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 Sos a, a town on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. Denise Brennan considers why Dominican and Haitian women move to Sos a to pursue sex work and describes how sex tourists, primarily Europeans, come to Sos a 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 Sos a'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 Sos a to take advantage of them. Through her detailed study of the lives and working conditions of the women in Sos a's sex trade, Brennan raises important questions about women's power, control, and opportunities in a globalized economy.

Author: Denise Brennan
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 05/14/2004
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.89lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.02w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780822332978

About the Author

Denise Brennan is Professor and Chair of Anthropology and Sociology at Georgetown University.