Economies of desire

Description:

Is a native-born tour guide who has sex with tourists—in exchange for dinner or gifts or cash—merely a prostitute or gigolo? What if the tourist continues to send gifts or money to the tour guide after returning home? As this original and provocative book demonstrates, when it comes to sex—and the effects of capitalism and globalization —nothing is as simple as it might seem.Based on ten years of research, Economies of Desire is the first ethnographic study to examine the erotic underpinnings of transnational tourism. It offers startling insights into the commingling of sex, intimacy, and market forces in Cuba and the Dominican republic, two nations where tourism has had widespread effects. In her multi-layered analyses, amalia cabezas reconceptualizes our understandings of informal economies (particularly "affective economies"), "sex workers," and “sexual tourism,” and she helps us appreciate how money, sex and love are intertwined within the structure of globalizing capitalism.

subjects: Sex tourism,  Prostitution,  Violence against,  Social aspects,  Social aspects of Sex-oriented businesses,  Sex-oriented businesses,  Sexual behavior,  Tourists,  Women,  Gender Studies,  Nonfiction,  Research,  Sociology,  Prostitution, cuba,  Sex-oriented business,  Tourism,  Sextourismus

Places: Dominican Republic,  Cuba