by Furry Girl
05.02.12
"Beach boys and women sex tourists: every journalist's dream topic...
Reporters want to know if the boys are 'really' prostitutes and why the girls are paying; they have trouble figuring out who is exploiting whom. It's a bias, of course, to insist someone has to be exploiting since money and sex are involved, rather than seeing these as ordinary relationships, the kind that travelling people have been having since human life began."
-- Dr Laura Agustín, in Girls who buy sex from beach boys: Sex tourism in Bali on lauraagustin.com
This article on Bali reminds me of one of my own anecdotes: a few years ago, I spent a couple of nights on the coast of Kenya in a town called Watamu. It's the only place I've ever been where the sex tourism was about women as purchasers. It was an amusing dynamic for me to suddenly be the one propositioned by sex workers. The gorgeous beach boys would come up to the (mostly middle-aged) white women and say something like, "Would you like to go shopping?" or "Would you like company for dinner?" The guys were not overtly asking for cash for a set time period or a sex act, they seemed to want to stay in an upmarket hotel and be purchased gifts, clothing, and fancy dinners (and hopefully get some "spending money" as well).
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Furry Girl: a good time not yet had by all.
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With society becoming more permissive, I wonder if we will be seeing more male sex workers propositioning women? Some might dismiss that notion and say that there is no demand in that market, but I could just as easily argue that it is a matter of supply.
Comment by ByePluto — May 5, 2012 @ 9:34 pm
I think that it will never be as popular as men-as-clients, or at least, not in my own lifetime. Men grow up expecting that they have to pay for sex in some form, be it with cash or a emotional commitment, whereas women grow up expecting to be paid for sex and to be able to leverage it for profit. While where are male sex workers with female clients, and women who buy porn and love male strip clubs, it's more the exception than the rule.
Comment by Furry Girl — May 6, 2012 @ 4:31 pm
It is hardly surprising that feminists can't figure out who is 'exploiting' whom when discussing men selling sex to women. As always they want to label men as 'exploiters', but to be consistent they would have to describe women as 'exploiters' when they sell sex to men. And feminists have long taken the position that with the sex trade, the customer exploits the vendor. Odd really when you think which party benefits financially from the transaction.
Comment by Pom — July 29, 2012 @ 8:34 am