How Does Globalization Influence Local Expressions of Sexuality?

            Time-space compression is assisting the movement of people, predominantly men, to travel within countries looking for sexual pleasure. Women are being forced to search for labor to support their families and themselves after their local economies are disturbed. Human rights and sexuality discussions are traveling across the world when international campaigns are started in Western countries. Economic procedures, immigration practices, and political movements influence transformations of sexuality and personal expressions. This influence creates huge changes for local understanding of sexuality.

            Globalization has increases sex tourism, or trips made through the tourism sector to ease commercial sexual relationships between local residents and tourists. This has become a multibillion-dollar industry and exists globally, including Cuba, Kenya, Thailand, and Brazil. Although this business gives an integrated product of package tours, it is harmful to local workers who are working for low wages. The money doesn’t reach the local restaurants, hotels, and other companies. The all-inclusive package tours monopolize tourists’ expenses, thus robbing the local businesses of customers. CHAME, a Brazilian organization trying to stop the increased sex tourism in Brazil, explains Brazil has the largest amount of children participating in prostitution in Latin America, following Thailand.  Nine-year-old girls are even involved. There are laws to protect women and children from these crimes, but the issue is the enforcement.

            Migrating women attempt to benefit from globalization by participating in sex work, or providing sexual services for payment to foreign tourists. They think that by earning money, their families and themselves can be freed from the poverty within their undeveloped country. They even dream of marrying the tourists they provide their service to and will help them escape their hardships. Because prostitution is illegal in most areas, these women are not given legal protection and are victims of harassment. Marriage and financial security rarely fulfilled by sex workers. In this way, globalization emphasizes unequal relations that used to be prevalent between men and women of different nationalities. This act also highlights inequality. Searching the web, I found a book that looked very interested called “The Globalization of Sexuality” by Jon Binnie. The description of the book had interesting anecdotes that I wanted to read about, including queer cosmopolitanism.

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