Sex, War, and Tourism: An international affair

Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Militarism, tourism, and the sex industry have direct links with the global economic system. Thus, dominance, gender roles, prostitution, and money seem to be firmly connected. The capitalist system contributes, either directly or indirectly, to international involvement in the sex industry. The sex trade has been able to industrialize successfully through the development of globalized capitalist principles, thus producing huge profits. Most of these financial gains, however, are not acquired by the sex workers, but by the institutions that sustain the trade. Militarism and tourism [mass or sex directed] contribute to the perpetuation of the sex industry. Both institutions have common agendas of power within the global market system; also both elements cause local populations to suffer intrusive effects. Global governance is called into question, therefore, for not only tolerating but for supporting the institutions that systematically exploit such large segments of the global populace.

Peace and other global issues have been a topic of discourse for decades. There seems to be a linkage between male dominance, sex-role stereotyping, prostitution, and money. There are also indications that the morality code is universally imposed by the dominant segment of society. The sex-role stereotypes that women often accept as "ideal" extremes, are culture dependent, and are reflected in the powerlessness, which has been experienced by women. Females have been expected to be passive, incompetent, dependent, and deferent to authority. Gender relations, therefore, greatly affect the role of prostitution in society and its corresponding morality issues. Religious ideology as well as legal and social practices, due to prevailing patriarchal hegemony, have granted men the right to control and use female sexuality for their own ends. Morality, in a sense, is based on ideology. The dominant ideology for millennia has been patriarchal, as it is reflected in most of the religions, laws, economic system, and other institutions. Men have historically had dominant agency in all these establishments.

This paper will focus on the argument that the relationships between economics and the sex trade, militarism and the sex trade, tourism and the sex trade, and the international trafficking of women are a result of an attitude about women. Global peace issues are interconnected with economic factors. This allied relationship combined with the dominant ideology affects women and should be of great concern. Since patriarchy controls economic factors, subsequently, it not only affects but it also directs the lives of women on a global scale. This is particularly evident in a Third World context, where women generally have less opportunity and autonomy than do women in more developed areas. Global governance is seriously lacking in worldwide human rights issues. This deprivation is evident in the fact that economic factors usually outweigh human needs. The discussion will include a brief commentary of the global social order in attempting to gain the elusive peace which we all claim that we crave.

The sex trade is maintained and perpetuated by the predominantly adult male clientele, and the patriarchal capitalist world economy. Prostitution is a social fossil and a survival of past antiquity. Since the advent of patriarchy, however, women have been denigrated to a low status in the social stratification system. Women have gone from being the revered priestesses and participants in religious fertility rites to the despised status of harlots. Females have become sexual objects. In Sex, Money and Morality, Truong declares that the "symbiotic relationship between religion and polity has produced a gender-biased socio-cultural parameter" (Truong 1990: 142). This attitude is periodically used against women both by the state and male representatives of the household. The defense of polygamy has been replaced by defense of prostitution, influenced by certain segments of the bureaucracy and the commercial community, which has intensified the consignment of female sexual labor, rationalized and legitimized by the financial gains (Truong 1990: 131-157).

The reasons for prostitution are many. Whether the prostitution is consensual or forced, the bottom line is that of economics. The need for market currency, and the economic principles of supply and demand, dictate the continuation of prostitution. In the world of consumerism, commodities are bought only to be later discarded; renewable resources are not valued, because they are considered to be available in limitless quantities. The "no deposit, no return" items are rarely even recycled. The female gender encompasses both these categories. First, women are seen as objects of sexuality, therefore commodities. Second, they are viewed as renewable resources, consequently as a limitless source of replenishment. Thus, anything which is considered unlimited is undoubtedly perceived as having less value than something which is rare and precious.

There are different forms of prostitution, including the traditional type of prostitution in affluent society, prostitution in the proximity of military bases, international trafficking in women, sex tourism, and child prostitution. Although each of these types is a distinct dimension of the sex industry, often some aspects overlap and intertwine. Regardless of the model which prostitution takes, however, there are three main economic factors which they all have in common. Firstly, and most importantly, prostitution is for financial gain. The sex industry is a very lucrative enterprise. But the sex workers themselves rarely or never acquire the bulk of the profits. Secondly, since the overwhelmingly vast majority of the patrons are adult males, the control of the economic resources of power are dominated by one gender. Thirdly, based on the fundamental market principles of economics, the supply would not be made available, if the demand was not present. These economic commonalties need to be addressed but the greater emphasis must be on the situation of women within this global financial framework, and particularly in a Third World context.

