she start to feel real bad, she start to pay for
everything, and she start to send me back some of her wages each month. From
when me a saw that, I realize you have to appeal to these woman. Woman by
nature is sensitive and caring, and shes gonna try and help if she think she has a
good man.
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One study participant who reported exaggerating his financial plight to solicit the financial aid of
tourist women informed that he often made up stories that informed women of an immediate
financial need, he noted:
From me a know she interested in me, imam start to tell her different things. One
time I say me mommy’s in hospital and I can’t pay doctor’s bill, one time I can’t
pay light bill, and they ah come cut it off tomorrow, one time I need fi get
antibiotics and can’t pay the chemist.
In the same vein another participant remarked:
To tell you the truth, when it comes around the time for the lady to be headed
home I usually start to tell her some stuff about my situation, I tell her like it’s a
secret and I am embarrassed to talk too much about it. I find that they usually
come to feel bad and like to leave me a little token before them go home.
One of the older men who participated in this study indicated that it was his impression that the
tourist women were aware of the economic element to their relationship but it was far more
conducive to not approach the situation as a “simple cash for sex situation’:
A well-seasoned sex tourist and an experienced renta already know the score and
how to play it. It may be unspoken to how the transaction may end up or what it
may cost that's where experience comes in. Spending caliber will be monitored
within a short period of time. It would make no sense to fix a price , although I
think there are instances when this happens, when a more lucrative opportunity
may present itself. For me, I really watch a woman and her habits before I go and
approach her, I see how much she gonna spend at the casino, how much she
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gonna spend at the shops and stuff, that way I have an idea of her financial
caliber. You overstand… its not gonna make sense for me to beg her $100 dollars
when she have much much more than that.
In Sum, with regard to seeking payment, the study participants reported that they never directly
ask for a specific sum of money but rather use different strategies to elicit financial ‘gifts’ from
the women they become involved with. Ranging from drawing attention to their financial
hardships to exaggerating their poor financial situations and outright lying, the tactics utilized by
the men who participated in this study demonstrates that complicated nature of female sex
tourism in Jamaica.
Chapter Conclusion
The individual experiences of the men described above offer valuable insight into what
motivates initial and continued involvement in transactional sex in Jamaica. The men who
participated in this study reported that in addition to the overall interest and enjoyment of casual
sex with female visitors to the island the chief motivation for involvement in the informal sex
trade is economic. Whereas previous scholars have insisted that Jamaican men, influenced by the
consumption mandated by Jamaica’s dancehall culture, are drawn to sex work by the opportunity
of earning a prosperous living, which extends far beyond meeting ones means of substance, the
men who participated in this study describe their entrance into sex work as a mechanism to
escape poverty. From the possibility of hot showers in guest’s rooms to family class sponsorship
abroad, the men who participated in this study speak of a ‘hustle’ that offers a strategy for both
survival and advancement, concepts that are situated in the larger context of the overall tourism
industry in Jamaica, and the ways in which marginalized men are able to adapt and restructure
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their lives to both survive and thrive in their community. By engaging in transactional sex with
female sex tourists the men are better able to support themselves and their families, as well as
potentially immigrate to developed countries.
Contrary to the existing literature, the prospect of escaping poverty and providing financially for
their families was a motivation for entrance and continued participation in the tourist oriented
informal sex trade.
Apart from using female sex tourism as a mechanism for escaping poverty, the men who
participated in this study indicate that transactional sex also allows them to provide for their
families, an important area for male identity in Jamaica. In explaining this, Brown et al (1997, p.
98-99) raised a series of issues related to male identity Firstly they note that men are seen as the
ones responsible for the economic livelihood of their families regardless of the employment
status of the woman as financial provision for the family is not her designated role. The man is
not seen as a man in Jamaican culture if he cannot provide financially for his children and offer
protection from external harmful forces. Secondly, Brown et al note that men in Jamaican culture
view it as God’s will that they should be the heads of their families. They argue that this view is
also shared by women who feel that when they happen to be heads of households, it is not by
their own choice but because they are forced to do so.
In Adolescent and Young Male Sexuality and Reproductive Health Study – Jamaica, Chevannes
and Gayle (2000) summarize this issue as follows:
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Despite the differences in social background, the adolescents and young men
seemed quite united about their definition of manhood. Of greatest importance is
the male’s ability to provide for the family. He must maintain not only the
children but also the mother of those children. Additionally, he must care for his
own mother. ( p. 78)
LaFont (1992) describes the expectations most Jamaican women hold of financial remuneration
from men in exchange for sex and domestic duties by women with the result that much of men's
role fulfillment in romantic and sexual relationships with Jamaican women is dependent on his
ability to earn and dispense cash. Women expect that a man with whom they are having an
intimate relationship with will contribute financial support and that he will display an ability and
willingness to do so early in a relationship (LaFont, 1992). Given that a man is not considered a
“real” man in Jamaica unless he is heterosexually active, with polygamy or multiple relationships
enhancing masculinity, the ability to provide financial support is necessary for men to be
successful with women and thus verify ones manliness." As previous scholarship, and the
participants in this study note, "No money, no talk" or "No money, no chat" are common
expressions in Jamaica and serve as metaphor for the fact that for Jamaican men the road to
Jamaican women and therefore status are inseparably linked.
The sex tourism of Western women allows Jamaican men an arena to both secure sexual access
to women (and associated social status) as well as economic resources. In contrast to a Jamaican
man's relationship with a Jamaican women, a man's relations with foreign women does not
depend on his ability to provide income. Pruitt and LaFont (1995) argue that a tourist women's
interest in Jamaican men is not predominantly financial.Thus he is "able to acquire the desirable
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reputation of being successful with women without the financial outlay necessary in his own
culture" (p. 429).
This chapter illustrated the methods, perspectives, and motivations of men who utilize sex
tourism as a strategy for improving the material conditions of their lives, the following chapter
will attempt to exemplify the tourist women's motivations for involvement with local Jamaican
men, as perceived by Jamaican men.
CHAPTER THREE: STUDY PARTICIPANTS PERSPECTIVES OF FEMALE TOURISTS
Perspectives on Female Involvement with Local Men
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While the main reasons reported by previous scholarship for the involvement of female tourists
with local Jamaican men have been either the search for a romantic love relationship (Pruitt
&LaFont, 1995) or sexual excitement and novelty (de Albuquerque, 1998), the men who
participated in this study perceive racial motivations to be the primary motivating factor for
women who travel to Jamaica with the explicit intention of engaging in sexual relations with
local men and those who do not intentionally put themselves in a sex tourist position, but find
themselves involved in a sexual encounter with local Jamaican men.
There is a well-documented link between sex tourism and various forms of racism, a link that the
men who participated in this study were astutely aware of. As noted, female Western sex tourists
are seen as being attracted to Jamaican men by racist sexual stereotypes that include fantasies
where the exotic ‘other’ is more passionate, more emotional, more natural and sexual tempting
(Pruitt &LaFont, 1995). Women also enter into relationships with Jamaican men, according to
this interpretation, to feel as though they are able to ‘tame’ a man who is reputed to be the raw,
highly sexed ‘other’, a real man with a primitive manhood (Taylor, 2006). These fantasies often
arise out of associations between nationality and race which are rooted in colonial racist
discourses (Brennan, 2004). Racism supports and reinforces white Westerners’ desires for exotic
sexual experiences. This desire, more appropriately referred to as “post-colonial fantasy,” is
fueled by “First World desires to consume the dark skinned ‘native’ bodies of the developing
world…” (Brennan, 2004). This contemporary Western association between nationality, race,
and sexuality has evolved from colonial notions of race, gender and sexuality in which white
Europeans were set in opposition to the darker “natives” they colonized, Brennan lists the racist
dichotomies that run through colonial discourses as “Native instinct and white self-discipline;
native lust and white civility; native sensuality and white morality (Brennan, 2004). The fantasy
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of the sexual prowess of black men is nurtured through radicalized, sexualized images of bodily
commodities, reminiscent of earlier relations between the colonizer and the colonized (Brennan,
2004), where women are seeking a sexual experience with the embodiment of their radicalized
fantasies and tourist destinations become a safe environment where female sex tourists can enact
control over an imagined masculinity which is stereotypically constructed as aggressive and
violent (Taylor, 2006). These associations made between race and sexuality inadvertently justify
the tourist woman’s desire to experience the exotic Other. From this lens the Caribbean is a
space that is constructed as different, “sexual mores are different, people are naturally
promiscuous and sex is more natural” (Taylor, 2006, p.760). Research on tourism advertising
points to the use of sexual imagery and descriptions designed to attract visitors, with Dann
(1996) finding that sexual expressions in Caribbean advertisements reflect the sexual mythology
of the islands, which presents black people in the West Indies as sexualized subjects.
