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What's Love Got to Do with It?: Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic
In locations around the world, sex tourism is a booming business. What's Love Got to Do with It? is an in-depth examination of the motivations of workers, clients, and others connected to the sex tourism business in Sosúa, a town on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. Denise Brennan considers why Dominican and Haitian women move to Sosúa to pursue sex work and describes how sex tourists, primarily Europeans, come to Sosúa to buy sex cheaply and live out racialized fantasies. For the sex workers, Brennan explains, the sex trade is more than a means of survival—it is an advancement strategy that hinges on their successful “performance” of love. Many of these women seek to turn a commercialized sexual transaction into a long-term relationship that could lead to marriage, migration, and a way out of poverty. Illuminating the complex world of Sosúa’s sex business in rich detail, Brennan draws on extensive interviews not only with sex workers and clients, but also with others who facilitate and benefit from the sex trade. She weaves these voices into an analysis of Dominican economic and migration histories to consider the opportunities—or lack thereof—available to poor Dominican women. She shows how these women, local actors caught in a web of global economic relations, try to take advantage of the foreign men who are in Sosúa to take advantage of them. Through her detailed study of the lives and working conditions of the women in Sosúa’s sex trade, Brennan raises important questions about women’s power, control, and opportunities in a globalized economy.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
11 people are currently reading
277 people want to read
About the author
Denise Brennan
5 books13 followersDenise Brennan is an anthropologist who writes about migration, trafficking into forced labor, and women’s labor. She is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Georgetown University. Her new book, Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States follows the lives of survivors of trafficking to the United States. It documents the ordinary tasks of settling into a new country after extraordinary abuse. Brennan also is the author of What’s Love Got to Do with It? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic (2004) that introduces resourceful Dominican women who capitalize on sex-tourism by feigning love to marry foreign men. She is currently conducting field research for a book on how families cope with detention and deportation, Shattering Families: Detention, Deportation and the Assault on Immigrants in the United States.
Brennan has received fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Association of University Women, the Henry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and Fulbright. She is a graduate of Smith College, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Yale University. Long involved in workers’ rights and migrants’ rights, she has been a board member of Different Avenues and HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive), organizations located in Washington, D.C. that work to protect and empower sex workers. Brennan has been interviewed in numerous media outlets, including the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Miami Herald, and U.S. News and World Report.
Brennan has received fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Association of University Women, the Henry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and Fulbright. She is a graduate of Smith College, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Yale University. Long involved in workers’ rights and migrants’ rights, she has been a board member of Different Avenues and HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive), organizations located in Washington, D.C. that work to protect and empower sex workers. Brennan has been interviewed in numerous media outlets, including the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Miami Herald, and U.S. News and World Report.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 22, 2021
If you have had any sort of Cultural Tourism course in college, or Sex Tourism knowledge at all, you may not learn much from this book. I found it to be interesting in that it delved into a part of the world that I hadn't heard a lot about - Dominican Republic. When i think sex tourism, i think Americans going to Thailand, the Phillipines, ect. But it seems Germans have places they like to frequent - and one is the DR. In any case, it is a horrible situation where white men have the power and money, and brown women (and white in some cases) have to sell their bodies and risk their LIVES in order to buy the basic necessities for their families (we are talking water and power and food, and usually not all three). So, definitely not an "easy read", but check it out if you are not familiar with this disgusting thing us humans have gotten ourselves into.
January 10, 2016
This book was somehow both serious yet light, deep and broad yet accessible and easy to read. It's an in-depth exploration of the sexual, racial, and economic impacts of globalization, through examination of sex tourism in the Dominican Republic. Brennan's field work extended over a decade, and she clearly thought long and hard about every aspect and angle of tourist sex work in that time. The result was a concise and clearly written book. I liked it.
Brennan explores women's economic survival strategies, in the face of extreme poverty and for most, single motherhood. Dominican sex workers navigate their own comfort zones, police arrest, threats of violence and AIDS. They exploit foreign tourists' racialized and sexualized stereotypes in hopes to secure long-term economic relationships with these tourists, including money wires, future vacations, and in some cases marriage and visas. These Dominican sex workers act independently, without pimps, but against a power imbalance composed of racial, gendered, and classed hierarchies. Sex tourists, shows Brennan, are supported by the weight of the colonial and economic dominance of their native countries. This means more than just money: citizenship, visa and travel access, and the freedom to enact or renege on fantasies at will.
Brennan comes from a clear feminist perspective and demonstrates the agency of her subjects at all points in their search for economic and at times romantic satisfaction, even as they face daunting odds. It was really good to read a piece of scholarship that came off so respectful of its subjects without any romanticization.
Brennan explores women's economic survival strategies, in the face of extreme poverty and for most, single motherhood. Dominican sex workers navigate their own comfort zones, police arrest, threats of violence and AIDS. They exploit foreign tourists' racialized and sexualized stereotypes in hopes to secure long-term economic relationships with these tourists, including money wires, future vacations, and in some cases marriage and visas. These Dominican sex workers act independently, without pimps, but against a power imbalance composed of racial, gendered, and classed hierarchies. Sex tourists, shows Brennan, are supported by the weight of the colonial and economic dominance of their native countries. This means more than just money: citizenship, visa and travel access, and the freedom to enact or renege on fantasies at will.