The connection between the military and prostitution has been universal and prevalent for centuries. Soldiers have used women sexually, through prostitution, rape, kidnapping and slave brothels that followed the armies, dating from prehistoric to current times. There are approximately 3,000 military bases around the world, and each has an annexed sex industry. The economic advantages, of military installations for the sex trade, are obvious. Since the customer demand drives the market, prostitution is greatest where there is a large assemblage of men. The military also fall into a special category of sex tourism. There are some versions found near bases in Korea, Okinawa, Philippines, Europe, and the U.S. The gender ideology of military "machismo" plays an important role in the attitudes of the men while they are away at war. They are encouraged to distance themselves from their "feminine" emotions and feelings, and despise them; instead they are taught to be rough and tough, to be a man . Massive raping in wartime is made possible by dehumanizing the "enemy" into the "other". This "otherness", therefore, makes possible the atrocities which are not normally committed by individuals. While the men are protecting their "good" and "respectable" women at home, the "otherness" of the enemy females renders them "bad" and "indecent", therefore devalued and expendable. Usually, totally displaced after the war, these women cannot or do not wish to go home, for social and/or economic reasons (Barry, 1995; Brock & Thistlethwaite, 1996).

Suffice it to say that massive rape in war produces sex-industry commodities. These populations of women, who are raped and therefore disgraced to their families and in their communities, are particularly vulnerable to the procurers of the industry. The most dramatic change in the sex trade since 1970, has been its industrialization, normalization, and widespread global diffusion. This expansion has affected women globally, and particularly in the newly industrializing economies. The industrialization of sex has produced a multibillion-dollar global market in females, with highly organized networks of pimps and crime gangs involved in the trafficking. Due to the sexual demands of military men stationed in Third World countries, markets for prostitution have been produced. These markets are constantly being replenished by women who are bought by men on R&R leave or by traveling businessmen on "trade missions". Particularly in Asian countries such as Korea, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand, where there has been war, military installations or R&R centers, prostitution has become a major sex industry. This has led to the trafficking in women from these countries in order to relieve the economy (Barry, 1995).

International trafficking in women has been conducted by networks of organized crime gangs and procurers, and it is a booming "big business". Trafficking in women is the oldest and the most traditional way of procuring for prostitution; predating sex industrialization, and extensive in pre-industrial and newly industrializing economies, it has now reached global proportions. Widespread trafficking of women is found in Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and to and from North America. The market exchange in women for the sex industry takes place between economically disadvantaged countries, countries that have achieved moderate economic development, and, by means of trafficking, to the wealthiest countries. The dual factors which predispose women and children to the sex trade, and render them vulnerable to procurers, are social and economic power relations. The global economic inequality, between genders, regions, states, and countries, is a crucial determinant influencing prostitution. The disparity of familial power relations in pre-industrial and feudal societies causes men to consider females and children as property, thus converting them into commodities. Therefore, females are particularly vulnerable to disguised trafficking by fraudulent marriage and employment agencies, pre-prostitution trafficking for domestic services (in wealthy households or more affluent regions), or local prostitution (Barlay, 1968; Barry, 1995; Bell, 1987; Davis, 1993).

There are tragic and increasingly common international stories of international trafficking in women for the sex trade, and the frequency and magnitude to which it happens on a global scale is both horrifying and intolerable. Because these women are frightened, and culturally isolated, they are in a hopeless situation with few options. They do not speak the language of the country of destination, and they are unaware of the laws which might protect them if they were to escape. They are often threatened with the immigration authorities and subsequent deportation. They are therefore easy targets of victimization once they are in the "receiving" country. Fleeing is not a viable option either, because, firstly, they have no legal papers; secondly, even if they were to return to their countries, they may not want to return to their families. In such situations, they may remain in the "receiving" country, working in menial jobs with very low wages (Barlay, 1968; Brock & Thistlethwaite, 1996; Cordasco & Pitkin, 1981). Sometimes these women revert back to the sex industry as a last resort, because it pays better than any other work available to them (Reynolds, 1981). As young, unskilled, often illiterate women without language competency in the country of destination, they are isolated and become economically marginalized. In such circumstances, social marginalization through prostitution is not considered to be the worst predicament, since either way it is a fight for survival.

The economic framework for the tourism sex industry is contained within the justification for the maintenance and the perpetuation of the tourism industry itself. However, the internal components of the sex industry are more complex and are supported by the internal infrastructure of the countries themselves. The deep structures of the capitalist, patriarchal, global market system, and the internal government bureaucracies preserve and encourage the status quo for their own gains, in spite of the human casualties.

No matter how much the benefits of tourism are emphasized, the reality is that the foreign exchange earnings fail to reflect the actual economic benefits, not to mention the human disadvantages for the impoverished. The benefits are for the rich and industrialized countries from which the tourists originate, and the governments and bureaucracies of the country of destination. The rhetoric is that the "trickle down" effect will eventually flow to the needy. However, the fact is that it does not "trickle" sufficiently and definitely not enough to make the sacrifice of human lives worth the venture, based on the quality of life standards analysis. The enterprise is so lucrative for the multinationals (corporations and sex industry), that it would be to their disadvantage to reject the business, at any cost. Both the air travel and the package tours are paid for in the home countries.