Sanchez Taylor’s (2000) ethnographic work in Jamaica demonstrates the racist sexual
stereotyping employed by tourist women who engaged in romantic or sexual experiences with
Jamaican men. Using the results from a questionnaire in which women were asked to describe
their local “boyfriends”, Taylor argues that “most of the female sex tourists emphasized how for
them Black Jamaican men possessed bodies of great sexual value”. Arguing that the comments
of the surveyed white women objectify the men in much the same way that black women are
sexually objectified as ‘Other’ by male sex tourists Taylor provides several examples of
questionnaire comments including one woman’s description of her lover as ‘sweet, friendly,
gorgeous-great body’; another woman’s summation of hers as ‘dark skin-younger-small frame’;
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and another as ‘Handsome, physically fit, 27-year-old, honest, proud, serious, family man,
excellent lover’ (Taylor, 2000).
The men who participated in this study were all well aware of the link between sex tourism and
racism, and were all very familiar with the racial stereotypes that precede black men. All of the
interview participants regarded racial motivations to be the primary motivating factor for women
who travel to Jamaica with the explicit intention of engaging in sexual relations with local men
and those who do not intentionally put themselves in a sex tourist position, but find themselves
involved in a sexual encounter with local Jamaican men. The raced motivations, as perceived by
the men who participated in this study can be divided into two distinct categories; firstly is the
perceived inability to “experience different races at home” and secondly is the desire to “fuck
real black men”.
To Experience Something New
According to the men who participated in this study the inability to “experience different races”
in their native countries leads many women to become involved with Jamaican men during their
holiday.
Consistent with Taylor’s research (2000) which finds that a few of the women she interviewed
expressed overtly hostile racism towards local men but “wanted to transgress both the racialised
and gendered codes that normally govern their sexual behavior, while maintaining their honour
and reputation back home” .
One participant noted:
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Many financially successful women want to experiment with different types of
men but would rather not do it within their own region due to being self-conscious
on what their friends and family would say, so they do it abroad. Sometimes the
society in the region that these women come from doesn’t let women have
experiences with men from other races, and they come to Jamaica because they
want to try it but don’t want to be judged for it at home. Anyone who has lots of
opportunities with all types of women will tell you that this is the average
mentality of many women that are financially successful. People come on
vacation really to have the chance to enjoying different things, a different
environment, climate and people. It's important to them that they experience
Jamaica and for a lot of men and women that means a sexual experience in
Jamaica.
One of the men reported having a brief sexual relationship with a women from the Southern
United States who was on a “bachelorette trip” shortly before her wedding back home He
recounted:
I don’t remember where she say she come from, Atlanta or Alabama I think, all I
remember she say I have never been wit a black man, and imgonna be married
soon and wont ever have the chance again.
Pointing to his own desire to sexually experience women of different ethno racial backgrounds,
one participant commented:
In my opinion, this is not a complicated thing at all, everyone wants to try new
things, its what makes life exciting. Just the same as I want to try Asian woman
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and Indian women and whatever, they want to try a black man. They probably
heard about Jamaican man being good in the bed and they want to see for
themselves.
Another argued:
I know one thing for sure, some of these women simple and plain want a chance
to experience a relationship with a black man, but sometimes this is a big risk for
them at home. One woman that I had the chance to talk to told me one thing I will
never forget as long as I live, she told me that where she comes from they have a
saying 'once you go black, you can't ever go back, because no white man will
want you'. So for some women they want the chance to experience things that
their society won't let happen.
Another argued:
The one thing I hear all the damn time is that these fuckin women want to ‘try
something exotic’. I’m always so pissed off when I hear that, cause first of all I
know yall got black men back home you just don’t want to be seen with them, and
second I’m not a tin of rum raisin ice cream that you can try a scoop of cause you
don’t got none at home.
Sex with Black Men
While the men who participated in this study spoke somewhat sympathetically of the women
who they perceived as unable or unwilling to engage in relationships with men outside of their
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race back home, they perceived that the majority of women with raced motivations for
involvement with Jamaican men came for “sexual adventures” and to “fuck real black men”.
When questioned about why single or unaccompanied women choose Jamaica as their holiday
destination, one participant reported “I think there are many many reasons, but the biggest one
me hear is dem say Jamaican men have some big hood and can fuck the women dem proper.”
Another argued:
For real, the reason in racism. In Jamaica we don’t have much racism, it only
comes up when we and them get involved, you know. You hear them say all sorts
of fuckrey about Jamaican men, and even all black men. You hear black men have
big hood, Jamaican man is wild in the bedroom, tear up the sheets and shit, you
hear Jamaican man gonna breed you no questions asked, you hear Jamaican man
knows how to take care of his woman. But please, your really gonna tell me you
really believe all Jamaicans have some big hood, and don’t cheat and whatever.
That don’t make no sense at all. That’s bullshit, and I only say its racist because if
imgonna walk round town talking bout how all white women are quick to run
head or docile and let their man walk over them like some doormat someone is
gonna call me on my shit.
Noting his knowledge of the sex tourism industry in other Caribbean countries one participant
commented:
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Jamaica is just one of the many places they go, so lets not get it twisted. But the
ones that come here, usually know what they are looking for. They are looking for
some big buddy and some wild rasta man.
Another argued:
I can only feel that some of these ladies come looking for a little toy to play with
for one two weeks, they feed you, and kiss you, and hug you up and take you
places and they are just looking for someone with a big whatever to play with at
night time.
The men who participated in this study perceived racial motivations to be the primary motivating
factor for women who travel to Jamaica with the explicit intention of engaging in sexual
relations with local men and those who become situational involved. In sum, while the
racialization of male sex workers has not received nearly as much academic attention as that of
female sex workers, the participants of this study conclude that the female travelers to the region
have expressed curiosity and interest regarding the racialized stereotypes of black men as
hypersexual individuals with oversized sex organs (Johnson, 2012).
Compliments and Expectations
Jacqueline Sanchez Taylors research (2000), which found that almost half of the single tourist
women survey in Jamaica had entered into one or more sexual relationships with Jamaican men
while on holiday, concludes that when tourist women who participate in sexual relationships
with local men while on vacation and are subsequently asked to comment on their lover an
emphasis is placed on the possession of bodies of great sexual value . In accordance with the
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research of Sanchez Taylor, the men who participated in this study felt the motivations of the
female tourists to the island are made clear to them from both the type of compliments they
receive from tourist women and the communicated expectations.
According to the men who participated in this study, the vast majority of compliments paid to
Jamaican men are regarding their physical appearance and often intrinsically tied to their
‘blackness’. One study participant noted “you wanna know how come I know they is looking for
some nice black buddy, cause them look you in the eye and tell you I love your nice black
buddy. It’s no secret thing.”
Another stated;
From you ah a yute that come cross these foregin women you start notice what
them ah tell you, them tell you “I love your skin, its so black and shiny” , them
tell you them like your body, your hair, your mouth. Listen, I don’t care bout none
of that cause I know I talk about pure breast and botty, but some of these women
gonna swear them in love with you, you can’t love someone and only see what is
on the outside, same way I cant hook up with some white ting, say I love her
figure and her hair and whatever and say I love her.
Another noted;
Neva eva inna my life did one women for foreign tell me she like me, like me, not
my ass and not my dick. They think they so sweet talking bout them love your
hair and skin and voice, but real talk im a good guy, im no idiot, nevaeva one of
dem tell me I like you, you smart, you this or that.
