-Caveat Lector-
In praise of sex tourism
By Bart Croughs
Sex tourists arent very popular. Discriminatory, prejudiced,
stereotyped talk about this minority is all too common. And strangely
enough, liberal intellectuals never object when this unpopular
minority is attacked.
One of the discriminatory stereotypes one often hears about sex
tourists: they are ugly, old, bald, fat men who only can get sexual
satisfaction in third world countries. Suppose this is true, whats so
bad about this? I think every enlightened intellectual ought to
applaud fat old men going to Thailand every summer. This way, the
inequality in the world is being reduced - and this is after all the
ultimate goal of the progressive thinkers. Men who are unattractive
because of their fatness, baldness, old age etceteras are sexually
worse off than men who are young, handsome, etceteras. This is a
shameful form of inequality, and certainly not less of an injustice
than the inequality in incomes that makes our Western capitalist
societies so outrageously unjust. Happily, the sexually disadvantaged
have the opportunity to visit third world countries, where they can
eliminate their disadvantaged position. One could say that sex tourism
is the means towards the liberation of the sexual proletariat. It is
incomprehensible to me why liberals would object to this important way
of achieving equality.
Sex tourists are often criticized because they take advantage of the
Third World prostitutes, who sell their bodies because they are forced
by poverty to do so. This is a strange criticism. Everybody who cares
about the welfare of the Third World hookers should hope that they get
as many Western customers as they can handle. If sex tourists stay
away from Third World countries, the only effect will be that the poor
prostitutes in these countries, after losing the income from the sex
tourists, will become even poorer. In fact, the sex tourists are
giving a kind of foreign aid, and a very effective kind of foreign aid
to boot. For a change, the money doesnt disappear into the pockets of
corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, and it isnt being spent on
weapons or senseless prestige projects either; instead, it goes
straight into the pockets of the poor population. Add to this the fact
that in general sex tourists act rather like feminists. Most of them
practice a private form of affirmative action (without any laws
forcing them to do so!): they prefer female prostitutes to male
prostitutes. This way the disadvantaged women in Third World countries
are given the opportunity to advance their economic position and catch
up with the men.
Sex tourists are also criticized because they dont pay the Third World
prostitutes enough for their services. Expressions like exploitation
are not uncommon. In this view, sex tourism is not bad in itself, only
the fact that the tourists dont pay more than the prostitutes ask them
to pay is bad. This is another peculiar criticism. Prostitution is not
the only service that is relatively cheap in Third World countries:
other services like hotels, restaurants, transportation etc. are also
relatively cheap. Still, nobody is mad at tourists because they pay
taxi drivers or restaurant owners no more than the market price. Why
then should tourists pay prostitutes more than the market price?
A final objection to sex tourism: there are women in Third World
countries who are forced to prostitute themselves by threat of
violence. But if one is to believe the reports in the Western media,
many women in Europe are also forced to prostitute themselves by
threat of violence. Those who agitate against sex tourism because of
the violence some of the prostitutes suffer, ought to agitate against
the whoremongers in the west as well. There is no reason to single out
sex tourists for a special attack. On the contrary: when the
whore-hoppers in the West decide to stop visiting prostitutes, the
Western prostitutes who lose their jobs can go on welfare, whereas for
most prostitutes in the Third World the only alternative is abject
poverty.
Furthermore, its a rather strange idea to abolish an entire industry
just because there are some criminals working in that industry. It
seems easier and more reasonable to try to stop the abuse. Today there
are a lot of organizations like Fair trade or Trans-fair
International, which have followed in the footsteps of the Dutch
organisation Max Havelaar, the first fair trade initiative.
These organizations offer their own consumer labels, which guarantee
the liberal consumer that their snacks (chocolate, coffee, and the
like) are made without child labour and other forms of capitalist
exploitation. Why isnt there a progressive organisation that offers a
consumer label for brothels in the Third World? This way, the
enlightened sex tourist will be guaranteed that the women of his
choice prostitute themselves of their own free will.
To sum up: the common objections to sex tourism are groundless. Sex
tourism is an important means towards achieving three liberal goals:
1) it promotes sexual equality; 2) it combats poverty in the third
world; 3) it advances the economic position of women. The current
irrational taboo on sex tourism restrains many liberal and other
conventional thinking men from realizing these praiseworthy goals
during their holidays. So instead of preserving the taboo on sex
tourism, all well-meaning and enlightened intellectuals and other
do-gooders should promote it enthusiastically.
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