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Chapter Three Working-Class Kings in Paradise Coming to Terms with Sex Tourism In Pelourinho, there is a graffiti image of an old, overweight, bald, and bearded European man standing with his arms stretched wide. Wearing a yellow shirt and green shorts (the colors of the Brazilian flag), he holds the Italian flag in one hand and gives the thumbs-up sign with the other. A banner over his head reads, “Benvenuti a Salvador” (Welcome to Salvador), and a comment bubble features his greeting: “Ciao!” That the character is Italian is significant because Italians are ubiquitous in discourses of sex tourism in Salvador, where the term Italian has become synonymous with sex tourist. More than three hundred thousand Italians visit Brazil each year, and they are the leading foreign tourists to visit Bahia (Exame 2007, 104). Although Salvador usually follows Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo as a major Brazilian tourism destination, it attracts the largest number of Italian tourists—approximately 121,000 each year (Exame 2007, 104). The image of this Italian tourist fits with the hegemonic depictions of sex tourists in various countries of the Global South as well as in the scholarly literature. As Martin Opperman points out, “the term sex tourism invariably evokes the image of (white) men, usually older and in less than perfect shape, traveling to developing countries . . . for sexual pleasures generally not available, at least not for the same price, in their home country” (1998, 1). Various people—from Bahian tourism industry workers to journalists and politicians engaged in campaigns to eradicate sex tourism—construct a caricature of Italians as the prototypical sex tourists. In a news report on sex tourism at the Aeroclube, a shopping center in Boca do Rio, a coastal Salvador neighborhood, a black sex worker told reporters, “Bahia would go hungry if it weren’t for the Italians who spend [money]. The Bahian man comes and Working-Class Kings in Paradise 65 spends the whole night with one beer, but the Italian spends.” In fact, according to the report, Italians paid up to R$250 to spend an entire night with sex workers (Hoje em Dia 2007). The Bahian imagination of Italian men serves as a figure against which Bahian men may position themselves, particularly in terms of morality, sexuality, and mobility. Italian tourists were commonly described as men from lower-class backgrounds who took advantage of the privileges of their foreign currency (Exame 2007). In March 2007, Marta Suplicy, the Brazilian minister of tourism, said that combating sex tourism was one of her priorities: “We don’t want this type of visitor in our country” (Cavalcante 2007). However, other characterizations of sex tourism also exist. A group of African American gay men at Barra Beach focus on another black man lying on the beach, sizing him up and commenting on his chiseled body, his coppery skin tone, and his curly brown hair. In their loud and brazen English, they situate him as a perfect example of an exotic Bahian man—the kind of man they are seeking. They did not realize that this man was a fellow American, and he was listening attentively as they talked about him. Having spent a great deal of time in Salvador over the preceding ten years, nearly fluent in Portuguese, and with deep personal and spiritual ties to Bahia, Sean found the situation very amusing. He had heard about a particular group of gay African Americans who travel to São Paulo and Salvador every year and considered them merely a black gay version of sex tourism. This sentiment was echoed by Travis, a black gay man from New York who was invited to join the tour group but refused because he was uncomfortable with the idea of traveling to Brazil for sex. ThisgayAfricanAmericantourgrouphasablogthatfeaturestravelinformation for participants, flyers for Brazilian parties organized on their behalf, and photos of anonymous Brazilian men, some with captions describing them as the “flavor of the day.” Part of the goal of the trip is to participate in Bahia’s Gay Pride celebrations and Brazil’s Independence Day festivities. The group made a food donation to an orphanage and clinic for people living with AIDS. The organizer describes Salvador as a place with “more men than you can count,” including, in one case, a “lair of men.” He tells readers, “Like I always say when in Brazil, do a Brazilian. And, I intend on doing a few! Remember what goes on in Brazil stays in Brazil.” Even...

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