Brennan comes from a clear feminist perspective and demonstrates the agency of her subjects at all points in their search for economic and at times romantic satisfaction, even as they face daunting odds. It was really good to read a piece of scholarship that came off so respectful of its subjects without any romanticization.
November 20, 2007
“What’s Love Got to do with it?” takes place in the northern coast city of Sosúa in the Dominican Republic. Her book analysis the motivations and desires behind sex works, their clients, and others associated with Sosúa and its sex tourism. She examines why Dominican and Haitian women move to Sosúa and get involved in sex work, as well as the reasons why Sosúa is a popular tourist destination for primarily white Europeans and Canadian men and the effects of sex tourism on the local economy.
June 22, 2009
This is an anthropologist's upsetting account of sex tourism in Sosua, a town on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Women work as prostitutes hoping to win the affection of foreign, generally German, men who hopefully will continue to wire money upon their return home and perhaps will eventually offer the greater prize of marriage and a visa off the island.
June 4, 2008
Awesome book. Really interesting ethnography-style report on sex workers and sex tourists in Sosua, DR. V well written.
March 3, 2019
I had to read this book for an Anthropology of Tourism course. I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, and in fact I read it in only 3 days. I’m pretty slow at reading but this was quick for me. This book painted a clear image of the struggles sex workers face within the Dominican, but also the performance of love as a survival tactic to lift oneself out of poverty, and in the hopes of moving out of the country. It was interesting reading about the lives of some of the women who do move out of country and in with their “boyfriends/husbands” and how many are not satisfied. The relationships often do not work out and they move back. The follow through was well documented. I thoroughly enjoyed this work.
March 30, 2022
Important book to those interested in how globalization impacts tourism and the experience of those in LMIC designed vacation spots. Also a great place to start if you are interested in the experiences and motives of women engaging in sex work. I’d recommend some reading on colonialism(or decolonial theory) to put this in context. Very approachable, contains many of the concepts one would learn in a well structured undergrad course on global tourism.
July 18, 2023
What an absolutely exquisite book! I love how anthropologists write in books of this size. It’s just my fav.
The women and the wider community of Sosúa are a beautiful fascinating group! The conversations had about sex work and how we interact with transnational commercial power are crucial! Very appreciated read.
The women and the wider community of Sosúa are a beautiful fascinating group! The conversations had about sex work and how we interact with transnational commercial power are crucial! Very appreciated read.
July 23, 2020
This was an interesting view into the life of an anthropologist doing an ethnography more than what was being studied, for me at least.
March 7, 2022
It's good, but written for an academic audience.
March 22, 2017
I had to read this book for an Anthropology course in Sex Gender & The Body. The read was good but really outdated, I would be really interested in an updated ethnography; I tried googling about the place but it isn't the same lol. Anyways, the only actual problem I had is, I'm new to Anthropology literature but in my point of view I found it very repetitive throughout the actual book. Nice MANDATORY ready all the same
March 29, 2018
Read this for my cultural anthropology course during freshman year at university and enjoyed analyzing it in essays.
Sex tourism in the Dominican Republic was a topic with which I was wholly unfamiliar and learning about this occurrence from both the perspective of the sex workers and those who they engage with and the power dynamics and imbalances of those engagements was enlightening
Sex tourism in the Dominican Republic was a topic with which I was wholly unfamiliar and learning about this occurrence from both the perspective of the sex workers and those who they engage with and the power dynamics and imbalances of those engagements was enlightening
January 23, 2017
This was a fabulous book, and a great starter if you have never read an ethnography before. It is a great insight into something that is commonly seen as taboo, and gives these women a voice. I would definitely recommend it.
June 10, 2014
Very challenging and emotional to read.
May 7, 2018
Denise Brennan's "What's Love Got to Do With it?" offers and insightful, multi-dimensional analysis behind the Dominican Republic's transnational, sex tourism industry. The large sex tourism industry occurring in the small beach town of Sosúa is seldom talked about in comparison to the much larger, more well-known sex tourism industries of other locations around the world, such as that of Bangkok, Thailand. I've always heard about sex tourism occurring all around the world, but I am not going to lie, I had originally perceived these industries as being underground, rather hidden from the rest of the world. Brennan proved me wrong.
