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Conclusion The Specter of Sex Tourism in a Globalized World I met Suelí, a nineteen-year-old morena, in the summer of 2005 through Nathan, her fifty-year-old American expatriate boyfriend.1 At the time of our interview, she had been dating Nathan for six months. Born and raised in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Salvador, Suelí had recently moved into Nathan’s apartment in the beachfront neighborhood of Barra. She met Nathan while working there at a pizzeria, where she had also met men from France, Norway, Germany, and other countries. Suelí bragged about her exposure to and experiences with people of different cultures, saying that she preferred foreigners because “they treat you better, respect you more, and give you more attention and affection.” Suelí noticed that people often seemed bothered when they saw her and Nathan walking in the streets: “It messes with them. They say, ‘Oh, what a pretty girl.’ They don’t respect [our relationship]. Brazilians and Italians especially feel jealous.” Despite her youth, Suelí said that she had “already suffered too much” in relationships with Brazilian men. In fact, she had a two-year-old by a Brazilian man whom she described as extremely jealous and controlling. While she said she did not “see disadvantages to dating foreigners,” she quickly added that she “wouldn’t leave the country with another person.” Her caution suggests that the efforts of the Humanitarian Center for the Support of Women (CHAME) to spread awareness about the risks of trafficking may be reaching the group’s intended audience. Suelí differentiated not only between Brazilian and foreign men but also between younger and older men: “I’ve already dated younger men. I sought an older man because they know how to converse with you, they won’t say things that hurt your feelings, and they want you to always make progress. Younger men, they’re jealous, they 160 conclusion fight. I’ve already been through this.” The often large age disparities between foreign tourists and local women can be understood within the local cultural practice of dating older men, known colloquially as coroas (Piscitelli 2001). Suelí also preferred to date foreigners because she felt that Brazilian men were “only interested in sex,” a viewpoint that complicates the assumption that foreign men come to Brazil in search of sex. Thus, she saw older foreign men as more trustworthy, more generous, and better potential partners for a serious romantic relationship, whereas local men were controlling, unfaithful, and only interested in sex. Suelí’s cynicism about Brazilian men is a common feature of the sexual economies of tourism, where foreign men are privileged over local men. The major quality that attracted Simone, a twenty-nine-year-old Afro-Brazilian woman, to European men was a gentileza (niceness), which she found lacking in Brazilian men: “The European man is such a gentleman!” Though she had had two six-year relationships with Brazilian men prior to meeting her German boyfriend Günther, Simone said that neither had been as kind, romantic, and attentive: “If we spend a week together, it’s like we’ve spent years together,” she exclaimed. Günther sent her money to take German classes and called every day to speak with her. The work of Adriana Piscitelli (2006) and Jessica Gregg (2006) in other northeastern Brazilian cities finds similar preferences for European men. In Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazilian women who preferred to date foreigners as well as the European men themselves associated Brazilian masculinity with explosive tempers, alcoholism, stupidity , infidelity, aggression, possessiveness, lack of respect, and exacerbated sexuality. Conversely, European masculinity was interpreted as romantic, delicate, open, and invested in equality (Piscitelli 2006).2 Similarly, women residents of a favela in Recife saw local men as aggressive, irresponsible, lazy, and malicious (Gregg 2006). These women did not believe in romantic love. Rather, they felt all men were safado (shameless) and would inevitably mistreat any woman who was good to them. Moreover, Gregg’s informants were convinced that men took pleasure in ruining women’s lives. The “bleak state of gender relations and . . . the economic system” made marriage an undesirable option for many women in impoverished northeastern Brazil (158). Conversely, pursuing liberdade (freedom) was seen as a way to be independent and to protest the gender system. Those who sought out ambiguous entanglements in the touristscape of Salvador may be seen as attempting to pursue independence, liberdade, upward mobility, and cosmopolitanism. Thus, Suelí and the sex workers of Aprosba can be...

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