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Another argued;
From before I told you in Jamaica, black women are a dime a dozen, but if you
think about the flip side I guess for Jamaican women, black men are a dime a
dozen, so they don’t admire the same things as a white women does. It make
sense too, if you think about it, she black, her mommy black, her daddy black, her
pikney black, so she not gonna say nice things about things black men have. But
white women flatter me you know, they like my lips for example, these are some
black man lips so no black women gonna say she likes my lips, or they like my
hair, same thing, or my skin, like seriously when is a black girl gonna feel she
likes my skin, it’s the same as hers.
In addition to the compliments that the men who participated in this study reported receiving
from tourist women, compliments often restricted to physical appearance and linked to their
‘blackness’, the participants in this study recounted numerous experiences where the physical
and sexual expectations placed on them were also inextricably linked to racist steryotypes about
black men and their sexuality. The men who participated in this study suggest that the tourist
women that they have engaged in sexual relationships with communicated expectations
including large sexual organs and uninhibited and skilled sexual partners.
One study participant, who was obviously upset shared his recollection of one of his first sexual
experiences with a tourist woman, he recalled;
Lord help me, me a swear I would neva eva tell nobody dis, but when I first
started out, while back, wit dis ting, I hooked up with a white woman from the
United States and after we did the ting, she just lied there, face all mek up sad, so
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me said to her “what’s the issue” and she all sad look at me and say “I could have
gotten that back home…it was good… but I expected more”. Never in my life did
I feel so embarrassed but to this day I have no idea what she was expectin.
Another participant noted;
When it comes to the bedroom, the women that come here in search of some real
big hood from a real Jamaican man, will tell you straight up what they are looking
for, but even the ones who are not gonna tell you have an impression of what they
want from a Jamaican man. Even a nice foreign girl is gonna have certain ideas
about Jamaican men, she wants some big hood, a man who’s gonna giver some
serious lovin. One girl who come check me often told me “I make love with my
husband, but when I come here I don’t want to be able to walk for a couple of
days.
The men who participated in this study were all well aware of the assumptions and stereotypes
held by tourist women about Jamaican men, and were all more than willing to profit from the
perpetuation of these ideal. A fundamental component of the relationships that develop between
tourist women and the Jamaican men involved in transactional sex is the performance of race
and masculinity by the male sex workers in order to attract these women.
According to Butler’s (1988) theory of gender performativity, gender is the effect of reiterated
acting, one that produces the effect of a static or normal gender while obscuring the contradiction
and instability of any single person's gender act. This effect produces what we can consider to be
"true gender", a narrative that is sustained by "the tacit collective agreement to perform, produce,
and sustain discrete and polar genders as cultural fictions is obscured by the credibility of those
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productions – and the punishments that attend not agreeing to believe in them” (p. 22). This idea
of performativity reflects the constructionist position on sex and gender, lending support to the
fluidity of notions of gender that are often perceived in society to be fixed: “gender is in no way
a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts procede; rather, it is an identity
tenuously constituted in time-an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts” (p.22).
Because gender is instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood
as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, “movements and enactments of various kinds
constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self” (Butler, 1988, 23). From this perspective,
masculinity, then, is an “acting out” of maleness, exteriorizing gendered behaviors through
combinations of gestures, aggression, and gait (Lewis, 2004). In the case of this present research,
the men who these men enact ‘racial’ and gendered performances in order to attract and entice
tourist women and sell their sexual services.
Exaggerated Difference
According to the men who participated in this study, by performing the stereotyped role of
Jamaican man they are able to accord to tourist women’s expectations and attract and establish
relationships
with them. As previous scholarship has demonstrated, female tourists have
reported seeking relationships with young, fit, “natural” black men who embody a black
masculinity that is specific to the men of the West Indies, and therefore unattainable at home
(O'Connell Davidson & Sanchez Taylor, 2005). The men, in turn, use their bodies in order to
create the fantasy that they expect tourist women to desire, in this case the expectation of an
authentic Jamaican man.
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In ‘The Embodiment of Tourism among Bisexually-Behaving Dominican Male Sex Workers’
Padilla (2007), examining the global and local values placed on Dominican men’s bodies and the
ways sex workers use their bodies to broker tourists’ pleasure, finds that given the economic
importance of intimate exchanges with foreigners, participants’ interactions with tourists were
often highly performative, and characterized by the desire to produce a ‘‘marketable fantasy’’
(Padilla, 2007). According to Padilla, tourists sought particular expressions of ‘‘Dominican’’
male sexuality and local men sought to engender consumer erotic experiences that were
perceived as ‘‘authentic.’’ In order to produce a marketable fantasy, local men had cultivated the
ability to deploy their masculinity and sexuality in ways that maximized their desirability to
tourists.
Following Padilla’s conceptualizations, the men who participated in this study reported that in
order to produce a marketable fantasy, they had cultivated the ability to deploy their masculinity
and sexuality in ways that maximized their desirability to tourists. As an expression of this, the
men’s sexual narratives often emphasized how Jamaican men’s sexualities and bodies are
fundamentally ‘‘different’’ from those of their clients. These narratives exaggerated the
differences between themselves and their white foreign clients. Men who participated in this
study reported that “differences” between races, bodies, and cultures were often exaggerated in
order to entice clients into feeling that the encounters with Jamaican men were truly exotic.
One participant, who noted using language as a mechanism for exaggerating difference noted;
Yuh see how me and you are talking now, I never ever would talk like this to a
woman I was trying to chop. Not a woman from foreign. Wit them I only speak
heavy patois, for example. I mean I went to school, my mom was a school
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teacher, I know how to speak proper. I mean my mom would busy my ass if I
spoke patois as a yute, she taught me proper. But I know that for me to hollar at
these women it's about being different. That's what they want and boy that's what
in going to give them. So yeah man, I speak patois, I tell them oh see how you say
this I would say that, see how your skin is like this way mine is like this, in
Jamaica we do this and Jamaica we do that. I'm telling you man, it's about being
different than them. And yeah ok, we are different than them but to hear me tell it
I'm some extraterrestrial who's never laid eyes pon a white person before.
Another participant noted;
Like I told you before, the one thing I hear all the damn time is that these fuckin
women want to ‘try something exotic’, exotic means not the same, that much is
obvious, so you have to really mek yourself not the same like them. In my heart I
really and truly believe that no matter what colour your skin, or where you hail
from people, is people and there really isn’t much different about them, but when
you are tryin to be the exotic thing someone is looking at you have to find what is
different and wave it like a flag. So for example, I talk about a black man’s body
is different from a white man’s body, we are more fit, have bigger buddy, stuff
like that.
One participant, interestingly the oldest ‘beach boy’ that participated in this study, noted;
Jamaica is marketed as a place for fantasy, by the media abroad and by our own
government. I was abroad in England and I saw a television advertisement for
Jamaican travel and in the background was a very famous Bob Marley song
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playing and there was a Rasta man bathing his skin under a waterfall, the
advertisement said ‘Come to Jamaica and feel alright’. Our government profits by
putting out that kind of image of the country and I profit by taking that image,
understanding the meaning, and using it. If a women comes from foreign for some
romantic experience she wants what she sees in the advertisements, but she
doesn’t even understand the advertisement and what she wants. She really wants
an experience with someone tropical and a fantasy, she knows what that is going
to look like, but it is my job to show her that this tropical Rasta man is the fantasy
that she has, that I am so unlike anything that she knows or could get from home.
Another participant simply noted;
If these travelers were looking for someone just like them they
would stay at home. You don’t travel half way around the world
to look for someone like you, so it would be stupid of me to
pretend I was like them, so I pretend to be so different from
them.
Assuming that female travelers to the Island of Jamaica are interested in a black masculinity that
is distinct to the West Indies and notably 'different' from the masculinities accessible in their
local cultures, the men who participated in this study reported strategically exaggerating racial
and sexual ‘differences’ to maximize their desirability to foreign tourists.
In addition to constructing narratives exaggerating the differences between themselves and their
white foreign clients, the participants reported engaging in two major performances of
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masculinity, performances that can be largely understood in context of Jamaica's postcolonial
history: Rude boys and Rasta (Hall, 2001). By performing the stereotyped roles of Rude boy and
Rastas they are able to meet tourist women’s expectations and attract and establish relationships
with them, thus profiting from their racial marginalization.
The Rude Boys
One of the more compelling performances of Jamaican masculinity is the ‘Rude Boy’ (Hall,
2001). Thomas (2004) argues that this Jamaican male identity, developed in the early 1960's in
response to the harsh conditions afflicting the largely black, urban underclass, and developed
into a swaggering, menacing presence that characterizes the black underclass up to current
times. This Rude Boy or Bad Man subculture arose from the poorer sections of Kingstonand was
associated with violent and discontented youths. During the 1960's, these youths sometimes
found temporary employment from ska and rock steady sound system operators in order to
disrupt competitors' dances (leading to the term ‘dancehall crasher’). The violence that
sometimes occurred at dances and its association with the rude boy lifestyle gave rise to a slew
of releases by artists who addressed the rude boys directly with lyrics that either promoted or
rejected rude boy violence. Starting in the 1970s, Jamaican reggae music replacedska and
rocksteady music associated with the rude boys. By the 1980s, dancehall became the main
Jamaican popular music genre and the performance of rude boy masculinity evolved into the
dancehall ‘Badman’ that continues to characterize Jamaican underclass masculinity
(McGlashen).Today, a Bad Man is someone that willingly uses intimidating tactics through
facial and bodily postures to gain power, respect and resources. This behaviour is prevalent
among bullies and gangs (McGlashen)
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Gray's (2003) theory of badness-honour tells that a Badman can be identified by the:
public aggressive displays of personal violence and defensive
postures...language, facial
gestures, bodily poses and an assertive mien to compel rivals or allies to grant power, concede
respect, accord deference or satisfy material want (Gray, 2003)
While Thompson et al (1992) identify aspects of masculinity found in all cultures, including a
love for adventure and danger and an avoidance of doing anything that appears feminine in all
areas of their lives, including career, interests, emotional vulnerability, and sexuality , the severe
economic decline in Jamaica has rendered Jamaican masculinity “little more than violence and
the total rejection of anything perceived of as feminine or homosexual” (Reddock, 2004).
Analyzed predominantly by non-Jamaican feminist scholars, literature concerning Jamaican
dancehall music and culture is pervaded by discussions of Jamaican dancehall masculinity,
which as previously noted, is defined by misogyny, homophobia, and violence (Lewis, 2003).
His analysis of dancehall masculinity
notes that any such analysis has to establish a
distinction between hegemonic masculinity and other subordinated forms of masculinity. He
argues that hegemonic dancehall masculinity refers to:
An orientation which is heterosexual and decidedly homophobic. It prides itself
on its capacity for sexual conquest and ridicules those men who define
their
masculinity in different terms. Hegemonic dancehall masculinity often
embraces
misogynist tendencies in which women are considered inferior.
Departure from
this form of masculinity could result in the questioning of
one’s manhood” (Lewis, 2003, p. 108)
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According to Brown, who analyzed the sexual content of several popular dancehall songs, this
definition of masculinity “adequately describes the way masculinity functions in Jamaican
dancehall culture” (1999). Within the dancehall community, masculinity is an “organization of
cultural principles that instruct its subjects primarily through the songs that are produced by the
artists, both male and female” (p.4), these songs are the medium that expressly promote
masculinity as being irrevocably tied to sexuality.
`
Batson-Savage (2007) describe the Dancehall music that has come to characterize Jamaica's
Badman as “the marriage of digital beats and slackness: that moment in music in which lyrics
about guns, women’s body parts and men’s sexual prowess come together… (p. 224)”. In the
Dancehall culture, the penis is a form of power, a display of masculinity. For the Jamaican male,
according to Pinnock (2007), “the vagina has to be conquered as a demonstrable way of
mastering sex and sexual knowledge and power in the wider society” (p. 10) Hardcore and very
explicit sex is a crucial component of Dancehall’s performances of masculinity and as a result,
the penis is a highly valued part of this discourse (Pinnock, 2007). Through statements such as
these, in the dancehall culture, it is clear that masculinity is determined by sexual exploits and
the conquering of the female.
Examining how sex as the thematic focus in songs of both female and male dancehall artists,
Brown (1999) concludes that as a cultural activity and an action, dancehall music is influenced
by the dominant ideologies that are implicit to the culture, with conceptions of masculinity
premised on misogyny and sexual prowess as masculinity. In Cooper’s (1989) examination of
dancehall lyrics, she concludes that dancehall music and culture advances a set of beliefs that
marginalize the female, promotes violence as control and privileges violent heterosexuality
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(Cooper, 1989). Probing the lyrical content of two popular songs recorded by male dancehall
artists, Mavado and BujuBanton, she, amongst others argues that the dancehall community
through its music and male domination promotes the belief that heterosexual sex is a violent act
and that “inflicting pain on the female body is the signature sign of pleasure” (Cooper, 2006).
Amongst the literature arguing this position, the lyrics to Mavodo’s 2007 dancehall hit “Squeeze
Breast” and Buju Banton’s “Gal fi Beg” are used as evidence. In Jamaician dancehall culture, a
'Badman' is the ultimate heterosexual male: strong, tough, and sexually successful with women
(Waagbo, 2007)
Some of the men who participated in this study felt that many of the tourist women that they
engaged in sexual and romantic relationships with, consistent with the scholarship on Jamaican
masculinity, were preoccupied with the idea of a hypersexual and dangerous Rude Boy
masculinity.
One participant noted "some of these women is looking for a Ras, some of dem is looking for
someone fi ruff it up and carry on like a G
Another argued:
The young women are always looking for their dancehall king. They like the
clothes, the style, the music, the men. If we was in the States women would
be looking a 'bad boy' in Jamaica they lookin a Rude boy.
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Another noted that "in Jamaica every man wants to be a DJ, the next Vybz (referring to Vybz
Kartel), the next Buju, Mavado, and every woman wants to be the one who locks down the
Vybz, the Buju and Mavado".
The men who participated in this study felt that many tourist women were interested in men who
accorded to hypersexual and dangerous Rude Boy masculinity and thus structured their role
performance, and tactics for approaching and seducing tourist women around the performance of
this masculinity.
Some of the men who participated in this study felt that foreign women were specifically
interested in Jamaican men because they were perceived to have a "roughness" and sexual nature
that foreign men do not possess, accordingly the participants reported enacting a "roughness" to
attract tourist women.
One study participant, who recounted his tactics for seducing foreign women in exacting detail,
professing the strategic and purposeful use of behaviors he felt tourist women expected and
appreciated in Jamaican men, noted;
These women are looking for a G (gangster), as sure as God, so I give ‘em what
them want. I walk up to them in full swagga, talk to them nice, always patois. I
mek sure they have the opportunity to watch me dance, so I take them either to
the spot here or some club, and then when the ice is broken I tell them all the
things I’m going to do to them as soon as we are alone. I know what they want,
they want a real G.
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Another participant noted:
In this point, I don’t even have to approach women no more, I walk past them
couple of times, with no shirt on and pants sagging, smoking some ganga, actin
like I don’t give a shit bout them and they come approach me. I used to work for a
small restaurant and there I knew how to get most tips, you dress clean and sharp,
smile and be patient and friendly and some tourists respond to that, but some
tourists respond better to this.
Another reported:
I dress a part, wife beater, jeans, clarks. I've got over 100 tattoos. I know what the
women dem want and I am what they want. I am fit, clean, and the real deal. The
women carry on like they want a real bad man, but they dont want any risk
themselves, so it's a fine
line you haffi mek sure you neva cross, you haffi be
the gangster they think they looking for, but they can't fear you in the least.
Another noted:
A lot of time me hear about how dancehall impact and influences society, but
dancehall reflects the reality of Jamaican society. That's what interests women the
harsh reality that is Jamaica's rude boy. In real life I grew up in country
with my mum and my pops, but to
have ten cents to rub together I tell the white
women from foreign I grew up pon the
orner in Kingston, I am a struggling
artist, that im gonna be the next big DJ, that im a hustler, Im a G.
In sum, and as previous scholarship has demonstrated, female sex tourists seek relationships with
young, fit, “natural” black men who embody a black masculinity that is specific to the men of
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the West Indies, and therefore unattainable at home (O'Connell Davidson & Sanchez
Taylor,2005). One of the more compelling performances of masculinity that is specific to the
West Indies in general and to Jamaica specifically is the Rude Boy. A 'Rude boy' ,or 'Badman'. is
the ultimate heterosexual male: strong, tough, and sexually successful with women. The men
who participated in this study felt that many of the tourist women that they engaged in sexual
and romantic relationships with, consistent with the scholarship on Jamaican masculinity, were
preoccupied with the idea of a hypersexual and dangerous Rude boy . The men themselves thus
structured their role performance, and tactics for approaching and seducing tourist women
around the performance of this masculinity. By structuring the performance of their masculinity
around the idea of a 'Rude boy' masculinity the men who participated in this study reported that
they were able to accord to tourist women’s expectations and able to attract and establish
relationships with them, thus profiting from their racial marginalization.
Rastafarians
An equally compelling performance of masculinity in Jamaica is the Rastafarian. Hall (2001)
discusses the Rastafarian as another visible performance of masculinity that is an historic
manifestation of the struggle for survival by the rural and urban poor in the immediate aftermath
of colonial domination. Interpretations of the origins of Rastafari have focused on two events
during this period: the coronation of RasTafari as emperor of Ethiopia in 1930 and Marcus
Mosiah Garvey's writings on the significance of this coronation for people of African descent.
The Rastafari ideology, an African-based spiritual ideology that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica,
captures the experience of black Africans through analogies of the Jewish experience, with the
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religious character of Rastafari partly due to the way Jamaican people have identified with and
appropriated the Hebrew Scriptures and have seen themselves as the Israelites (Lewis, 1998).
The value of the Rastafarian movement is that it provides a narrative for understanding the pain
and alienation associated with slavery and its aftermath (Hall, 2011). The Rastafari ideology
also captures the salience of an African sensibility, agency, self-determination and black
liberation ideology (Bedasse, 2013).
Afrocentrism is a central facet of Rastafari culture. It is held that Africa, in particular Ethiopia,
is where Zion, or paradise, shall be created. As such, Rastafari orients itself around African
culture. Rastafari holds that evil society, or "Babylon", has been white-dominated since the rise
of Rome, and has committed such acts of aggression against the African people as the Atlantic
slave trade.
Rastafari developed among poor and oppressed Jamaicans of African descent who experienced a
society which was largely contrary and apathetic to their problems. Rastafari incorporates
sociopolitical views and teachings of Jamaican publicist, organizer, and black nationalist Marcus
Garvey (also often regarded as a prophet) who was a keen proponent of the "back to Africa"
movement, advocating that all people of the black race should return to their ancestral homeland
of Africa, and worship the Creator "through the spectacles of Ethiopia" (Barrett, 1988).
According to Hall (2011) the Rastafarian is significant to the analysis of male identity
construction in Jamaica because it has been so influential on the negotiation of identity choices
by so many young Jamaican males.
According to Pruitt and LaFont (1995), the connection a Western women develops with a
Jamaican man is generally based on her idealizations of his embodiment of manhood,
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idealizations fueled by the discourse of hegemonic relations constructed through race in which
the exotic and erotic are intertwined. Stereotypes of black men and their sexuality and
differences between the tourists’ cultures and Jamaican cultures, and the Jamaican display of
machismo drawn from their cultural gender scripts, promote the belief that Jamaican men
represent archetypal masculinity (Pruitt &LaFont, 1995). While the stereotypes about black men
and their sexuality extend to all Jamaican men and perhaps all black men in general, they are
particularly prevalent for the black man who stands closer to his “Affrican heritage”, in this case
embodied in the Rastafarian identity a.
In Jamaica, dreadlocks developed in the 1930’s as a symbol of a spiritually-based Rastafarian
culture of resistance. The Rastafarian custom of dreadlocking hair is one of the most visible
practices of Rastafarianism.It is important to note, that while the dreadlocking of hair has
become almost synonymous with Rastafarianism, and despite the fact that the practice is
encouraged of all Rastafari followers (Waters, 1985), not all followers don dreadlocks. They are
not deemed necessary for, nor are they equivalent to, true faith. Popular slogans, often
incorporated within reggae lyrics, include: "Not every dread is a Rasta and not every Rasta is a
dread..."; "It's not the dread upon your head, but the love inna your heart, that mekyaRastaman"
(Sugar Minott); and as MoganHerritage sings: "You don't haffi dread to be Rasta...", and
"Children of Selassie I, don't lose your faith; whether you do or don't have your locks 'pon your
head..."
The wearing of hair in uncombed, coiled locks known as dreadlocks, for followers of
Rastafarianism, symbolizes the mane of the Lion of Judah, the sacred totem of its followers. In
Rastafari culture the Lion of Judahishistorically a symbol of the Israelitetribe of Judah in the
Book of Genesis, and a phrase in the Book of Revelation representing Jesus. The matted locks,
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formed naturally by followers of Rastafarianism by allowing hair to grow in a natural pattern
without cutting, combing or brushing and washed with pure water alone, for the Rastafari,
represents Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, crowned November 2, 1930 with titles of: King
of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God and Power of
the Trinity. Rastas hold that Selassie is a direct descendant of the Israelite Tribe of Judah,
through the lineage of King David and Solomon, and that he is also the Lion of Judah mentioned
in the Book of Revelation. Rastas further hold Haile Selassie I to be the reincarnation of Jesus
Christ. The image of the lion, further to representing what the Rastas consider to be Jesus
incarnate, conveys certain qualities which are considered to be positive by the Rastafarians.
These include such attributes as strength, dominance, nobility and 'righteousness'. These
attributes are to some extent derived from the popular image of the lion, being symbolized as the
'King of Beasts', hence the power and prestige associated with such a kingly position.
Despite its alleged
goals of egalitarianism, the Rastafari culture is patriarchally
structured.Themale leadership in the religion promotes sexist ideas about women and women's
nature (Rowe, 1980). Although the Rastafarians claim that women are 'theologically' equal to
men, they still conceptualize Babylon, referring to human government and institutions that are
seen as in rebellion against the rule of God, in the form of a woman; a woman who represents
evil, corruption, sexual promiscuity and filth. The implications of this discrepancy between the
‘ideal' reality as opposed to the 'actual' reality, can be found in the social fabric of the Rastafarian
lifestyle (Rowe, 1980). The sacred lion totem is often interpreted as both the symbolic
representation of Haile Selassie I and as representation of the ‘maleness’ of the religion.
According to Barrett (1988):
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... the lion represents not only the King of Kings, but the dominant maleness of the
movement. The Rastafarians simulate the spirit of the lion in the way they wear their
locks and in the way they walk( p. 142) .
According to
Waters (1985), despite Jamaica’s relatively small Rastafarian population of
approximately 24,000, it is precisely the ideals of dominant maleness that leaves men with
dreadlocks, who are assumed to be Rastafarian, receiving substantially more attention from
foreign women than Jamaican men without locks. According to Pruit and LaFont, "whether due
to an agreement with the Rasta political philosophy and a desire to demonstrate lack of prejudice,
or an attraction to the powerful masculinity projected by the Rastas, or both, men who assume
the Rastafarian identity have proven to be particularly popular with the female European and
American tourists with a lust for the exotic" (p. 431).
Cassirer, in “Travel and the single male: the world's best destinations for the Single Male”
(1992) speaks of the attraction he perceived between white women and assumedly Rastafarian
men. He writes;
The Jamaican men swoop down upon the single woman (no age requirement
here), seducing them with their easy-going way and smiles of “no problem man.”
Most every single white girl we saw (yes, most were English nurses or an Italian
tour) had a local boyfriend. Seems as we American men find Asian women a
mystical creature, European women find these dreaded black hunks an irresistible
delicacy. (p. 132)
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The men who participated in this study too spoke of what they perceived to be more attention
paid to the men that Western women perceived to be Rastafarian men. One study participant,
who was upset by the beach resorts official policy to not hire men or women who don
dreadlocks, argued:
The dreads have it the best, these white woman love them some rasta man. Here
at the resort, it their babalyon policy that no dreads can come work here. So if you
have dreads you have to just shave them off cause you’re not getting job here wit
them. But anyways, everyone knows that if you don't have dreads you have to
work twice or three times as hard to get these women.
Another noted:
The Rastas get nothing but love from white women. Everywhere you go you see
white woman fallin over these men like they some kind of stars. That's a funny
thing cause here only certain type of women, usually rasta woman is looking for a
rasta man. With Jamaicans Rastas have a kind of reputation of being kind of lazy,
or off, being like drug addicts who can't stick to one woman and who have so
many kids but with other people Rastashave a reputation of being gentle and
natural and live simply, and that is their appeal.
Another noted:
I can definitely, for certain, tell you that women from foreign do have a special
kind of love for the Rasta man. For a long time now, many women have been
coming to Jamaica to have an experience with the culture of the Rastafarian, to
learn about it and to experience it. It’s a simple way of life and women want to
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unwind and take it easy with Rasta man, Rasta man know how to take it slow and
easy and no bother with worry.
One Rastafarian man who participated in this study assumed the attraction to Rastafarian men
was based in the spiritual realm, he noted:
Rasta has always been and has always will be, it is a spirit that is ever lasting, and
that is why women flock to rasta man, she sense his spirit as a genuine spirit and
she feels like she already know him from when he first tell her hi.
Another Rastafarian man who participated in this study noted:
The Bible tells us Lamech had two or three wives, that is proof that a man is not
supposed to just have him one Empress and nothing else, that is the truth. The
essence of a man is of the lion, you never gonna see a lion with only one lioness,
and that is to take an example from the natural world. The lion, the symbol of man
, is always surrounded by females and the female surround him to feel his power,
it’s the same way with humans. The women who love me love because I have the
disposition of a lion, they can feel my power and my grace, and they know that
they are sheltered when I am there.
In a similar vein, another study participant commented on the perceived attention western
women paid to Rastafarian men who are members of the Bobo Ashanti. Known as Bobo Dreads,
members of one of the strictest mansions of Rastafari cover their dreadlocks with turbans and
wear long robes. He observed that “the woman dem love the bobo dread, that is a ras them all
love. Them love his spirituality and his nature.”
Another participant noted:
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If you can look like Sizzla or Capleton (both reggae artists and members of the
Bobo Ashanti) you are guaranteed a high degree of success with white women.
Jus wrap up your locks and call yourself a prophet and you've got it made.
In addition to noting that Rastafarian men are felt to fare better with tourist women, some of the
non-Rastafarian men or men without dreadlock reported feeling that they were at a considerable
disadvantage in terms of attracting tourist women than their dreaded counter parts.
One participant noted argued that “from you a ball head you haffi try three times as hard to chat
a woman. You haffimek them understand what you a deal wit, that you gonna give them the
same lovin a bobogonna give.”
Another participant, who appeared genuinely upset when speaking about the attention
Rastafarian men and those perceived to be Rastafarian received, argued:
I couldn’t tell you what the appeal is for white women to Rasta man, I spent some
serious amount of time considering it, and I came up with they forever smell like
ganja, the don’t use deodorant so them stink and they beat nuff women. So I don’t
get the appeal, but the thirst is real I’m telling you. You see me, I’m a nice
looking , clean shaven kind of guy, and aint no way I can compete with no Ras,
not when it comes to the white women dem.
One study participant, who felt that he needed to compensate for his lack of dreadlocks and rasta
identity, noted:
If you don't rock dreadlocks you have to make big effort to compensate. Cause I
think if these women want American or English man they would go look for that,
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so you have to make them know you are a Jamaican man, with or without the
locks....( do you try to compensate for you lack if dreads?) there are different
ways, you have to think of what these women came to hunt out, a black man, nice
fit body, big hood and so on and you have to show them that is you. I make them
see me in my swim trunks or dancing and partying and carrying on, I speak to
them in a way that they think a Jamaican man is supposed to talk to them.
While many of the men who participated in this study simply noted the perceived increased
attention white tourist women focused on the men they assumed to me Rastafarian and their
feelings of disadvantage, some of the men reported staging themselves as Rastafarian men in
order to attract foreign women and subsequently financially profit from the interactions.
One participant noted:
I ain't no rasta man, I don't pray to jah, not gonna follow now false prophet
Salasie, but I am guilty of pretending that that is my way of life to have
opportunities with some different women. It's just the way of life that they are
interested in and want some knowledge on so because of my locks they are like
drawn to me an I kind of play it up, but I'm a Christian man.
Another participant, who emphatically spoke of the need to “show yourself off” in order to
attract tourist women, noted:
Dancing is like one big way that you can kind of show yourself off. You know
what you see a bunch of rasta man just moving and flipping up their hair and all
the women come to gather around and look and want to have so experiences with
him.
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Another participant argued:
You didn’t see in the gift shop them have these shirts, and plates and mugs and
shit with this picture of a man, black as tar, with some long ass dreeds, beating on
a steel pan drum, it’s a cartoon picture so the man is coloured just black, but him
have his Ethiopian hat on and some crazy coloured shorts. That is what girls from
foreign expect from Jamaican man, dark body, dreadlocks, and to be happy and
smiling and be surrounded by music, reggae music. If you expect to have any type
of success with women who understand that is a what a Jamaican man is, you
have put on your big ass smile, throw your hair around every time you hear a one
two beat and ‘just feel alright.
Another argued:
To be real, the only reason I start to dread my hair was because I start to know
the attention that the Ras get from the women, same time I start to wear this
necklace (pointing to a necklace donning the colours of the Ethiopian flag behind
an image of Bob Marley).
Another noted:
For me, when I walk out my house I act like a Ras, for me it’s like during
Carnival, you pick a costume and you try and make it work, that is what I am
doing every day when I leave for work to interact with the tourist folk. They know
what they think Rasta is, I know what they think Rasta is and I rock that costume,
but when I come home I know in my soul I aint no Ras.
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In sum, the connection a Western women develops with a Jamaican man is generally based on
her idealizations of his embodiment of manhood, idealizations fueled by the discourse of
hegemonic relations constructed through race in which the exotic and erotic are intertwined
(1995). While the stereotypes about black men and their sexuality extend to all Jamaican men
and perhaps all black men in general, they are particularly prevalent for the black man who
stands closer to his “Affrican heritage”, in this case embodied in the Rastafarian identity (Pruitt
&LaFont, 1995). According to several authors (Waters, 1985), despite Jamaica’s relatively small
Rastafarian population of approximately 24,000, it is precisely the ideals of dominant maleness
that leaves men with dreadlocks, who are assumed to be Rastafarian, receiving substantially
more attention from foreign women than Jamaican men without locks. In addition to noting that
Rastafarian men are felt to fare better with tourist women, some of the non-Rastafarian men or
men without dreadlock reported feeling that they were at a considerable disadvantage in terms of
attracting tourist women than their dreaded counter parts. Some of the men who participated in
this study reported performing the 'role' of a Rastafarian men in order to attract foreign women
and subsequently financially profit from the interactions.
Chapter Conclusion
The men who participated in this study were all well aware of the link between sex tourism and
racism, and were all very familiar with the racial stereotypes that precede black men. All of the
interview participants regarded racial motivations, ranging from the desire to experience
'something new' to wanting to engage in sexual relations with 'real black men' to be the primary
motivating factor for women who travel to Jamaica to engage in sexual relations with local men.
According to the men who participated in this study, by performing the stereotyped roles of
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Jamaican masculinity they are able to accord to tourist women’s expectations and attract and
establish relationships with them.
In order to produce a marketable fantasy, local men had cultivated the ability to deploy their
masculinity and sexuality in ways that maximized their desirability to tourists. Men who
participated in this study reported that “differences” between races, bodies, and cultures were
often exaggerated in order to entice clients into feeling that the encounters with Jamaican men
werevb truly exotic. In addition to constructing narratives exaggerating the differences between
themselves and their white foreign clients, the participants of this study reported performing two
major performances of masculinity, Rude boys and Rasta.
CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSION
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The experiences of the respondents offer valuable insight into what motivates initial and
continued involvement in transactional sex in Jamaica. For the men, aside from the enjoyment of
casual sex with female tourists their chief motivation for involvement in the informal sex trade is
economic. All of the interview respondents in this study indicated that their current rate of
employment compensation, and the rate of compensation they could expect based on their
educational background and skills was the Jamaican minimum wage of $5000 Jamaican Dollars
(approximately 51 Canadian Dollars) a month, a wage they all considered as insufficient for
survival. The insufficiency of the available wage compensation is the incitement to become
economically involved with tourist women.
