What's Love Got to Do with It?: Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic

Denise Brennan

Published by Duke University Press 2004

What's Love Got to Do with It?

Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic

Denise Brennan
Edited by: Walter D. Mignolo , Irene Silverblatt and Sonia Saldívar-Hull

In the series Latin America otherwise : languages, empires, nations

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822385400

Overview
Contents

About this book

An ethnographic case study of sex tourism in the Dominican Republic, showing how the sex trade is linked to economic and cultural globalization.

Author / Editor information

Denise Brennan is Professor and Chair of Anthropology and Sociology at Georgetown University.

Reviews

“A smart, timely, eye-opening account. What’s Love Got To Do with It? makes both men’s and women’s hopes and strategies visible. It underscores poor women’s capacity for agency and internationalized thinking without portraying the international system of commercialized sexuality as one in which women and men are meeting on a level playing field.”—Cynthia Enloe, author of The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War

“In this finely hued ethnography, Denise Brennan questions how transnationalization gets transacted, imagined, and experienced through an examination of the sex trade in a specific locale, Sosúa in Dominican Republic. Interweaving the grand themes of political economy and power inequities with those of desire and fantasy—and from the sides of both (foreign) customer and (local) sex worker—she has crafted a richly textured study of a ‘sexscape’ and its brokering of dreams as much as of money and sex.”—Anne Allison, author of Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club

“An impressive ethnographic study and important contribution to research on Latin America. . . . What’s Love Got to Do With It?, written in plain language and a narrative style, lacks academic jargon and is accessible for a diverse audience. . . . What’s Love Got to Do With It? . . . works to break down simplistic binary ways of thinking about the global sex industry to reveal an extremely complicated transnational industry.”

-- Emily Van der Meulen International Feminist Journal of Politics

“This is a readable ethnography which should interest many scholars on race, gender, and migration. It introduces this under-explored area through rich and accessible photographic and fieldwork data.”

-- Jinthana Haritaworn Ethnic and Racial Studies

"Brennan’s writing is clear and engaging. . . . What’s Love Got to Do With It? is a book that offers profound insights into women’s work, sexual commerce, international tourism, and the global economy. It is essential reading for scholars and students of gender, sexuality, and political economy in Latin America."

-- Patty Kelly American Anthropologist

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
About the Series Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: Elena and Jürgen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I THE TOWN
1. Sosúa: A Transnational Town Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. Imagining and Experiencing Sosúa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
II THE TRANSNATIONAL PLAN: LOOKING BEYOND DOMINICAN BORDERS
3. Performing Love Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
III THE SEX TRADE
4. Sosúa’s Sex Workers: Their Families and Working Lives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
5. Advancement Strategies in Sosúa’s Sex Trade Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
IV PLAN ACCOMPLISHED: GETTING BEYOND DOMINICAN BORDERS
6. Transnational Disappointments: Living in Europe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Conclusion: Changes in Sex Workers’ Lives, Sosúa, and Its Sex Trade Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 293
Illustrations
- Other: 9 b&w photos, 2 maps

eBook

Published: May 14, 2004
ISBN: 9780822385400