Economies of Desire: Sex and Tourism in Cuba and the Dominican Republic

by Amalia L. Cabezas

Book by Cabezas, Amalia L.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthropology, Sociology, Queer

232 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2009

Reviews

[Mr Ogologo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looked at the dynamics between heterosexual sex as an economic vehicle in countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic where women are denied the opportunity to make enough money to eke out a living in other sectors of society. Regarding 'regular jobs', many positions are given to men or afforded to women who have a particular look (light skinned) which excludes those (I'd daresay the majority) who don't fit that cut. It primarily looked at the cases of women who were meeting male tourists. A lot of the cases including examples of relationships in Cuba.
It addressed the racial element of it where women of colour were more targeted as sex workers than their white counterparts even though they socioeconomic rewards were equal to both the black and the white women.
It showed and explored the dynamics within the relationships which challenge the once assumed dichotomy (including by yours truly) of 'transactional sex'. Such perspectives may have been nurtured by our religious and cultural backgrounds which frowned on sex outside of the marriage.
However, with regards to the Cuban situation, one of the gods in the Santería belief system, Yemayá, doesn't frame sex in the same way as Catholicism would. This allowed women the spiritual freedom to partake in sex as they saw fit without feeling like they were committing evil or a sin whenever they did so. Terms such as 'tactical sex' were defined and explained within the dynamics of the locals who interacted with tourists.
To conclude, I had an idea that this was the mindset in place but this book helped to flesh it and give more examples and insights to the mindset behind those who partook in such an activity.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

A communist manifesto for prostitutes! All kidding aside, this well-researched book was written by a naive Marxist who spent ten years writing something that would be framed throughout and ultimately suffocated by her own political beliefs. She isn't shy about hitting the reader over the head with those beliefs, either, oblivious to the fact that she sounds deluded, silly, childish, and frankly ridiculous at times. If a sharp and ruthless editor expunged this book of the author's agenda and left the pure content, you'd really have something here. The reality of prostitution in both countries is a subject worth exploring, but not at the price of having to be subjected to the author's extreme and outdated personal views that have nothing to do with the matter at hand.

She makes frequent mention, in a ludicrously positive light, of the Cuban system, citing nonsense like "Cuba invests in the human capital of its women" (paraphrase). And this sentence regarding a 1991 Playboy feature on Cuban women: "Surprised to see the bodies of Cuban women displayed for mass consumption, we wondered where Cuba was heading after the fall of the Soviet Union." As if allowing Playboy photographers in Cuba was the worst thing the Cuban government had done up to that point. And Cuba remains where it has always been: controlling its "human capital" and repressing individual freedoms at all costs.

As a resident of the Dominican Republic, I found her choice of sources for information was sometimes questionable, and baffling. She interviews a young man offering guide services outside a resort who complains that "all the managers are expatriates, all they do is insult Dominicans, they say I'm a little dog and thief (to paraphrase), that is why I can't earn a living." Yet in the next sentence she explains that this same young man has been deported from the U.S. for dealing drugs! She also describes his dreadlocks. No judgement, but in a country where most service people are exceptionally clean-cut, I can easily imagine the dreadlocks would put off potential customers for his freelance "guide services." This person is clearly a shady character, yet she includes his insights as if they were gospel, or worse, the considered opinions of experts.

This, of course, casts doubt on everything else.

[Tobias Wiggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tourists’ interaction with travel and sex does not occur within vacuum. Wealthy countries unfettered access to warm, third world destinations fuels unequal power dynamics and permits continued exploitation. Histories of colonialization thus permeate relationships between affective care, sex and tourism. As Cabezas explains, tourist plantations in Cuba and the Dominican are “gendered and raced spaces, eroticized along a colonial axis of power...[which] reinforce all the former divisions of labour, capital, and power” (31). In Economies of Desire, Cabezas’ comprehensive investigation into transnational tourism’s empire challenges stereotypical understandings of “sex tourism” and worker’s agency. Cabezas complicates relationships between locals and foreigners, illustrating the ways in which workers create and exploit intimacy to facilitate their wellbeing. Further, it is through an analysis of these complex exchanges of “care” that Cabezas is able to unsettle prominent Western feminist enforcement of the “sex worker” identity. Economies of Desire provides a much needed, in-depth examination of intricate global relationships which are enacted daily in “enclave” resorts. Her research shows that although colonialism persists, the worker’s agency will continue to oppose systems of power.