The racial composition of Jamaica in 2012 was: black 75%; Afro-European 13%; East Indian
and Afro-East Indian 3%; and, white 5%. This racial composition reflects the history of
Jamaica’s political economy. The English took control of Jamaica from Spain in 1655 and by
the end of the seventeenth century had developed large-scale sugar production via the plantation
system, which used black slaves for cheap, unskilled labour (Alexander,1977). After
emancipation in 1838 white planters introduced East Indian, and later Chinese people to replace
black ex-slaves, many of whom left the plantations to establish peasant villages on hilly land
where sugar could not be grown commercially (Alexander,1977). Historically, Jamaican society
was divided legally into free, freedmen, and slave categories (freedmen being former slaves who
did not have the full rights of a free man) (Alexander,1977). Today while the class system is
more complex it is still racially stratified. Jamaica's wealth is distributed largely along racial
lines, reflecting Jamaica's slave-plantation heritage. Four classes can be identified in the urban
areas of Jamaica: the propertied upper class; white collar middle class; skilled, semiskilled
working class; and unskilled lower class (Alexander,1977). A rough correlation of class and race
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persists up to today with the lower classes being disproportionately occupied by black people.
The descendants of black slaves tend to be among the poorest people in Jamaica, while white and
mixed-race descendants of plantation owners and traders tend to be better off. These extremes
are reflected in the nation's distribution of income: in 1996 the wealthiest 20 percent of
Jamaicans controlled 43.9 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 20 percent controlled only 7
percent. In fact, the poorest 60 percent controlled just 34.3 percent of wealth. In effect the richest
were almost fifteen times better off than the poorest, in terms of consumption.
The Jamaican unemployment rate is approximately 14%, with the highest numbers of
unemployed citizens falling within the 25-34 age group for both males and females (Statistical
Institute of Jamaica 2013).The 14-24 age range of males has an unemployment rate of 22.5%
with the majority of those unemployed being black Jamaicans.
Research byChevannes (2001) and Gayle (2002) indicates clearly the immense pressure that
unemployed young males face due to the expectation for them to earn money and help support
their families, despite his circumstances including his age and training. Jamaica has a very large
informal sector that is estimated to involve over one-quarter of the Jamaican work force. This
sector incorporates practices colloquially called hustling which includes gambling, smuggling,
illegal currency exchange, the sale of stolen goods, petty stealing, begging, go-go dancing,
prostitution and conning (Gayle 2002). Despite the fact that Jamaica's informal sector is underresearched and fairly unknown to most Jamaicans, Gayle (2002), estimated that about one-third
of the urban labour force are employed within it.. Hustling is usually a high-risk activity and
according to Gayle (2002) there are a number of reasons why young men engage in it because of:
the inability of government to raise the standard of living or employment rate; lack of education
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or skill training; difficulties involved in getting a job due to area stigma; and the desperation of
single mothers and baby mothers and their need for themale to earn money.
Chevannes (2001) speaks of the immense pressure placed on young males to provide income for
the family and to do so at any cost. In addition to being able to afford housing, food and other
necessities for themselves the men who participated in this voiced a desire to be able to provide
for their families, including their children, girlfriends, and parents. Thus, the men who participate
in transactional sex with tourist women are able maintain the concept of Jamaican masculinity
by proving that they are able, by any means, to provide for themselves and their families. In
addition to affording financial opportunities the sex tourism of Western women also allows
Jamaican men an arena to both secure sexual access to women and therefore the social status
afforded to Jamaican men who are sexual successful with women.
For many of the men who participated in this study involvement in sex tourism provides an arena
for otherwise marginalized men to adapt and recreate their lives in order to survive the persistent
poverty that plagues many Jamaicans since the emancipation period. The men who participated
in this study were all well aware of the link between sex tourism and racism, and were all very
familiar with the racial stereotypes that precede black men. All of the interview participants
regarded racial motivations to be the primary motivating factor for women who travel to Jamaica
with the explicit intention of engaging in sexual relations with local men and those who do not
intentionally put themselves in a sex tourist position, but find themselves involved in a sexual
encounter with local Jamaican men. The raced motivations, as perceived by the men who
participated in this study, can be divided into two distinct categories; firstly is the perceived
inability to “experience different races at home” and secondly is the desire to “fuck real black
men”.
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Assuming that female travelers to the Island of Jamaica are interested in a black masculinity that
is distinct to the West Indies and notably 'different' from the masculinities accessible in their
local cultures, the men who participated in this study reported strategically exaggerating racial
and sexual ‘differences’ to maximize their desirability to foreign tourists.
In addition to constructing narratives exaggerating the differences between themselves and their
white foreign clients, the participants of this study reported performing two major performances
of masculinity, performances that can be largely understood in context of Jamaica's postcolonial
history, have come to characterize Jamaican performances of masculinity: Rude Boys and Rasta
(Hall, 2001). And according to the men who participated in this study, by performing the
stereotyped roles of Rude Boy and Rastas they are able to accord to tourist women’s
expectations to attract and establish relationships with them, thus profiting from their racial
marginalization.
The factor of race distinguishes black masculinity from other masculinities. For black men, their
lived experiences include the historical and psychological effects of racial, political and
economic oppression (Wise, 2001). Franklin (1994) argues that, "[M]asculinities are constructed.
Black masculinities, in particular, are constructed under the cloud of oppression" (p. 278). In
discussing the black masculinities featured in the 1991 film Boyz N the Hood Wiegman (1993)
astutely notes that the black male is "stranded between the logics of race and gender: On the one
hand, as a black within a racist social and political hierarchy, he has neither power nor privilege;
yet, on the other hand, as a male within a still patriarchal power structure, he has both "
(Wiegman, 1993, p. 178). According to Henry (2002) one method of compensating for a
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Master’s Thesis - S. Spiteri; McMaster University – Department of Sociology
perceived lack of power, potency, or manhood is to adopt what Katz and Earp (1999) calls the
"Tough Guise," the pose or mask of "hard" masculinity . Alexander (2003) notes that the
performance of the Tough Guise is more complex for black men who perform the "cool pose".
According to Majors and Billson (1994) the "cool pose" is the "presentation of self many black
men use to establish their male identity. Cool pose is a ritualized form of masculinity that entails
behaviours, scripts, physical posturing, impression management, and carefully crafted
performances that deliver a single, critical message: pride, strength, and control" (p.4). Cool pose
helps American black men counter stress caused by social oppression, rejection and racism. They
note that "cool pose" is a distinctive coping mechanism that serves to counter, at least in part,
the dangers that black males encounter in a daily basis and is an important strategy that some
black males have developed for dealing creatively with the realities of everyday life. Black
males who use the "cool pose" are often "chameleon-like in their uncanny ability to change their
performance to meet the expectations of a particular situation or audience. They manage the
impression they communicate to others through the use of an imposing array of masks, acts, and
facades (p. 4) ."
The adoption of the two major Jamaican performances of masculinity, Rude Boys and Rastas, by
Jamaican men is essentially the same as the African American enactment of the "cool pose". The
men who participated in this study confirm that they profit both economically and socially by
enacting the masculinities of Rude Boys and Rastas, demonstrating that, like the "cool pose", the
performance of these distinctly Jamaican masculinities serve as a distinctive coping mechanism
that serves to counter the economic and social marginalization that Jamaican men encounter on a
daily basis. By these means, Jamaican men have developed a creative way for dealing with the
systematic harm done by the legacy of slavery and the continued realities of racial oppression .
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The adaptation of a markedly Jamaican "cool pose" aids the Jamaican man in navigating the
social and economic inequalities produced from the interaction of class, gender and ethnicity.
According to the men who participated in the study, tourist women were thought to desire a
particular expression of “Jamaican” male masculinity and sexuality. Whether enacting a
fundamentally 'different' masculinity, a dangerous Rude Boy masculinity or a Rastafarian
masculinity the men who participated in this study sought to engender consumer erotic
experiences that were perceived as “authentic.”
MacCannell (1973) introduced the concept of authenticity to sociological studies of tourist
motivations and experiences four decades ago and explained that the process of modernization
has led “moderns to seek reality and authenticity in the more simplistic, natural lifestyles of other
cultures and previous time periods” (p. 591). Since then, the subject has become an agenda for
the study of tourism. Authenticity is relevant to some kinds of tourism such as ethnic, history or
culture tourism, which involve the representation of the Other or of the past, (Wang, 1999) and
not others, and it is mainly its museum-linked usage which has been extended to tourism. For
example, products of tourism such as works of art, festivals, rituals, cuisine, dress, housing, and
so on are usually described as “authentic” or “inauthentic” in terms of the criterion of whether
they are made or enacted by local people according to custom or tradition. And in this sense,
authenticity connotes traditional culture and origin, a sense of the genuine, the real or the unique.
Authenticity, in regarding different cultures or peoples that are to be toured, is a label attached to
the visited cultures in terms of stereotyped images and expectations held by the members of
tourist-sending society. According to Wang (1999), as example of how authenticity is often
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Master’s Thesis - S. Spiteri; McMaster University – Department of Sociology
determined, “what is the real Japaneseness is what has been marked; however, what is located in
Japan without being marked is in a sense not the real Japaneseness and hence not worth seeing”
(p. 355). Accordingly, “authenticity is thus a projection of tourists own beliefs, expectations,
preferences, stereotyped images, and consciousness onto toured objects, particularly onto toured
Others” (p. 355).
MacCannell (1973) introduced the concept of "staged authenticity" in the context of ethnic
tourism. Tourees (hosts) put their culture and themselves on sale in order to create an appealing
package. The notions of authenticity and staged authenticity are germane to this research
project in how the men who participated in this study employ different Jamaican masculine
identities as embodied performances of “authentic” Jamaican male sexuality, thereby putting
their culture and themselves on sale in order to create an appealing package. By projecting back
on the tourists the tourists own beliefs, expectations, preferences, and stereotypes, the Jamaican
men who participated in this study demonstrated how the shaping of their bodies and identities to
the “authentic” Jamaican men that tourist women expect allows them to make a living within the
harsh material constraints they face.
MacCannell's (1973) central theory is that every tourist wants to have "authentic" experiences in
which they can "experience the real life of the society that they visit and to see the true original
sights that made that place famous or infamous in the first place" (p. 601). It is his contention
that all tourists seek authenticity as the genuine, worthwhile and spontaneous experience of
travel (MacCannell, 1973). Expanding on the work of Erving Goffman, MacCannell expands
Goffman's front- and back-stage dichotomy into six regions which he claims are theoretically
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Master’s Thesis - S. Spiteri; McMaster University – Department of Sociology
distinguishable, ranging from being overtly front-stage (a place built for tourists) to being
explicitly back-stage (where the locals live their true lives without being seen by the visitors).
MacCannell (1973) notes that in tourism, there is a continuum from front-stage to back-stage
reality, rather than a clear and sharp divide. However, the back regions of tourist resorts that
tourists are allowed to enter into are often fake and like a stage behind the stage, one step along
the continuum (Taylor, 2006).
With the perception that female travelers to the Island of Jamaica are interested in a "real" black
masculinity that is distinct to the West Indies and notably 'different' from the masculinities
accessible in their local cultures, an important attribute of female sex tourism is authenticity, or
at least the perception of it. Therefore, one of the key roles of the men who engage in
transactional sex with tourist women, who wish to experience an "authentic" Jamaican
experience, is to provide access to what is perceived to be the "real" back-stage. By acting as
"authentic" cultural brokers the men who participated in this study profit both in terms of
masculine social status and financially by introducing foreign women to an "authentic" backstage.
However, the back region that tourist women are ushered into with the aid of "real" Jamaican
men is often fake, with the stylized bodily performances of masculinity acting like a stage
behind a stage.
Consistent with the findings of the current research, previous researchers who have examined
sexual–economic relationships between tourist women and local men in developing countries
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Master’s Thesis - S. Spiteri; McMaster University – Department of Sociology
have tended to concentrate on the men’s agency and as such have described them as
"entrepreneurs, cultural brokers, or players who commodify aspects of their racialized or ethnic
identity in order to make a living" (Taylor, 2006, p. 750).However the implications of the present
study for understanding female sex tourism is that greater attention needs to be paid to the links
between sexuality, racism and economic power.
While a limitation of this research is that it explicitly focused on the testimony of the Jamaican
men involved in transactional sex with tourist women and therefore cannot claim conclusively
that female sex tourists to Jamaica are motivated by racism, the men who participated in this
study perceived racial motivations to be the primary motivating factor for women who travel to
Jamaica with the explicit intention of engaging in sexual relations with local men and those who
become situational involved. While the racialization of male sex workers has not received nearly
as much academic attention as that of female sex workers, the participants of this study
concluded that the female travelers to the region have expressed curiosity and interest regarding
the racialized stereotypes of black men as hypersexual individuals with oversized sex organs
(Johnson, 2012).
Taylor's (2001) research demonstrates that while few of the female sex tourists interviewed
expressed overtly hostile racism towards local men, most tapped into "exoticising rather than
denigrating racisms" and sought out ‘sexual adventures and experimentation’ with ‘exotic’ Other
men (p. 760). Both historically and currently the Caribbean is a space that is constructed as
different. "Sexual mores are different, people are naturally promiscuous and sex is more natural
(Taylor, 2001, p.760.)". Historically, stereotypes of black sexuality flourished during slavery,
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Master’s Thesis - S. Spiteri; McMaster University – Department of Sociology
exactly the same image of the Caribbean male as powerful and exceedingly promiscuous that
endures today. Currently the tourism industry not only commodifies and sexualizes the men and
women in developing nations, but also the landscapes, cultures, and entire populations as well
(Johnson, 2012). Scholarship on travel and tourism advertising reveals the use of sexual imagery
and descriptions designed to attract visitors and finds that sexual expressions in Caribbean
advertisements reflect the sexual mythology of the islands, which presents black people in the
West Indies as sexualized subjects (Johnson, 2012). There are several dominant themes in the
promotional image of Third World tourist destinations including Jamaica, one major theme being
the possibility of sexual liaison with nonwhites ‘Others’ (Britton, 1979). Sex tourism marketing
is rampant and overt in Jamaica. In Jamaica, a perception of escapism is encouraged through
advertising by all-inclusive adult-only resorts that encourage tourists to demand any pleasure
they wish, as well as smaller travel companies which arrange sex tours. According to Shared
Hope International's report on sex tourism ' Demand, A Comparative examination of Sex
tourism And trafficking in Jamaica, Japan, Netherlands, And the United States' whereas sex
tourist destinations such as Amsterdam and Las Vegas have reputations as tourist destinations
for those seeking commercial sex, "Jamaica’s warmth and location in the Caribbean makes it
more sensually and sexually appealing as an escape from reality. The idea of an “island escape”
where all of one’s senses can be stimulated is portrayed in virtually all of Jamaica’s marketing
efforts" (p. 23).
Following the historical and contemporary "exoticisation" of Black Jamaican men the men
who provide sexual services to tourist women, as discussed above, indicated that they perform
their ‘Otherness’ in ways that are desired by the tourist. By enacting their race, masculinity and
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Master’s Thesis - S. Spiteri; McMaster University – Department of Sociology
overall Otherness in a manner that male sex workers feel accord to the expectations and desires
of foreign women they are producing and perpetuating racist stereotypes about the Other and
having to subjectively experience sexualized racisms as both personally and financially
empowering.
While the men reported utilizing transactional sex as both a survival and advancement strategy,
and receiving a superior masculine status as well as financial and material benefits, they also
reinforce and perpetuate the racist stereotype about the black male as both hypersexual and
dangerous. The Jamaican men who are economically and socially marginalized, marginalization
that inextricably linked to both contemporary and
historical racism, play into rather than resist or oppose racist stereotypes about black male
sexuality, leaving the impression that in order to survive economically, they have to contribute to
their own continued oppression.
This research suggests that in order to move towards a more complete understanding of female
sex tourism in Jamaica it is necessary to move away from essentialist views of gender and
sexuality and to begin to recognize the valuable input of men involved in transactional sex with
tourist women.
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