She follows a few personal stories of women actually working in the sex-trade and explains their desires, their life stories, their relationships with foreign clients, and how they perceive the industry in Sosúa. She follows the story of Elena, one of the workers, who falls in love with a German tourist, name Jurgen, and while he promises to help get her a visa to leave the country (one of the main goals for women working in the sex-trade) he ultimately abandons her, even after they have a child. Apart from heartbreaking stories of women like Elena, Brennan ultimately shows how race, gender, class, nationality, and cultural differences, play key roles in the events that go on in Sosúa, and investigates how they perpetuate the ongoing problems of the region. I think it was fascinating, but also deeply disturbing, when she laid out the issues of racism against Haitian women, and how the illegitimate police force of Sosúa often arrests these women (many of them under 20 years old) solely based on their gender and the color of their skin. Ultimately, the goal of the those in the sex trade, is to escape poverty, seek opportunities of which the Dominican Republic has failed to provide them with, fall in love, and be able to support their families, typically through remittances. Many of these women send the majority of their money to family members living in the countryside, similar to any other economic industry throughout Latin America.
Her personal experience and point of view she provides throughout the book, a result of having lived in the small sex-tourist destination for several years, puts the reader right there in Sosúa. I think what really drew me in and made the book so successful was that because she had so much personal experience, she was able to form relationships with the woman actually working in the sex-trade, as well as with other locals and even the tourists themselves. Because I am someone who is always weary of biases and authors that only provide one point of view, the fact that Brennan incorporated so many different points of view to their fullest extent, along with her well-rounded scholarly background, this made the book both compelling as a student and as a reader. Seriously, its jam-packed with well-studied theories and information about the international tourist industry, the effects of globalization, and the greater international political economy. It's like a text book that you actually like to read; one that you don't want to throw into the fire.
Brennan, aside from telling the stories like that of Elena, delves deeper into the desires, needs, and wants of the tourists themselves. I was completely surprised to learn that German's were by far the largest tourist population engaging in the sex trade. Oddly enough, they don't care for immersing themselves in the local culture, rather they have their own German restaurants and establishments, where they drink German beer with other German tourists, speaking German (then of course have sex with Dominican women that they can't even communicate with, because they usually don't even speak Spanish). There aren't even any restaurants that offer local cuisine, because the tourists aren't there for the culture; in fact, these tourists are there because they are able to act as though they are much more powerful and wealthy then they actually are. This is because their money goes a lot farther in the Dominican Republic than it does in their home countries, giving these men a sense of power and prestige that they lack back at home.
So, I think if you're interested in the tourism industry, in cultural differences, in racism, or class structures, or even globalization, then you should definitely try reading this book. Also, if you're a lazy reader, like myself, you can simply pop into one chapter without feeling completely lost.
She follows a few personal stories of women actually working in the sex-trade and explains their desires, their life stories, their relationships with foreign clients, and how they perceive the industry in Sosúa. She follows the story of Elena, one of the workers, who falls in love with a German tourist, name Jurgen, and while he promises to help get her a visa to leave the country (one of the main goals for women working in the sex-trade) he ultimately abandons her, even after they have a child. Apart from heartbreaking stories of women like Elena, Brennan ultimately shows how race, gender, class, nationality, and cultural differences, play key roles in the events that go on in Sosúa, and investigates how they perpetuate the ongoing problems of the region. I think it was fascinating, but also deeply disturbing, when she laid out the issues of racism against Haitian women, and how the illegitimate police force of Sosúa often arrests these women (many of them under 20 years old) solely based on their gender and the color of their skin. Ultimately, the goal of the those in the sex trade, is to escape poverty, seek opportunities of which the Dominican Republic has failed to provide them with, fall in love, and be able to support their families, typically through remittances. Many of these women send the majority of their money to family members living in the countryside, similar to any other economic industry throughout Latin America.
Her personal experience and point of view she provides throughout the book, a result of having lived in the small sex-tourist destination for several years, puts the reader right there in Sosúa. I think what really drew me in and made the book so successful was that because she had so much personal experience, she was able to form relationships with the woman actually working in the sex-trade, as well as with other locals and even the tourists themselves. Because I am someone who is always weary of biases and authors that only provide one point of view, the fact that Brennan incorporated so many different points of view to their fullest extent, along with her well-rounded scholarly background, this made the book both compelling as a student and as a reader. Seriously, its jam-packed with well-studied theories and information about the international tourist industry, the effects of globalization, and the greater international political economy. It's like a text book that you actually like to read; one that you don't want to throw into the fire.
Brennan, aside from telling the stories like that of Elena, delves deeper into the desires, needs, and wants of the tourists themselves. I was completely surprised to learn that German's were by far the largest tourist population engaging in the sex trade. Oddly enough, they don't care for immersing themselves in the local culture, rather they have their own German restaurants and establishments, where they drink German beer with other German tourists, speaking German (then of course have sex with Dominican women that they can't even communicate with, because they usually don't even speak Spanish). There aren't even any restaurants that offer local cuisine, because the tourists aren't there for the culture; in fact, these tourists are there because they are able to act as though they are much more powerful and wealthy then they actually are. This is because their money goes a lot farther in the Dominican Republic than it does in their home countries, giving these men a sense of power and prestige that they lack back at home.
So, I think if you're interested in the tourism industry, in cultural differences, in racism, or class structures, or even globalization, then you should definitely try reading this book. Also, if you're a lazy reader, like myself, you can simply pop into one chapter without feeling completely lost.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews