In “Between Love and Money: Sex, Tourism, and Citizenship in Cuba and the Dominican Republic” Amalia L. Cabezas discusses the effects tourism has in countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Cabezas establishes mass adjustments both countries had to make due to the changes in both their political and economic order. Both countries had extensive economic and social outcomes. One change includes tourism which aided the economic system, this change brought about sex tourism. Women and men both offered their bodies in exchange for gifts like clothing, jewelry, and meals. Many of these men and women work in hotel workers that work in maintenance, administration, entertainment, reception and even food services. Their position as hotel workers allows them direct contact with tourists. Those who engage in sexual acts do not just want money in exchange for sex. They hope the initial encounter will, in turn, establish stability. This stability of regular payments or regular phone calls will lead to marriage and ideally migration. Although both men and women seek the same goal it is not perceived uniformly throughout gender and skin color. For example, darker skinned women who seek relationships with foreigners are immediately identified as sex workers and prostitutes, both terms are associated with labor and paid work. This is negatively received in the Carribean. On the other hand, their lighter-skinned counterparts are given the leisure to label their relationships as purely romantical and do not endure harassment from law enforcement. Cabeza shares Mari’s, a twenty-three-year-old woman from Santo Domingo, experience with law enforcement. Mari recalls being slapped and even given a black eye from police officers for “bothering tourists”. This reasoning demonstrates the economic need for tourism in their countries. “Bothering tourists would never be a valid reason for arrest in economically thriving regions such as the United States and Western Europe. Additionally, men and women are not equally recognized in their roles of seducing foreigners. Men are observed as “national heroes” who conquer the body of the foreigner while the women are seen as deviant and of poor values.
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