In her “Between Love and Money: Sex, Tourism, and Citizenship in Cuba and the Dominican”, Amelia Cabezas explores sex tourism to deeply study the relationships, political and economic opportunities that the interaction between foreigners and locals propose. Sex tourism refers to both national and international travel purposely done for sexual activity or intimacy with natives of the land. Cabezas focuses on the international travel due to its prominence and roles that it plays in shaping a country’s social, political, and economic life. This focus includes third world countries, such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, in which colonization may have affected in the past. Due to corruption, poor living conditions, and anarchism in those countries, the economy becomes very unstable and the dependence on foreign investments and currency becomes the driving force in economy of such countries. According to the article, this sector of the economy has surpassed other professions due to the opportunities that it provides the locals with. Incoming foreigners offer the locals many benefits such as income, materials, migration assistance, and in some cases even marriage. Although there are many social and economic benefits from sex tourism, a lot of problems also arise from it. Such conflicts concern the division of labor based on gender, class, and background, these issues mainly fall between natives causing a stigma on women labor. When a woman engages in sexual activity and sexual autonomy, she is a deviant that violates social and moral conduct. But on the other hand, when a man does it, his labor is praised and seen as a boost to the national economy and his sexual activity is justified as a natural male urge of sex. It is not only the women who are oppressed by the heteronormativity, it is also other minority groups such as palestinos, pingueros, and jineteros who face harassment by local authorities. I think that this is what Cabezas is referring to by “sexual citizenship”, it is the sexual identities that these workers hold.
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