According to the estimates of the World Bank, 55% of the tourist spending still remains in the developed country of origin. The international power relations between the poor and the rich nations are maintained in the tourism industry. However, tourism flourishes out of the need of these developing countries to increase the foreign exchange to meet their debt and obligatory payments, to maintain corrupt bureaucracies, and the military. According to Kathleen Barry, "Prostitution may well be among the highest costs women pay for their country's development" (Barry, 1995: 197). The capitalist market system rules in this equation, and human beings are reduced to mere statistics and commodities. The profit margin is the end, by whatever means are necessary. This factor is the main agenda of the continued exploitation of women and children, who are the most vulnerable to the oppression of the system. The increase in tourism boosts the sex industry, and the supply expands to fill the demand. Many poor countries, such as Thailand for example, although they claim to be NIC (Newly Industrialized Country), are in fact SIC (Sex Industry Country) (Odzer, 1994: 9), or are also referred to as PIC (Prostitution Industrial Country) in other publications.

Child prostitution is the most extreme form of the sex trade. It is a combination of an abominable social fact and pathological behavior by the clientele. It is mainly associated with tourism, and for the purposes of this paper will be treated as such; although it is viewed as a tragic Third World phenomenon, it is likewise a Western industrialized occurrence. The factors which play an active role in this horrific use and abuse of children are, the perceived "easy" money from tourism by governments, bureaucracies and procurers in developing countries, the association of wealth with pleasure seeking and hedonistic behavior, and the fact that, when young women fall short of the supply quota to meet the demands of the sex industry, younger and younger children are "initiated" and "seasoned" for the flesh trade (Barry, 1995). Development and the global market system have led us to the human tragedy of parents selling their children, all for the profits of the sex industry.

The increasing global inequality, as well as gender biases which have led to global patterns of female poverty, are main factors in the exploding growth of the sex industry. Due to the disparity in the distribution of wealth between the rich and the poor, with the influence of the global capitalist market system, the gap between the two extremes is continuously widening. This polarization of the distribution of wealth, resulting from the maximization of profits, has diminished both natural and human resources. While the rich get richer, the poor are sinking into hopeless conditions of deplorable impoverishment. They are forced into dehumanizing situations or locked into human bondage, or both. Global inequality has intensified the gender inequalities for women on a global scale. The common assumption is that human slavery has been left in the past. This is a delusion because enslavement has only changed its form through the feminization of poverty. Globally, countless millions of women [and children], are involved in the sex trade. There are no accurate statistical figures because the sex industry is largely an "underground economy", therefore difficult to calculate. The estimates, however, are staggering.

Approximately 200,000 Thai women in 1987 worked in prostitution in Europe; there were reports in 1986, that 50,000 Thai prostitutes were working in Japan; and a 1988 article in a local newspaper stated that between 15 and 25 percent of all Thai women between the ages 15 to 30 were prostitutes (Odzer, 1994: 9). These estimates are from Thailand alone; the estimated figures are for only one country and dated between 1986 and 1988. What sort of soaring figures could we expect to see today - a decade later? The degrees of necessity may vary, and the circumstances differ with the location and the country, but the theme is the same. The universal pattern exists that the most exploited, abused, and victimized by the sex industry are also the same group of people who are the most oppressed, subjugated, dependents of the patriarchal systems of the establishment and development. Power relations will not be relinquished and the hegemonic ideology will not be transformed soon enough [if ever] to make much difference in the present lives or the bleak futures of billions of women and children.

The tourism industry has chosen as a marketing strategy the "principle" that the "client is king". The theory has consequently affected all aspects of the tourism industry including the policy making of the receiving countries, most of which are underdeveloped or developing nations. The idea was first endorsed when the International Travel Act was signed in 1961, with the intent that tourism would foster international understanding through knowledge. The "money argument" benefits of tourism in the Checchi Report (completed in May 1960) which were concentrated on statistical and financial data, became popular and were well received by the IMF, the IDA, the IFC, and the World Bank. The United Nations Conference on International Travel and Tourism (1963) advocated guidelines reflected in the Checchi Report with the following recommendations (Truong, 1990: 121):

Third World development was applied to the original concept of travel promotion with the implementation of an international campaign and the declaration of 1967 as "The Year of the Tourist" by the United Nations. Tourism became incorporated and indoctrinated, not only into the New International Economic Order, but also into foreign policies and development, thus tying tourism to development economies. International tourism has become a segment of an economic and political plan with a specific doctrine, composed of the IUTO (International Union of Travel Association) and the WTO (the World Tourism Organization), whose members include governments and private companies. The WTO also has a unique relationship with the United Nations and its agencies, acting as a center of documentation, information and consultation on activities related to tourism and development, for both governments and intergovernmental agencies (Truong, 1990: 116-123).

