FEMALE SEX TOURISM IN JAMAICA: AN ARENA FOR ADAPTATION AND RECREATION FOR MARGINALIZED MEN

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.