Sexual cultures are institutionally-based and in most instances occur within a pervasive social institution like marriages but also outside marriage, are recognizable and familiar. In addition to this, sexual cultures are highly crucial to the majority of the members of the culture because it helps define the position of both male and females in the society while at the same time brings out the notions of femininity and masculinity.
The concept ‘romance tourism’ was coined to illustrate the relationship between the local black men and the western female tourists. Sex, romance tourism romance is closely linked together and can further be traced to travels by both men and women (Cabezas, 2004). Throughout their movement, people engaged in passionate and romantic sexual encounter with a member of opposite gender. The theoretical conceptualization of romance tourism by a majority of the researchers tends to reflect the certain aspect of the subjective analysis of the radical feminist's views. These castigate and classifies sexual encounter between male sex tourists and the local black women who are their sex partners as prostitution and manipulative although fail to radiate similar image on the relationship between the black males with the white women female tourists (Clift & Carter, 2000).
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Three essential practices involved in Sex, romance tourism include gender inequality, gender roles, and gender exploitation. Belliveau (2006) claims that gender empowerment and inequality within tourism in most cases is depicted as the white male tourists exploiting the black women and in the process, the black women are disfranchised. It has been established that sex tourism has been part of the more important segment of the genders tourism industry. Historically, the leisure travels were primarily dominated by the wealthy males while the women remained at home. Romance tourism arguably tends to thrive on the aspect of objectification eroticization of racialized and sexualized black’s body, where these men represented the ‘exotic other. Evidently racist stereotyping of erotic and exotic black is employed to sell romance tourism. In any form of romantic tourism, the black males are objectified and at the same time racialized in their relationships. The western female tourists on the other hand psychologically identify and even create the black males as racialized and sexual objects. Bauer (2007) posits that the allure of what is believed to be the allure of the ‘exotic’ local males in most instances tends to fascinate the white female tourists. Therefore, there is a perceived myth of the bodies of the black men by white women tourists, and this apparently has had a stronger influence on their relationship. Romance tourism has further been established to epitomize the profound gender role reversal for both the local black males and female tourists.
The sexual culture of sex, romance tourism seems to reflect the mainstream cultural value of reversal gender role. Regarding the emerging concept of the gender role reversal within romance tourism, it has been revealed that romance tourism challenges and even redefines the conventional gender roles that were developed by black local males’ culture and white female tourists. Additionally, romance tourism plays a critical role regarding enabling the white female tourists to confirm their newly acquired identities and create gender ideals within the sphere that were previously held by men tourists. Cabezas (2004) posits that the idea that black males originated from a socially and culturally constructed society where it has been established that the men maintain overriding authority over women. There ought to be a specific superseding force that compels the men to take in new identities and roles and in the process become subordinate to the white women. The white women tourists often have a chance to significantly discover new gender behaviors (Bender & Furman, 2004). On the other hand, the black males who associated with these white females enter in a new form of tourism culture and in the process distances themselves from the normative authority of their society.
The beach boys often are excited about engaging in sexual activities with the white females who repeatedly search for them for sexual satisfaction. They apparently associated sex with tourism. The beach boys hold onto the notion that sex and tourism are intimately linked such that tourism might never exist with no sex (Bender & Furman, 2004). On the other hand, the black females believe that being seen around with the white tourists augments their pride and status in their society. Majority of beach boys often consider their relations with the white women to be exploitative. Majority of the white female tourists are just after sex with the black males, and when they are done, they disappear entirely and find herself a new beach boy (Bauer, 2007). In most instances, it has been shown that these white women often use their core advantage intrinsic to their financial and racial power in addition to their feminine sexuality to continue manipulating and exploiting the black males. According to Belliveau (2006), the black males have been reported to be unable to resists being manipulated and exploited by the white tourists because of the material advantages in addition to improvement of their ego that their relationship with the white female tourists conferred on them.
Writing about the topic, sex, romantic tourism apparently has fulfilled the overarching goal of better understanding the socially constructed nature of sexuality. Through the analysis of sex, romance tourism, the notions of socially constructed nature of sexuality have been critically addressed and how they have led to the reversal of gender roles and objectification of male’s body. The essay has critically discussed how sex, romantic tourism between the black males and the white female tourists has resulted to the reserved gender roles and the subordination of men. It has further challenged the socially and culturally constructed gender ideals in the traditional societies. The black males have been objectified as sexual objects readily available for use by the white female tourists. In addition to this with the objectification of the male’s body, the white female tourists have continuously exploited them for sexual favors and disappear once they were done with them.
References
Bauer, I. (2007). Understanding sexual relationships between tourists and locals in Cuzco/Peru. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease , 5 (5), 287-294.
Belliveau, J. (2006). Romance on the road: traveling women who love foreign men . Beau Monde Press.
Bender, K., & Furman, R. (2004). The Implications of Sex Tourism on Mens Social, Psychological, and Physical Health. The Qualitative Report , 9 (2), 176-191.
Cabezas, A. L. (2004). Between love and money: Sex, tourism, and citizenship in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society , 29 (4), 987-1015.
Clift, S., & Carter, S. (Eds.). (2000). Tourism and sex: Culture, commerce and coercion . Cengage Learning EMEA.