There are three characteristics of tourism which are all controlled by TNC's (transnational corporations) and MNC's (multinational corporations) which affect the organization, production and the mobilization of labor. First, tourism as "an experience commodity", still leaves the potential for cultural exchange and communication, limited and minimal. The "hospitality campaign" (1963) has transformed local cultures to suit the needs of the tourist. Through the creation of exclusive resort complexes, a homogenized and highly commercialized tourist culture has emerged. This transformation has been instrumental in establishing a new form of cultural domination by tourism, as concluded by numerous anthropological studies. Second, the symbiotic relationship between tourism and advertising is the concept which unites factors that are not directly related to tourism, but become attractions once processed into goods and commodities through advertising. Truong draws on Uzzell (1984), that advertising in the tourist industry is a form of discourse, by which "holiday companies" attempt to attract the "holiday makers" to the "holiday destinations". The discourse of advertising is used to "provide the reader with a range of cultural tools with which fantasy, meaning, and identity can be created and constructed". The marketing focus on aspects of hospitality such as female submissiveness and sexual temptation is part of this discourse and sustained by both governments and enterprises.

The power of ideas which surrounds the tourism industry itself denies the Third World any control over the information produced about its own societies. Truong notes, after Foucault (1986), that there is a lack of control over the "tactical productivity" of knowledge, power and their "strategic integration"; and also that the "power of information is not just a question of ideology", but rather the production of effective instruments which form and accumulate knowledge. The power which is then exercised through these subtle mechanisms grows into tools of knowledge which are not "ideological constructs" as much as they are practically integrated. Thus, many developing countries have allowed the incorporation of segments of their societies (especially women for the sex trade) into the power-knowledge mechanism through advertising information. Third, an important aspect of tourism is the unpredictability of the demand due to the external factors of political and economic instability. In the peripheral tourist-receiving countries, the tendency is not to integrate tourist resorts into the local economy. This creates two new categories of wage labor, one is the maintenance of the tourist infrastructure; while the other is the "casual" labor engaged in providing personal services for the tourists, including sex-related entertainment. In spite of moral limitations, therefore, economic concerns force governments to stimulate the organization of prostitution directly or indirectly (Truong, 1990: 123-128). Thus, systematic exploitation of sex trade workers is connected with economic powers of control that are apparent in the world market system and in the institutions that are supported by it.

The global governance of the world order in post modernity is established by international law and it is theoretically supervised by the UN. Based on the need of developing countries for foreign exchange which is facilitated by tourism, all sorts of illegal, unacceptable, and outright heinous acts are not only being condoned but in many cases even sanctioned, against both the environment and humanity. The corrupt governments and bureaucracies; the MNC's and TNC's; the World Bank and the IMF (for mass tourism "development" to encourage foreign exchange to the Third World), as well as the supposed "watch dog" of the world and human rights - the United Nations (Allen & Thomas, 1992: 224), all turn a blind eye to the atrocities which are happening on a global scale. This is accomplished for the sake of "economic development" and "the almighty dollar". Although Allen and Thomas claim that the UN does "play an important role in the international political arena" in Poverty and Development in the 1990's, its original function has digressed. Initially the United Nations was set up to give the LDC's (less developed countries) an opportunity to have a "real say" in international affairs, however in actuality, any involvement of the UN in economic matters was opposed by the developed countries (Allen & Thomas, 1992: 224). The cynical view could be argued, therefore, that the power of the UN may be vastly overrated.

There can be no peace until global issues are harmonized and balanced, though this is perhaps utopically conceived, so that there is a more universal economic equality for all human beings. Unfortunately the global economic system is so devised that more than half of the population of the world is kept virtually impoverished to sustain the wealth of the affluent minority. Statistically, 80% of the world's wealth is owned by 20% of the people (Allen & Thomas, 1992), and this unequal formula extends to every aspect of the components, whether it is nations or individuals. This inequality seems to rationalize, justify and legitimize the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy. The human factors are completely ignored in Third World developmentalism, as in capitalist enterprise (Berger, 1987). The culture and cycle of poverty continues to escalate globally at an alarming rate, while the "gap" is expanding between the rich and the poor. Even more unjust is the fact that women in every nation are the poorest of the poor. The expression "feminization of poverty", denoting the marginalization of women, and their oppression, is proven statistically (Neft & Levine, 1997). This is evident in every facet of life, in every culture, and in every country. The universality of the theme is factual and verifiable. The optimistic view is that there could be solutions; the regrettable fact is that either immediate results are expected, or committed attempts at genuine solutions may be "too little, too late". In the final analysis, it is an extremely disheartening evaluation of the social order and representation of our "modern developed civilization" as we move into a new millennium.

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