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Marlena Esposito – Assignment 10

According to Cabezas, Cuba and the Dominican Republic have experienced an influx of sex tourism; foreigners visiting to take advantage of looser laws on prostitution and sexual activities. The women of these countries are heavily influenced by sex tourism, as these tourists come in and take advantage of them because they are sex workers. Being a sex worker implies negative connotations, especially to Americans, where most of it is completely outlawed. Sex workers in Cuba and the Dominican Republic change the economy, especially with the increase of sex tourism. These tourists are contributing to the lives of these women, allowing them to make a profit but also while exploiting them. Sex workers not only gain a profit, but gain opportunities; many build relationships with their clients, allowing them to have other opportunities to work and migrate. There are cases in which sex workers marry their tourist clients, allowing them to migrate, get married, and build families; this is an opportunity they would not have without sex tourism being so popular. Cabezas explains the difference between light-skin Cubans and Black Cubans in the sex tourism industry; Black cubans are considered to be more frequently involved in hustling in the tourist industry, while light-skinned Cubans are more often employed in just sex for cash, having less opportunities. This made me think of the hyper-sexualization of people of color, and how for White tourists it is easy to use a dark-skinned women for sex and nothing else, but in their daily lives they continue to treat these women as objects. Sex tourism has the ability to be an industry that greatly changes and improves the economy, but can also lead to the objectification and abuse of women, especially women of color. Sex workers can be liberated, and gain opportunities, but they also can be treated as unequal. Sex tourism is an ever popular industry that changes the economy of various countries.