Love, Finance, and Authenticity in Gay Sex Tourism.

Martín Baca

07/10/2016

Love, Finance, and Authenticity in Gay Sex Tourism

The reading begins talking about a business dedicated to the prostitution that involves gay prostitution, women prostitution, and men prostitution. It talks about the history of a business in Dominican Republic talking about the “bugarrones”, and other employees of this place, such as the bartender Hector, who manages to get really generous tips from the drunk costumers. Another kind of business under the table is the how the police get payments from “bugarrones”. Then they talk to Simon who began to describe most of the attitudes of “bugarrones” and customers. He describes what customers ask when they first enter, and getting really clear what they want. In the attitudes of the sexual workers he talks about what is the minimum salary, and he explains that as a sexual worker you can make the same amount in only a week, and sometimes even in a night. The female sexual workers explained that they way prefer older men to work for because they in almost every time have more money, and when they create a bond with them they usually send money or even visas to travel. They also explained that they prefer tourist because they have more money, and they are more respectful than the Dominican men. Dominican men are rough with women, mistreat them, and call them names; in other words, the abuse them sexually and verbally. They even believe that it could be really convenient to get pregnant of a tourist so they could take better care of their kids. The next topic the reading talks about is how sexual workers create connections with their regular tourist customers. When they responded to a survey about if a “bugarron” could fall in love with a gay customer, the 70% declared that it could be possible, but when they were asked personally only the 30% said that it was possible. The reading explains this with examples from both customers and sexual workers. The history that impacted me the most was the one from Jeffrey. Jeffrey was a costumer who at first just went there for anonymous sex, but he would have a relationship with two “bugarrones” Fernando and Leonardo. He began saying that he does not believe that is love, and even if that is he will live in denial as both Fernando and Leonardo al prostitutes. He then says that he compromised to send them 50$ on his payday. He tells that Fernando never ask for anything, while Leonardo tells him he has to visit his family and he needs 500 pesos, but he first tell Jeffrey he considers him a friend so Jeffrey feels touched. Jeffery actually admitted that he has thought about if they only liked him for the money, but he preferred not to ask. He tells that Leonardo even took Jeffrey to meet his family, and make Jeffrey see how they live in Dominican Republic. After a time, Jeffrey began to felt more in love with Fernando so he would pay more attention to Fernando than he did to Leonardo, but his relationship went really deep so he in New York have lost everything: friends, interest in job, money because he felt needy and depressed as he needed to go back to Dominican Republic. Finally, the reading talks about what customers want in sexual workers, talking about submission and other sexual acts.

Analysis:

        First, I have to say that I really did not like the reading because in many parts it is way too graphic, and there are quite a lot of things that could have been omitted and it would have not made any difference. I think that talking about fetishes sometimes makes people get uncomfortable with the reading, and even in other times it makes some people don’t understand what the real problem is. Furthermore, I found it interesting mostly the preferences of the sexual workers, and their reasons. I really understand why sexual workers would prefer foreign customers because Latin-American countries still have a “macho” ideology, so these men would not treat women right, and even worse when they are paying them, in this case they would treat them even as slaves. The other topic that really caught my attention was the Jeffrey testimony. Jeffrey fell in love with Fernando and Leonardo which after some time it became an obsession. He would leave everything back just to be with them and stop feeling so needy. This is why I think what Jeffrey felt was not love anymore, but it was obsession. So that made me ask myself when does it stop being love, and begins to be an obsession. Finally, in the same testimony I found interesting the manipulation Leonardo used in Jeffrey. He makes himself a needy character, so Jeffrey would felt like empathy with his situation and he would give him more money, as he thinks Leonardo is really in love with him. I believe that Jeffrey send money to both Fernando and Leonardo, so they may give up prostitution and begin a more serious relationship with him.

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