Before I launch into a discussion of this week’s juicy topics (the pun was intended!), I thought some of you might be interested in this blog post that discusses some recent conversations about policy and laws surrounding sex work and the continuing productive debates between and among feminists on the issue. Also, you may also want to check out the following websites:
- http://eminism.org/
- http://www.melissaditmore.com/
- http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/
- http://www.sexworkersproject.org/
Military Prostitution
With regard to our readings this week, one thing you’ll notice is that we’re for this first time this week thinking about the history of the global sex industry: What caused the industrial vagina? What political, economic and social events and circumstances enabled the sexualization/pornographication of culture?
Jeffreys argues quite rightly that a huge factor was the growth of military prostitution during the twentieth century. The twentieth century was the bloodiest century in human history; more wars were fought in the last century than in any other century in human history (although the twenty-first is shaping up to be just as nasty). And the nature of waging war changed drastically, as well. No longer did opposing armies set the time and place of battle, far from the civilian population. No longer were wars fought on horseback with muskets, knives, and bows and arrows. Instead, with the advent of new technologies such as mechanized and automatic weapons, tear gas, biological and chemical warfare, radar, satellite, and the like, warfare became impersonal, dehumanized and generalized to entire populations – including civilians.
Military prostitution is not a new invention. Governments have always needed some way to ensure the loyalty of their military personnel, a continued commitment to the objectives of violent conflict, and soldiers’ high morale during those long, dangerous days of drudgery on the front – or even back on the bases. There have always been “camp followers,” some of whom historians have argued with solid evidence, were most certainly prostitutes.
But the ubiquity and devastation of mechanized warfare during the twentieth century, alongside the processes of economic globalization, industrialized and globalized the notion of “camp followers.” This resulted in the current situation in which the availability of (predominantly female) sex workers to service (male) military personnel is a constitutive element of military life. You’ll start to understand how and why this process developed and how and why it continues to operate to great success when you read chapter 5 in Jeffreys and the article on Blackboard by feminist scholar Na Young Lee (with whom I also went to graduate school!). Pay attention, in particular, to the connections between the everyday R&R prostitution relied upon by militaries and the enslavement of women in Korea during the 1940s and 1950s and in the mid-1990s in Bosnia. Also, be sure to think about the notion of PEACEKEEPING, and whether peace can really be kept by carrying a gun and looking and acting like a soldier.
Sex Tourism
With regard to sex tourism, which Jeffreys and lots of other feminist scholars, argues is the logical descendent of the simultaneous convergence of military prostitution and economic globalization, we have to understand it within the context of global “development” policies.
But first, let’s be clear about what ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION entails:
- There has been an increased emphasis on the role and power of the consumer-oriented market-place (i.e., who buys what, why, and where).
- Because of this, countries around the world (and smaller regions like states and provinces; think Alberta’s oil and gas industry) have intentionally adopted an export-oriented approach to production, focusing on making stuff to sell to others, elsewhere; this has meant moving away from making/producing stuff for and to ensure the health and well-being of their own citizens.
- Multinational corporations (MNCs) have created layers of labour ranging from the corporation itself to subcontractors to home-based workers.
- Structural adjustment policies (SAPs) have been implemented since the 1970s as a condition of granting “development” loans to countries, and these SAPs require governments, as a condition of their “development” loan from the IMF or World Bank, to radically restructure their economies to conform to rules and regulations of capitalism (Pyle 2001, pp. 66-67).
These four components of ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION have collectively caused the gap between rich people and poor people in most countries to widen and has actually served to increase the number of poor people in the world, most of whom are women. As a result of economic globalization, “the wealth of the world’s 200 richest people is greater than the combined incomes of the poorest 41 percent of humanity” (Anderson and Cavanaugh 1999, p. 27). And that was more than 10 years ago. A lot has happened since then, including the ramping up of the military-industrial complex as a result of the events of September 11, 2001 and the resultant “war on terror,” which is also wreaking havoc in the lives’ of people who were already suffering the effects of economic globalization, but that’s a topic for another course.
In class two weeks ago, I discussed the money flow in conventional “development” projects:
Donor country (usually located in the Global North) --> IMF or World Bank --> In the form of a high-interest loan to the “developing” Global South country.
It is the last part of this money flow that’s most important, because “development” projects fuel economic globalization through SAPs (see #4 above). But the material effects of SAPs on peoples’ lives in “developing” countries—and increasingly in the Global North—are in complete opposition to the goals and spirit of “development” as a word in the dictionary that suggests “progress,” forward movement, and “growth.” Rather, conventional “development” projects rooted in SAPs cause the very circumstances that most negatively affect women globally—and men, too, but differently—within the context of ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION. This is key to understanding how and why SEX WORK and SEX TOURISM fit into the puzzle and processes of the global economy.
Countries in the Global South that have borrowed high-interest loans from the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions have to pay that money back. The countries then have to figure out some way to raise not only the amount of the original loan, but also the interest and pay it all back within the time frame dictated by the lending institution. And we’re talking in the trillions of dollars here, which is no joke. And one of the ways that the IMF and the World Bank suggest to countries that they raise funds is to bolster their tourism industries. The idea behind this is to get wealthy(-ish) people from the Global North to visit for vacations, conventions, conferences, etc. These are the people with disposable income and leisure time to take that weeklong trip to, say, the Dominican Republic or Mexico. And while they’re there, these tourists from the Global North will spend their money on restaurants, entertainment, shopping and so forth. The theory is that this influx of dollars or Euros enables the host country to raise money to pay back its loans.
And how do countries get their target tourists from the Global North to visit and spend their money? One of the ways in by making known within the right circles that “entertainment” can include a range of (indirect) sexualized and (direct) sexual services provided by local women and girls (and less frequently, local men, boys and transgendered folks). This is SEX TOURISM, and you might check out these websites for information on how they operate:
- http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_10656.html
- http://www.alternativephuket.com/travel-guides.html
- http://www.pleasuretours.com/
- http://gocaribbean.about.com/od/healthandsafety/a/Caribbeansex_2.htm
- http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,IRIN,,COL,,497050e42fc2,0.html
In Class on Monday and Wednesday
Remember to think of SEX TOURISM as part of the industrial vagina, so put it into its economic and political context within globalization: Who’s making the money? Why are women doing this work? Under what conditions do they work? Whom are they servicing? And make sure you understand Jeffreys’ argument that military prostitution has paved the way for sex tourism, specifically, and the industrialization and globalization of the sex industry, more generally.
Also, don’t forget to keep track of your CRPs, which are due at the start of class on Mondays. Details about the assignment can be found here. Be sure to include all the required components as described and also remember to bring a copy to submit to me as well as a copy for yourself so that you can refer to it during class.
I’ll see you all in class on Monday. In the meantime, happy reading, and please don’t hesitate to stop by during my office hours or e-mail me at kawilliams(at)mtroyal.ca if you have any questions.
