Sexual Tourism in Brazil
Sadly sexual tourism is rampant in several parts of Brazil, particularly in poorer areas where brown and black women are often targeted for sexual exploitation.[1] The country's erotic reputation, beautiful women and sexual freedom has long been attracting sex tourists, many of whom share similar characteristics to sex offenders and rapists.[2] The issue of sexual tourism in Brazil was explored in the 2009 documentary Cinderelas, Lobos e um Príncipe Encantado (Cinderellas, Wolves and a Prince Charming). Although not the focus of the documentary, the filmmaker Joel Zito Araújo noted that "75% of the object of desire of foreign tourists are afrodescendentes (African descendants) women"
[1] Sexual tourism is travel to engage in sexual activity, particularly with prostitutes.
[2] Men who pay for sex share similar traits to rapists and sex offenders, according to new research from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The online study published online August 31 2015 in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence claims that men who have sex with female sex workers feel less empathy for them than men who do not buy sex. Part of this reason is due to the fact that they view them as “intrinsically different from other women,” according to the authors of the study. The study also reported that men who buy sex are more likely themselves, to have raped or committed violent sex acts against women. The “key characteristics” that men who buy sex and men who commit acts of sexual violence shared were: “a preference for impersonal sex, a fear of rejection by women, a history of having committed sexually aggressive acts and a hostile masculine self-identification,” according to the study’s co-author and UCLA professor Neil Malamuth. The study’s lead author and executive director of Prostitution Research and Education, Melissa Farley said, “We hope this research will lead to a rejection of the myth that sex buyers are simply sexually frustrated nice guys.” http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/men-who-buy-sex-have-much-in-common-with-sexually-coercive-men
Sadly sexual tourism is rampant in several parts of Brazil, particularly in poorer areas where brown and black women are often targeted for sexual exploitation.[1] The country's erotic reputation, beautiful women and sexual freedom has long been attracting sex tourists, many of whom share similar characteristics to sex offenders and rapists.[2] The issue of sexual tourism in Brazil was explored in the 2009 documentary Cinderelas, Lobos e um Príncipe Encantado (Cinderellas, Wolves and a Prince Charming). Although not the focus of the documentary, the filmmaker Joel Zito Araújo noted that "75% of the object of desire of foreign tourists are afrodescendentes (African descendants) women"
[1] Sexual tourism is travel to engage in sexual activity, particularly with prostitutes.
[2] Men who pay for sex share similar traits to rapists and sex offenders, according to new research from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The online study published online August 31 2015 in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence claims that men who have sex with female sex workers feel less empathy for them than men who do not buy sex. Part of this reason is due to the fact that they view them as “intrinsically different from other women,” according to the authors of the study. The study also reported that men who buy sex are more likely themselves, to have raped or committed violent sex acts against women. The “key characteristics” that men who buy sex and men who commit acts of sexual violence shared were: “a preference for impersonal sex, a fear of rejection by women, a history of having committed sexually aggressive acts and a hostile masculine self-identification,” according to the study’s co-author and UCLA professor Neil Malamuth. The study’s lead author and executive director of Prostitution Research and Education, Melissa Farley said, “We hope this research will lead to a rejection of the myth that sex buyers are simply sexually frustrated nice guys.” http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/men-who-buy-sex-have-much-in-common-with-sexually-coercive-men
A Few Thoughts About Brazilian Prostitutes - Rio in a Week Blog (written by Shad)
Growing up, I thought it was rare. I thought only perverts or men who couldn’t get sex from normal women solicited hookers.
Then I grew up. I realized normal men had no problems paying hookers. Some of them even had a girlfriend or a wife.
In the media, famous men are caught with prostitutes – international superstar Justin Beiber was caught with a Brazilian prostitute.
It’s much more common than I ever imagined. Even women are starting to accept it. A lot of women already frequent strip clubs – strip clubs are just a way for prostitutes to diversify their income and POSSIBLY meet a rapper or rich man.
So when it comes to “tricking” overseas, I’m sure you can guess my opinion about it. I don’t support Brazilian prostitution. I’ve never spent a cent to fund the industry although I have been to three brothels before.
Five Reasons I Don’t Pay For Sex
I can’t personally get down with Brazilian prostitutes for a few reasons.
I will never support a Brazilian prostitute because I have game. Having game isn’t just about getting women. It’s also about being sexually disciplined.
I know there are guys who aren’t looking for a wife, girlfriend or good conversation. Their main goal is fast and easy sex.
Although you can get it for free, some guys have porn-style fantasies like sleeping with two women and doing things the average woman is not going to do.
Click here to read more
Growing up, I thought it was rare. I thought only perverts or men who couldn’t get sex from normal women solicited hookers.
Then I grew up. I realized normal men had no problems paying hookers. Some of them even had a girlfriend or a wife.
In the media, famous men are caught with prostitutes – international superstar Justin Beiber was caught with a Brazilian prostitute.
It’s much more common than I ever imagined. Even women are starting to accept it. A lot of women already frequent strip clubs – strip clubs are just a way for prostitutes to diversify their income and POSSIBLY meet a rapper or rich man.
So when it comes to “tricking” overseas, I’m sure you can guess my opinion about it. I don’t support Brazilian prostitution. I’ve never spent a cent to fund the industry although I have been to three brothels before.
Five Reasons I Don’t Pay For Sex
I can’t personally get down with Brazilian prostitutes for a few reasons.
- It’s too fake – I can’t have sex with a woman who isn’t into me. It seems too fake. Having no strings attached sex with a woman who actually likes you isn’t the same as one hour of sex with a woman who wants you to hurry up so she can get to her next client.
- I have patience – Some dudes need sex ASAP. They go down to Brazil and if they aren’t having sex within 48 hours, the trip is a major disaster. It’s not difficult meeting a normal Brazilian woman who wants to hang out with you. You just have to know how to attract her.
- It’s not a product for sale – I understand a few men see sex like fast food. Something you can order when you want it. Some of them use it as a defense mechanism because they can’t get a regular girlfriend. But others really do see vagina as “food” and they get a power trip from being able to pay for it. Even a few women put a price tag on their body and feel a sense of power. I avoid chicks like that.
- I should be the one getting paid – I had a funny conversation with an old friend who frequented prostitutes in Brazil. He was complaining about something and said, “I don’t even know why I’m paying! I’m the one doing all the work.”
I will never support a Brazilian prostitute because I have game. Having game isn’t just about getting women. It’s also about being sexually disciplined.
I know there are guys who aren’t looking for a wife, girlfriend or good conversation. Their main goal is fast and easy sex.
Although you can get it for free, some guys have porn-style fantasies like sleeping with two women and doing things the average woman is not going to do.
Click here to read more
Black Professional Men Drawn to Rio's Sex Trade
Article by Karamagi Rujumba
For America's professional black men, Brazil has been a secret destination for sex for many years, according to a study by Jewel Woods, a Toledo native and doctoral student at the University of Michigan.
In the last couple of decades, Mr. Woods contends Rio de Janeiro has grown into a "black man's sexual paradise" for men of certain financial means, men who take weeklong excursions into the South American country's notorious sex tourism industry.
"For many years now, this practice of professional black men going to Brazil for sex has been such a big and well-kept secret," Mr. Woods, 37, told a group of about 50 participants at the University of Toledo's third
National Conference on Prostitution, Sex Work, and the Commercial Sex Industry yesterday.
It used to be an insider's tale, Mr. Woods said, mostly shared within a circle of professional black men in cities across America. But the phenomenon has grown into a hot topic of debate in African-American circles nationwide.
His research work into the practice, The New Ugly American: Professional Black Men, Sex, and Brazil, was the basis of an article in the September issue of Essence, a national magazine mostly read by black women. The Essence article, "Blame it on Rio," sparked a debate that has since been sizzling in African-American chat rooms online, on national radio talk shows, and at college symposiums.
A PhD student in social work and sociology, Mr. Woods said he didn't know about the phenomenon until two years ago when he heard about it from a friend, who, in turn, had heard about it from another friend.
Mr. Woods, a community organizer who in 1994 founded Community Outreach Initiatives Inc., a mentoring program for African-American youths in Toledo, said he was intrigued at the prospect of researching the phenomenon because of his interest in studying the attitudes and behaviors of middle-class black men.
After conducting interviews with 50 black male professionals in Toledo, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, Los Angeles, and Charlotte, he concluded that an estimated 2,000 black professionals make annual trips to Brazil.
"These are highly accomplished men in various fields, from company executives to doctors and lawyers," he said.
The recent revelation about these sex vacations, much like the debate in the African-American community with the unraveling of the "down-low culture" a few years ago - black heterosexual men having relations with other men - is critical in understanding issues of masculinity, male privilege, and morality.
"This is not just about men seeking sex in Brazil," said Mr. Woods, a New Voices Fellow at UM. "We need to ask ourselves why the most coveted men in the black community are going overseas on these sex trips.
"What is it that they are not finding fulfillment about their lives here? There is an absolute societal poverty when it comes to understanding men, and in particular professional black men," he said.
The issue is all about gender and societal affirmation, said William Jelani Cobb, an assistant professor of history at Spelman College in Atlanta. He spent a week in the streets, restaurants, and night clubs of Rio de Janeiro gathering research for his freelance story published in Essence.
"It was obvious in Rio that many of the black men were mostly there for more than sex. It was more psychological than it was sexual," he recalled. "From the minute you arrive at the airport, all you hear from these very beautiful women is how much they like black men and how attractive you are. It is that kind of affirmation that has been attracting black men to Rio for many years."
Mr. Cobb wrote a daily online diary for Essence during his trip to Brazil that attracted a storm of chat-room debate about why black men go there and their responsibility in society as trailblazing professionals.
He said he was not surprised by the ensuing debate, but he was surprised by the number of people who had not heard about the phenomenon.
"There was a lot of anger about the story," he said. "Many black men hated it. They felt that it should not have been discussed, and some women felt a sense of betrayal by black men."
But both Mr. Woods and Mr. Cobb, who have been featured panelists on national talk radio shows including the syndicated Michael Eric Dyson Show, and News & Notes with Ed Gordon on National Public Radio, said this phenomenon underlines a much bigger dialogue that needs to happen within the African-American community.
"Professional black men are one of the most marginalized groups of people in this country," Mr. Woods said. "The process of becoming a professional is itself very isolating for many black men, who often find themselves challenged by situations in their professional and private lives that they are not prepared for."
Some of those challenges include explaining why there is an increasingly smaller number of black males on college campuses, and a growing tension between professional black men and women, Mr. Woods said. Many young black males are never really prepared to assume the identity that comes along with their success, he added.
"In Rio, these men experience a sense of class validation that is rare. In many instances, many of them said that they did not feel like they were looked at as just symbols of success in their community," he explained.
Seated in her office at UT, Celia Williamson, a leading scholar on street prostitution and the driving force behind yesterday's national conference, said Mr. Woods' study is ground-breaking not only for delving into the international sex trade, but also for looking at a "protected class" of men who generally never get profiled in prostitution studies.
"It is a very interesting look at prostitution that challenges us with many questions," Ms. Williamson said.
"What does it mean for men who have been oppressed for many years to take on oppressive roles in another country?"
Source of article: Click here
Article by Karamagi Rujumba
For America's professional black men, Brazil has been a secret destination for sex for many years, according to a study by Jewel Woods, a Toledo native and doctoral student at the University of Michigan.
In the last couple of decades, Mr. Woods contends Rio de Janeiro has grown into a "black man's sexual paradise" for men of certain financial means, men who take weeklong excursions into the South American country's notorious sex tourism industry.
"For many years now, this practice of professional black men going to Brazil for sex has been such a big and well-kept secret," Mr. Woods, 37, told a group of about 50 participants at the University of Toledo's third
National Conference on Prostitution, Sex Work, and the Commercial Sex Industry yesterday.
It used to be an insider's tale, Mr. Woods said, mostly shared within a circle of professional black men in cities across America. But the phenomenon has grown into a hot topic of debate in African-American circles nationwide.
His research work into the practice, The New Ugly American: Professional Black Men, Sex, and Brazil, was the basis of an article in the September issue of Essence, a national magazine mostly read by black women. The Essence article, "Blame it on Rio," sparked a debate that has since been sizzling in African-American chat rooms online, on national radio talk shows, and at college symposiums.
A PhD student in social work and sociology, Mr. Woods said he didn't know about the phenomenon until two years ago when he heard about it from a friend, who, in turn, had heard about it from another friend.
Mr. Woods, a community organizer who in 1994 founded Community Outreach Initiatives Inc., a mentoring program for African-American youths in Toledo, said he was intrigued at the prospect of researching the phenomenon because of his interest in studying the attitudes and behaviors of middle-class black men.
After conducting interviews with 50 black male professionals in Toledo, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, Los Angeles, and Charlotte, he concluded that an estimated 2,000 black professionals make annual trips to Brazil.
"These are highly accomplished men in various fields, from company executives to doctors and lawyers," he said.
The recent revelation about these sex vacations, much like the debate in the African-American community with the unraveling of the "down-low culture" a few years ago - black heterosexual men having relations with other men - is critical in understanding issues of masculinity, male privilege, and morality.
"This is not just about men seeking sex in Brazil," said Mr. Woods, a New Voices Fellow at UM. "We need to ask ourselves why the most coveted men in the black community are going overseas on these sex trips.
"What is it that they are not finding fulfillment about their lives here? There is an absolute societal poverty when it comes to understanding men, and in particular professional black men," he said.
The issue is all about gender and societal affirmation, said William Jelani Cobb, an assistant professor of history at Spelman College in Atlanta. He spent a week in the streets, restaurants, and night clubs of Rio de Janeiro gathering research for his freelance story published in Essence.
"It was obvious in Rio that many of the black men were mostly there for more than sex. It was more psychological than it was sexual," he recalled. "From the minute you arrive at the airport, all you hear from these very beautiful women is how much they like black men and how attractive you are. It is that kind of affirmation that has been attracting black men to Rio for many years."
Mr. Cobb wrote a daily online diary for Essence during his trip to Brazil that attracted a storm of chat-room debate about why black men go there and their responsibility in society as trailblazing professionals.
He said he was not surprised by the ensuing debate, but he was surprised by the number of people who had not heard about the phenomenon.
"There was a lot of anger about the story," he said. "Many black men hated it. They felt that it should not have been discussed, and some women felt a sense of betrayal by black men."
But both Mr. Woods and Mr. Cobb, who have been featured panelists on national talk radio shows including the syndicated Michael Eric Dyson Show, and News & Notes with Ed Gordon on National Public Radio, said this phenomenon underlines a much bigger dialogue that needs to happen within the African-American community.
"Professional black men are one of the most marginalized groups of people in this country," Mr. Woods said. "The process of becoming a professional is itself very isolating for many black men, who often find themselves challenged by situations in their professional and private lives that they are not prepared for."
Some of those challenges include explaining why there is an increasingly smaller number of black males on college campuses, and a growing tension between professional black men and women, Mr. Woods said. Many young black males are never really prepared to assume the identity that comes along with their success, he added.
"In Rio, these men experience a sense of class validation that is rare. In many instances, many of them said that they did not feel like they were looked at as just symbols of success in their community," he explained.
Seated in her office at UT, Celia Williamson, a leading scholar on street prostitution and the driving force behind yesterday's national conference, said Mr. Woods' study is ground-breaking not only for delving into the international sex trade, but also for looking at a "protected class" of men who generally never get profiled in prostitution studies.
"It is a very interesting look at prostitution that challenges us with many questions," Ms. Williamson said.
"What does it mean for men who have been oppressed for many years to take on oppressive roles in another country?"
Source of article: Click here
A message to the African-American community on stereotypes about Brazilian women by Mark Wells
As an African-American male who has visited Brazil a number of times over a period of 13 years, and becoming familiar with the Afro-Brazilian struggle, I believe I stand in a unique position of being able to critique and make comparative analysis between the two communities. As this incredible blog has exhaustively shown, the experiences of African-Americans and Afro-Brazilians have many similarities but also unique histories that present complex differences. Over the years there has been a small, but growing interest in the African-American community about the experiences of our “cousins” in Brazil. Although some have been on the cultural/historical tip, I hate to admit, the majority of the interest has had to do with aspects that have nothing to do with cultural connectionswith a common people.
A few examples
First, I remember a period starting in the early 2000’s in which some friends of mine hipped me to the fact that independent, US-based black porn video producers had suddenly developed an interest in Brazil. At that point, along with white American and European smut producers, African-American men were flocking to this new, “exotic” market in droves.
Second, in my own experiences, whenever someone heard that I was a frequent traveler to Brazil, I would always start meeting brothas who suddenly wanted to know me. After the exchange of “wad’dup” (or sometimes not even this), the conversation would ultimately turn to my trips to Brazil. There was rarely a moment when dudes would even hesitate in going straight to their real curiosity about Brazil: the women. Brothas would push up on the topic in a number of ways, from regular questions (“How are the women there?”), to the recognition of the perceived image of Brazilian women (“Man, dem chicks is bangin’!”). Another common way of approaching the topic was when brothas would ask me, “Was’sup on dat Brazil tip?” I, with my background in the social sciences would always touch upon how Bahia, where I would spend many of my first trips, reminded me so much of the US south. Brothas would always gimme dat look, cock their heads, curl their lips, and say, “Come on dawg, wus really up on Brazil?!?!?” Without having to acknowledge it, I always knew that they specifically wanted to know about Brazilian women. Then there were the flat out crude comments like, “Dem Brazilian bitches fine den a muh-fucka!”. In all honesty, the vast majority of comments/questions I’ve heard over the years would fit into some type of the latter category.
I remember vividly in 2002 when I met the first black American man I personally knew who had visited Brazil. After a mutual friend introduced us and we exchanged “wad’dups”, I asked this brotha what he liked about Brazil. The first thing out of his mouth? “A brotha can go to Brazil and find a sista and not have to deal with that nappy-ass hair!” Damn. Of all of the things he could have said about Brazil, the first comment he makes exposes one of the deepest contradictions about black American identity: Yes, we are “black and proud” but don’t be “too black” and have hair that’s “too nappy” or you will get roasted! On the hair topic, I always thought it was ironic how one of the greatest symbols of black pride in the US, in fact, the creator of the anthem “I’m Black and I’m Proud”, James Brown, wore his hair straightened for the vast majority of his career. Jus’ sayin’….
Year after year I would always have countless brothas tell me that they were going to get a passport and VISA and go to Brazil with me on my next trip. In reality, none of them ever actually followed through on this.
Then in 2006 the floodgates on the “Brazilian Experience” were opened when Spelman College professor Jelani Cobb wrote a piece in the leading African-American women’s magazine Essence entitled “Blame It On Rio”, detailing the journeys of African-American men on their sexual and/or amorous adventures in Brazil (interview here). Two years later came a full-length book, Don’t Blame It on Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex by Jewel Woods and Karen Hunter (interview here). Having become aBrazilianist over the years, I eagerly snatched up both titles wanting to see how my beloved Brazil was being experienced by other African-American males. Although I was appreciative of the titles, I became deeply disappointed. Here’s why…
The article and the book both exposed a growing fissure in the relationships between African-American men and women. The comments of many of the men from both sources exposed a deep disappointment on the part of African-American men in regards to African-American women. Many comments of these travelers voiced the opinion that black American women were either too independent, too verbally aggressive, too unappreciative (of black men), too fat or, if they were very attractive, out of the reach of most black men of average income or social status. Having read studies by scholars such as Adriana Piscitelli on sexual tourism of European men in Brazil, I was taken by the similarity of the comments made by European men as well as African-American men in regards to Brazilian women. In both cases, in comparing Brazilian women to women in their countries of origin (white German or black American), men commented on how Brazilian women were more affectionate, attractive, dependent, submissive and less combative than women in their respective countries of origin. Some of the black men commented on how some of the “dime pieces”, or the Halle Berry, Ciara or Beyonce types, were much more accessible in Brazil than in the US.
On the flip side, the “exposure” of black American men’s visits to Brazil and mingling with local women provoked outrage, disgust and all sorts of vile comments from black American women on forum sites or pages that posted articles about black American men in Brazil. In literally thousands of online comments, Brazilian women were continuously defined as “bitches”, “hoes (whores)”, “prostitutes”, “sluts”, “gold diggers” or women looking for easy access to living in the US. There were also comments about African-American men not being able to “handle” “strong, black women” thus needing to go and pick up submissive Latinas in Brazil. The heated debate and finger pointing can be seen in a variety of You Tube videos as the beef continues today.
The problem with the comments on both sides is the generalization. No one can say with any accuracy where these men were finding these women in Brazil and the context of their situations. I recently can across a You Tube video by popular African-American personality and documentary maker, Tariq Nasheed about his visit to Brazil. While I am in no position to attempt to deny anything he said about his experience, I will say it was very difficult to ascertain the context and background of his trip. According to his recollections, Brazilian women have no problem walking up on a man and kissing him directly in the mouth and making themselves blatantly sexually available. The women he spoke of were very openly “selling themselves”.
Let’s be clear. If one is looking for this in Brazil or is directed to areas where “das wus up”, of course it’s not hard to find. But there are also areas of Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta and Miami and many other American cities where one can find leisure sexual availability if that’s what that person seeks. The point here is not to deny that open sexual availability or sex for money trade doesn’t exist because that would be denial of reality The problem is again the generalization. Having listened to the 31 minute video only once, I don’t remember Nasheed’s comments portraying Brazilian women in any diverse manner as can be found on this blog, for example. While on the topic of popular African-Americans, I also remember back around in 2007-2008, radio personality Michael Baisden basically telling his listeners to just “get naked” and get down to Brazil where he had recently visited. Really?
On the Black Women of Brazil blog, one finds black women in a variety of endeavors. They are actresses, college students, professors, singers, maids, politicians, business women, writers, mothers, activists, religious leaders and act in a plethora of other roles. To be sure, you will also find black women who are funkeiras that sing and dance in sexually suggestive manners. Even if one doesn’t actually say that “all Brazilian women” are “such and such” a way, by only presenting them in one manner, this is the message that one surely gets from the description. After all, let’s be real, when one thinks of the already-established image of Brazilian women, which comes to mind first? The above photo labeled “Young black women in the city of Curitiba” or the photo labeled “Candidates from a Carnaval competition” further up the page? In this sense, there’s no difference between this image of Brazilian from someone watching a few hours of BET Hip Hop music videos and drawing a certain conclusion about African-American women.
On the stereotypical image of the beauty of Brazilian women, let me say this. Yes, there are some very beautiful women in Brazil. No denial there. But having traveled to four Brazilian states and countless cities, I can also say that like any other population of women, there are all sorts of women in Brazil. There are tall, short, slim, overweight women, there’s kinky, curly/kinky, wavy, straight and many other descriptions of hair texture. And while everyone has their own standard of beauty, if one is truly honest and has spent enough time in the country and walked through the streets of any city on a regular day, one will find women that are considered beautiful, women who are considered average and those that society deems not so attractive. Back in May, a male African-American friend recently Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and after spending a few weeks in the two cities, this was his EXACT opinion. It wasn’t like he just got off the plane and there were just hundreds of “dimes” walking around everywhere he went.
Here’s the thing. If you go to Samba School Carnaval rehearsal, for example, and you’re only looking for “passistas” or dancing girls, you will probably see some very beautiful women. But these women are judged and chosen according to certain criteria. If you go to an area famous for prostitution, you will also likely find a certain look that most “customers” prefer. Wouldn’t this also be true of any US strip club? In my own vast experience in Brazil, I can tell you that usually when Brazilian women whistle at you or approach you in an aggressive manner, usually they are involved in some sort of the sex game, be they dancers, prostitutes, or frequent areas where a lot of foreign men will be around. Some black men complain about how fat American women are. Statistically, the US is one of the most (if not THE most) obese countries in the world. No denying that, but statistics also show that obesity is definitely taking affect in Brazil as well.
In further exploring this question of the beauty of Brazilian women in the opinions of African-American men, the interchange of black identity intertwined with seemingly contradictory ideals of beauty also comes into play. Anyone that spends any amount of time in any US black community would have to agree that, in general, African-American men have a preference for black women who aren’t “too black”. Take a look at the wives of many professional African-American male athletes, prominent figures and entertainers; listen to any number of Rap songs or comments by black American rappers/singers that glorify light skin, light eyes, long hair, a “mixed” look, etc. With this mind, consider the fact that in Brazil, the mixture between Africans, Europeans and Native Americans was much more intense than in the history of the US. As such, Afro-Brazilian women run the gamut of phenotypes, some presenting phenotypes that are rarer than what one would find in any African-American community. Of course there are dark-skinned black women in Brazil, but there are also far more women who would be considered “mixed” according to African-American standards. So what does this say about any opinion that Brazilian women, or specifically Afro-Brazilian women, are somehow more attractive than American women in general, or specifically African-American women? Simply put, persons of African descent that live in Western societies also judge beauty according to the European standards of beauty. Again, “black is beautiful” as long you aren’t “too black”.
With all of these issues on the table, a black Brazilian woman recently chimed in with her thoughts on these issues basing her analysis not only on her experiences in the US, but also a popular documentary that’s been causing a buzz on the internet regarding this topic. The video is called Frustrated: Black American Men in Brazil. Discussing this video in no ways endorses it as I find it a very simplisticportrayal and ultimately presents Brazilian women in a manner that isn’t much different from the infamous flyers and pamphlets circulated in European travel agencies with scantily-clad Brazilian women plastered on them. In the 1999 film The Best Man, the character portrayed by actor Terrence Howard welcomes his homies to “paradise” at a bachelor party featuring “booty club” dancers. I challenge readers not to view Brazil is such a narrow-minded manner. Countless posts on this blog portray a Brazil in which black women experience many of the same issues that face their American counterparts. The two communities have much more in common than any of the one-sided African-American reflections of sexual tourism over the past 10 years.
Source of article, click here
As an African-American male who has visited Brazil a number of times over a period of 13 years, and becoming familiar with the Afro-Brazilian struggle, I believe I stand in a unique position of being able to critique and make comparative analysis between the two communities. As this incredible blog has exhaustively shown, the experiences of African-Americans and Afro-Brazilians have many similarities but also unique histories that present complex differences. Over the years there has been a small, but growing interest in the African-American community about the experiences of our “cousins” in Brazil. Although some have been on the cultural/historical tip, I hate to admit, the majority of the interest has had to do with aspects that have nothing to do with cultural connectionswith a common people.
A few examples
First, I remember a period starting in the early 2000’s in which some friends of mine hipped me to the fact that independent, US-based black porn video producers had suddenly developed an interest in Brazil. At that point, along with white American and European smut producers, African-American men were flocking to this new, “exotic” market in droves.
Second, in my own experiences, whenever someone heard that I was a frequent traveler to Brazil, I would always start meeting brothas who suddenly wanted to know me. After the exchange of “wad’dup” (or sometimes not even this), the conversation would ultimately turn to my trips to Brazil. There was rarely a moment when dudes would even hesitate in going straight to their real curiosity about Brazil: the women. Brothas would push up on the topic in a number of ways, from regular questions (“How are the women there?”), to the recognition of the perceived image of Brazilian women (“Man, dem chicks is bangin’!”). Another common way of approaching the topic was when brothas would ask me, “Was’sup on dat Brazil tip?” I, with my background in the social sciences would always touch upon how Bahia, where I would spend many of my first trips, reminded me so much of the US south. Brothas would always gimme dat look, cock their heads, curl their lips, and say, “Come on dawg, wus really up on Brazil?!?!?” Without having to acknowledge it, I always knew that they specifically wanted to know about Brazilian women. Then there were the flat out crude comments like, “Dem Brazilian bitches fine den a muh-fucka!”. In all honesty, the vast majority of comments/questions I’ve heard over the years would fit into some type of the latter category.
I remember vividly in 2002 when I met the first black American man I personally knew who had visited Brazil. After a mutual friend introduced us and we exchanged “wad’dups”, I asked this brotha what he liked about Brazil. The first thing out of his mouth? “A brotha can go to Brazil and find a sista and not have to deal with that nappy-ass hair!” Damn. Of all of the things he could have said about Brazil, the first comment he makes exposes one of the deepest contradictions about black American identity: Yes, we are “black and proud” but don’t be “too black” and have hair that’s “too nappy” or you will get roasted! On the hair topic, I always thought it was ironic how one of the greatest symbols of black pride in the US, in fact, the creator of the anthem “I’m Black and I’m Proud”, James Brown, wore his hair straightened for the vast majority of his career. Jus’ sayin’….
Year after year I would always have countless brothas tell me that they were going to get a passport and VISA and go to Brazil with me on my next trip. In reality, none of them ever actually followed through on this.
Then in 2006 the floodgates on the “Brazilian Experience” were opened when Spelman College professor Jelani Cobb wrote a piece in the leading African-American women’s magazine Essence entitled “Blame It On Rio”, detailing the journeys of African-American men on their sexual and/or amorous adventures in Brazil (interview here). Two years later came a full-length book, Don’t Blame It on Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex by Jewel Woods and Karen Hunter (interview here). Having become aBrazilianist over the years, I eagerly snatched up both titles wanting to see how my beloved Brazil was being experienced by other African-American males. Although I was appreciative of the titles, I became deeply disappointed. Here’s why…
The article and the book both exposed a growing fissure in the relationships between African-American men and women. The comments of many of the men from both sources exposed a deep disappointment on the part of African-American men in regards to African-American women. Many comments of these travelers voiced the opinion that black American women were either too independent, too verbally aggressive, too unappreciative (of black men), too fat or, if they were very attractive, out of the reach of most black men of average income or social status. Having read studies by scholars such as Adriana Piscitelli on sexual tourism of European men in Brazil, I was taken by the similarity of the comments made by European men as well as African-American men in regards to Brazilian women. In both cases, in comparing Brazilian women to women in their countries of origin (white German or black American), men commented on how Brazilian women were more affectionate, attractive, dependent, submissive and less combative than women in their respective countries of origin. Some of the black men commented on how some of the “dime pieces”, or the Halle Berry, Ciara or Beyonce types, were much more accessible in Brazil than in the US.
On the flip side, the “exposure” of black American men’s visits to Brazil and mingling with local women provoked outrage, disgust and all sorts of vile comments from black American women on forum sites or pages that posted articles about black American men in Brazil. In literally thousands of online comments, Brazilian women were continuously defined as “bitches”, “hoes (whores)”, “prostitutes”, “sluts”, “gold diggers” or women looking for easy access to living in the US. There were also comments about African-American men not being able to “handle” “strong, black women” thus needing to go and pick up submissive Latinas in Brazil. The heated debate and finger pointing can be seen in a variety of You Tube videos as the beef continues today.
The problem with the comments on both sides is the generalization. No one can say with any accuracy where these men were finding these women in Brazil and the context of their situations. I recently can across a You Tube video by popular African-American personality and documentary maker, Tariq Nasheed about his visit to Brazil. While I am in no position to attempt to deny anything he said about his experience, I will say it was very difficult to ascertain the context and background of his trip. According to his recollections, Brazilian women have no problem walking up on a man and kissing him directly in the mouth and making themselves blatantly sexually available. The women he spoke of were very openly “selling themselves”.
Let’s be clear. If one is looking for this in Brazil or is directed to areas where “das wus up”, of course it’s not hard to find. But there are also areas of Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta and Miami and many other American cities where one can find leisure sexual availability if that’s what that person seeks. The point here is not to deny that open sexual availability or sex for money trade doesn’t exist because that would be denial of reality The problem is again the generalization. Having listened to the 31 minute video only once, I don’t remember Nasheed’s comments portraying Brazilian women in any diverse manner as can be found on this blog, for example. While on the topic of popular African-Americans, I also remember back around in 2007-2008, radio personality Michael Baisden basically telling his listeners to just “get naked” and get down to Brazil where he had recently visited. Really?
On the Black Women of Brazil blog, one finds black women in a variety of endeavors. They are actresses, college students, professors, singers, maids, politicians, business women, writers, mothers, activists, religious leaders and act in a plethora of other roles. To be sure, you will also find black women who are funkeiras that sing and dance in sexually suggestive manners. Even if one doesn’t actually say that “all Brazilian women” are “such and such” a way, by only presenting them in one manner, this is the message that one surely gets from the description. After all, let’s be real, when one thinks of the already-established image of Brazilian women, which comes to mind first? The above photo labeled “Young black women in the city of Curitiba” or the photo labeled “Candidates from a Carnaval competition” further up the page? In this sense, there’s no difference between this image of Brazilian from someone watching a few hours of BET Hip Hop music videos and drawing a certain conclusion about African-American women.
On the stereotypical image of the beauty of Brazilian women, let me say this. Yes, there are some very beautiful women in Brazil. No denial there. But having traveled to four Brazilian states and countless cities, I can also say that like any other population of women, there are all sorts of women in Brazil. There are tall, short, slim, overweight women, there’s kinky, curly/kinky, wavy, straight and many other descriptions of hair texture. And while everyone has their own standard of beauty, if one is truly honest and has spent enough time in the country and walked through the streets of any city on a regular day, one will find women that are considered beautiful, women who are considered average and those that society deems not so attractive. Back in May, a male African-American friend recently Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and after spending a few weeks in the two cities, this was his EXACT opinion. It wasn’t like he just got off the plane and there were just hundreds of “dimes” walking around everywhere he went.
Here’s the thing. If you go to Samba School Carnaval rehearsal, for example, and you’re only looking for “passistas” or dancing girls, you will probably see some very beautiful women. But these women are judged and chosen according to certain criteria. If you go to an area famous for prostitution, you will also likely find a certain look that most “customers” prefer. Wouldn’t this also be true of any US strip club? In my own vast experience in Brazil, I can tell you that usually when Brazilian women whistle at you or approach you in an aggressive manner, usually they are involved in some sort of the sex game, be they dancers, prostitutes, or frequent areas where a lot of foreign men will be around. Some black men complain about how fat American women are. Statistically, the US is one of the most (if not THE most) obese countries in the world. No denying that, but statistics also show that obesity is definitely taking affect in Brazil as well.
In further exploring this question of the beauty of Brazilian women in the opinions of African-American men, the interchange of black identity intertwined with seemingly contradictory ideals of beauty also comes into play. Anyone that spends any amount of time in any US black community would have to agree that, in general, African-American men have a preference for black women who aren’t “too black”. Take a look at the wives of many professional African-American male athletes, prominent figures and entertainers; listen to any number of Rap songs or comments by black American rappers/singers that glorify light skin, light eyes, long hair, a “mixed” look, etc. With this mind, consider the fact that in Brazil, the mixture between Africans, Europeans and Native Americans was much more intense than in the history of the US. As such, Afro-Brazilian women run the gamut of phenotypes, some presenting phenotypes that are rarer than what one would find in any African-American community. Of course there are dark-skinned black women in Brazil, but there are also far more women who would be considered “mixed” according to African-American standards. So what does this say about any opinion that Brazilian women, or specifically Afro-Brazilian women, are somehow more attractive than American women in general, or specifically African-American women? Simply put, persons of African descent that live in Western societies also judge beauty according to the European standards of beauty. Again, “black is beautiful” as long you aren’t “too black”.
With all of these issues on the table, a black Brazilian woman recently chimed in with her thoughts on these issues basing her analysis not only on her experiences in the US, but also a popular documentary that’s been causing a buzz on the internet regarding this topic. The video is called Frustrated: Black American Men in Brazil. Discussing this video in no ways endorses it as I find it a very simplisticportrayal and ultimately presents Brazilian women in a manner that isn’t much different from the infamous flyers and pamphlets circulated in European travel agencies with scantily-clad Brazilian women plastered on them. In the 1999 film The Best Man, the character portrayed by actor Terrence Howard welcomes his homies to “paradise” at a bachelor party featuring “booty club” dancers. I challenge readers not to view Brazil is such a narrow-minded manner. Countless posts on this blog portray a Brazil in which black women experience many of the same issues that face their American counterparts. The two communities have much more in common than any of the one-sided African-American reflections of sexual tourism over the past 10 years.
Source of article, click here
This World Cup, Some Sick Men Are Travelling to Brazil For Sex With Children
by Bala Sai
The 2014 football world cup was meant to be a celebration of Brazil – an alive, buzzing, passionate country with a booming economy and a rich and colorful culture. With a healthy investment climate, a growing industry and a stable government, the proud country was in all readiness to welcome the world to its grand party, a jaguar meant to stand proudly at the pedestal of history’s biggest world cup and roar to the collective admiration of the world. Instead, it just rolled over and bared its dirty underbelly for everyone to see and cringe in disgust.
Brazil stuns in its duality. Beneath the joy and celebration and fanfare, beneath its state of the art football stadiums and teeming tourism industry, there is a dark, ugly face that it desperately tries to hide. However, you just need a couple of dollars or a pack of cigarettes to uncover it.
For almost every tourist the world cup lures into the country (an estimated whopping 6,00,000), there is one girl child selling her body for sex.
In Brazil, prostitution is legal. You can find posters and fliers in public places advertising sex. You can easily find prostitutes in the streets and alleys, spread over various age groups and ethnicities. You can find pimps and crawlers everywhere. If you look deep enough, in the back alleys and deserted roads and desolate bus stands, you can also find children.
Much like in our country, poverty and prosperity co-exist in Brazil. Living conditions in its vast slums have been a subject of much debate and disgust, and rampant acute poverty has birthed civil unrest throughout the nation, as recent protests clouding its World Cup celebrations show. The tantalizing prospect of throngs of international tourists willing to spend big money has driven impoverished women and children to prostitution.
Children as young as 10 and 12, either sold by their own parents to somehow escape the clutches of poverty, or trafficked into the country by agents and pimps, can be found offering sex, some so they can satiate their drug addiction. These children have been slowly victimized to drug abuse, having started out taking ‘glue’ and crack cocaine to help forget their hunger and pain.
The horrific extent of this problem is illustrated by this statement from a victim; according to the Daily Mail,“..one 13-year-old girl told the inquiry that she had been abused by a construction worker at the stadium who impregnated her. ‘After a while he said he would take me,’ she said. ‘My father did not care much. It seems that for him it was good, because it was one less mouth to feed.’”
Child prostitution is an organized business having large, deep, devoted networks of pimps, taxis and hotels, and closely linked to human trafficking and drug pedaling networks, hiding in the shadows of Brazil’s thriving sex-tourism industry.
“For many children in Brazil, prostitution begins with family issues. A child may be abused, beaten, forced to help their family put food on the table, and see prostitution as one of their few income options. Others may be victims of incest and turn to prostitution out of shame and guilt related to their abuse. Still more children may be introduced to sexual exploitation through family members. In a few horrific cases parents themselves sell children to the sex trade at a young age to provide for their families.”
In spite of the government’s crackdown on child prostitution prior to the world cup, critics allege that they have only succeeded in hiding away the problem, and not solving it. The government’s lax attitude has only fueled contempt for the law. In Brazil, the legal age for consensual sex is as low as 14. Recently, a court in Brazil passed a horror judgment that basically ruled that having sex with 12 year old girls is not considered statutory rape if they had been prostitutes before. Although it is illegal for children below 18 years of age to sell their bodies, child prostitution, at large, is only growing, with the industry set to grow by 30-40% in the coming month alone.
This is not an isolated issue. It is the result of widespread, deep rooted systemic problems plaguing the society at large. Addressing them will necessitate stringent reforms in the social, cultural, economic and judicial fronts. The government must take serious measures to eradicate the growing malice and that can be done only by attacking the root of the problem – poverty.
Tonight as you sit back in your couches, supporting your favorite teams, sipping on your Pepsi and tuning into a world continents away, you must realize that the game is only half the world cup. This world cup is about two different worlds that exist in Brazil – the world out there in the football stadiums, the one that fills your TV, huge and happy and full of optimism, and the world just a few minutes way, on the corners of empty roads, on the shady hotels and crawling cars, in crowded slums and silent, broken homes and deep inside the minds of these children – a world shrunken, twisted, punctured, lost.
Click here to read the full article
by Bala Sai
The 2014 football world cup was meant to be a celebration of Brazil – an alive, buzzing, passionate country with a booming economy and a rich and colorful culture. With a healthy investment climate, a growing industry and a stable government, the proud country was in all readiness to welcome the world to its grand party, a jaguar meant to stand proudly at the pedestal of history’s biggest world cup and roar to the collective admiration of the world. Instead, it just rolled over and bared its dirty underbelly for everyone to see and cringe in disgust.
Brazil stuns in its duality. Beneath the joy and celebration and fanfare, beneath its state of the art football stadiums and teeming tourism industry, there is a dark, ugly face that it desperately tries to hide. However, you just need a couple of dollars or a pack of cigarettes to uncover it.
For almost every tourist the world cup lures into the country (an estimated whopping 6,00,000), there is one girl child selling her body for sex.
In Brazil, prostitution is legal. You can find posters and fliers in public places advertising sex. You can easily find prostitutes in the streets and alleys, spread over various age groups and ethnicities. You can find pimps and crawlers everywhere. If you look deep enough, in the back alleys and deserted roads and desolate bus stands, you can also find children.
Much like in our country, poverty and prosperity co-exist in Brazil. Living conditions in its vast slums have been a subject of much debate and disgust, and rampant acute poverty has birthed civil unrest throughout the nation, as recent protests clouding its World Cup celebrations show. The tantalizing prospect of throngs of international tourists willing to spend big money has driven impoverished women and children to prostitution.
Children as young as 10 and 12, either sold by their own parents to somehow escape the clutches of poverty, or trafficked into the country by agents and pimps, can be found offering sex, some so they can satiate their drug addiction. These children have been slowly victimized to drug abuse, having started out taking ‘glue’ and crack cocaine to help forget their hunger and pain.
The horrific extent of this problem is illustrated by this statement from a victim; according to the Daily Mail,“..one 13-year-old girl told the inquiry that she had been abused by a construction worker at the stadium who impregnated her. ‘After a while he said he would take me,’ she said. ‘My father did not care much. It seems that for him it was good, because it was one less mouth to feed.’”
Child prostitution is an organized business having large, deep, devoted networks of pimps, taxis and hotels, and closely linked to human trafficking and drug pedaling networks, hiding in the shadows of Brazil’s thriving sex-tourism industry.
“For many children in Brazil, prostitution begins with family issues. A child may be abused, beaten, forced to help their family put food on the table, and see prostitution as one of their few income options. Others may be victims of incest and turn to prostitution out of shame and guilt related to their abuse. Still more children may be introduced to sexual exploitation through family members. In a few horrific cases parents themselves sell children to the sex trade at a young age to provide for their families.”
In spite of the government’s crackdown on child prostitution prior to the world cup, critics allege that they have only succeeded in hiding away the problem, and not solving it. The government’s lax attitude has only fueled contempt for the law. In Brazil, the legal age for consensual sex is as low as 14. Recently, a court in Brazil passed a horror judgment that basically ruled that having sex with 12 year old girls is not considered statutory rape if they had been prostitutes before. Although it is illegal for children below 18 years of age to sell their bodies, child prostitution, at large, is only growing, with the industry set to grow by 30-40% in the coming month alone.
This is not an isolated issue. It is the result of widespread, deep rooted systemic problems plaguing the society at large. Addressing them will necessitate stringent reforms in the social, cultural, economic and judicial fronts. The government must take serious measures to eradicate the growing malice and that can be done only by attacking the root of the problem – poverty.
Tonight as you sit back in your couches, supporting your favorite teams, sipping on your Pepsi and tuning into a world continents away, you must realize that the game is only half the world cup. This world cup is about two different worlds that exist in Brazil – the world out there in the football stadiums, the one that fills your TV, huge and happy and full of optimism, and the world just a few minutes way, on the corners of empty roads, on the shady hotels and crawling cars, in crowded slums and silent, broken homes and deep inside the minds of these children – a world shrunken, twisted, punctured, lost.
Click here to read the full article
Brazil's sex tourism boom
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In Brazil, Tourists Often Find More Than Just Sex
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Brazil's sex trade: How the country's one million prostitutes are preparing for the World Cup
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In Brazil, Tourists Often Find More Than Just Sex
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Brazil's sex trade: How the country's one million prostitutes are preparing for the World Cup
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Do we make black men frustrated in America?
by Lauren R. D. Fox
In recent years, coverage of sex tourism has increased in the news and in film, exploring how the ability to travel abroad and satisfy your every need through dollar bills is so alluring and how people shed their identities, instantly transitioning into their alter egos once borders and oceans are crossed. The film Paradise: Love and documentary Frustrated: Black American Men in Brazil both explore how white women and black men navigate their international sexcapades. In both films, white women and black men are seen paying for sexual acts. But though both parties are frowned upon for their actions, a clear double standard is presented, which begs the question: Is it more acceptable for a white woman to get her groove back than a black man claiming to find love internationally? And if so, who made those rules?
Click here to read the article
by Lauren R. D. Fox
In recent years, coverage of sex tourism has increased in the news and in film, exploring how the ability to travel abroad and satisfy your every need through dollar bills is so alluring and how people shed their identities, instantly transitioning into their alter egos once borders and oceans are crossed. The film Paradise: Love and documentary Frustrated: Black American Men in Brazil both explore how white women and black men navigate their international sexcapades. In both films, white women and black men are seen paying for sexual acts. But though both parties are frowned upon for their actions, a clear double standard is presented, which begs the question: Is it more acceptable for a white woman to get her groove back than a black man claiming to find love internationally? And if so, who made those rules?
Click here to read the article
Why Are 'Frustrated' Black Men in Brazil?
by Demetria Lucas D'Oyley
A film about African-American men seeking women fuels debate about the state of black relationships.
(The Root) -- I blame World Star Hip Hop for this latest round of conversation so many people are having -- again -- about black American men going to Brazil to meet women and throwing American black women under the bus to justify it. I made it through all 47 minutes of Frustrated Black American Men in Brazil and noticed that the version I watched was uploaded in November 2012. Crickets.
World Star uploaded it March, and now I can't click on any of my favorite black news sites without seeing a mention of it. It's like being in a hair or nail salon in 2006 -- the year Essence magazine ran an article about black men heading to Brazil to cavort with sex workers -- all over again.
By putting some actual faces on an old issue, Frustrated gives more life to the never-dying conversation: the problems in black relationships (or, if you really want to alarm people, call it a "crisis"). It would be naive to pretend there isn't a disconnect among some black people when you see the infighting on display in the comments section of any online article about nearly any subject.
And the issues here are deeper than those facing the general population, which has its own "Men are from Mars, women are from Venus" misunderstandings. At least those men and women are operating in the same galaxy. I'm not always sure if all black women and black men are. Case in point: this documentary.
Frustrated focuses on 10 or so various black men in Brazil -- mostly guys on their first visit, but a few on their third, one who has been "18, 19 times" and one who set up shop two decades ago. To be fair, most of the men would be considered at least somewhat attractive to women in their age group, and all seemed reasonably intelligent, even if one of them -- the guy who didn't quite catch himself and called Brazilian women "hos" -- reminded me of Damon Wayans' prison character from In Living Color.
What they all had in common was a striking ability to blame black women for all their problems and to operate in a state of complete delusion about their popularity in Brazil.
Surely, we're all so well versed in the stereotypes of black women that I don't need to recount them in detail here. The guys rehashed all of them, assigned them to every breathing black woman on American soil and, in summary, decided that it's too much of a headache to build a relationship with any black woman "back home."
Out of all the stereotypes thrown about, one that kept coming up was the high expectations of black women. It seems that the American woman wants a man to, you know, work and contribute to a household, and she actually insists on getting to know a man before she allows him to hug her on the beach while she's in her two-piece swimsuit. (That black American women, in general, don't allow strange men to touch them on the beach was a seriously discussed complaint.) Apparently, black American women's basic expectations, which all other communities of women also have, for a committed partner are too high, and they should just be happy that a man is present.
"Women [in Brazil] are more caring [of men] and respect them as men," one guy said. "It has nothing to do with how much they make. It has nothing to do with anything else other than just being a man."
Somehow these guys have convinced themselves that their Americanness, which drips off of any tourist, and the benefit of the exchange rate between the Brazilian real and the American dollar have nothing to do with all the love that a middle-aged man well past his prime can receive from very young and exceptionally attractive Brazilian women. And that is when I laughed, loud and hearty, at the screen, and said to the friend watching with me, "These men are delusional."
Click here to read the article
by Demetria Lucas D'Oyley
A film about African-American men seeking women fuels debate about the state of black relationships.
(The Root) -- I blame World Star Hip Hop for this latest round of conversation so many people are having -- again -- about black American men going to Brazil to meet women and throwing American black women under the bus to justify it. I made it through all 47 minutes of Frustrated Black American Men in Brazil and noticed that the version I watched was uploaded in November 2012. Crickets.
World Star uploaded it March, and now I can't click on any of my favorite black news sites without seeing a mention of it. It's like being in a hair or nail salon in 2006 -- the year Essence magazine ran an article about black men heading to Brazil to cavort with sex workers -- all over again.
By putting some actual faces on an old issue, Frustrated gives more life to the never-dying conversation: the problems in black relationships (or, if you really want to alarm people, call it a "crisis"). It would be naive to pretend there isn't a disconnect among some black people when you see the infighting on display in the comments section of any online article about nearly any subject.
And the issues here are deeper than those facing the general population, which has its own "Men are from Mars, women are from Venus" misunderstandings. At least those men and women are operating in the same galaxy. I'm not always sure if all black women and black men are. Case in point: this documentary.
Frustrated focuses on 10 or so various black men in Brazil -- mostly guys on their first visit, but a few on their third, one who has been "18, 19 times" and one who set up shop two decades ago. To be fair, most of the men would be considered at least somewhat attractive to women in their age group, and all seemed reasonably intelligent, even if one of them -- the guy who didn't quite catch himself and called Brazilian women "hos" -- reminded me of Damon Wayans' prison character from In Living Color.
What they all had in common was a striking ability to blame black women for all their problems and to operate in a state of complete delusion about their popularity in Brazil.
Surely, we're all so well versed in the stereotypes of black women that I don't need to recount them in detail here. The guys rehashed all of them, assigned them to every breathing black woman on American soil and, in summary, decided that it's too much of a headache to build a relationship with any black woman "back home."
Out of all the stereotypes thrown about, one that kept coming up was the high expectations of black women. It seems that the American woman wants a man to, you know, work and contribute to a household, and she actually insists on getting to know a man before she allows him to hug her on the beach while she's in her two-piece swimsuit. (That black American women, in general, don't allow strange men to touch them on the beach was a seriously discussed complaint.) Apparently, black American women's basic expectations, which all other communities of women also have, for a committed partner are too high, and they should just be happy that a man is present.
"Women [in Brazil] are more caring [of men] and respect them as men," one guy said. "It has nothing to do with how much they make. It has nothing to do with anything else other than just being a man."
Somehow these guys have convinced themselves that their Americanness, which drips off of any tourist, and the benefit of the exchange rate between the Brazilian real and the American dollar have nothing to do with all the love that a middle-aged man well past his prime can receive from very young and exceptionally attractive Brazilian women. And that is when I laughed, loud and hearty, at the screen, and said to the friend watching with me, "These men are delusional."
Click here to read the article
Don't Even Try to Blame It on Rioby Mark Sawyer
Não, não—stop blaming the sisters who speak Portuguese.
Why is coupling such a contentious topic in the black community? Yesterday's explanation was that black men are all gay and secretly on the "down low." This pseudo-sociological approach explained everything from high HIV rates among black men and women to why marriage rates are so low. It fed anxieties and provided for salacious stories of men "trapped in the closet" and living double lives. That explanation created excitement for a while, but ultimately failed the smell test. The majority of unmarried, good-looking African-American men are not gay or bisexual (not that there is a problem if they are).
Stripped of that bogus explanation, another, equally implausible answer has emerged South of the Border.
The recently published book, Don't Blame It on Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex, by Jewel Woods and Karen Hunter, an infamous Essence magazine article by William Jelani Cobb, and Web forums have now focused on the new explanation why African American women are having problems with black men: Brazil or more specifically Brazilian women.
In this new storyline, all the eligible black men are slipping off to Rio where they're having such an amazing time that they permanently trade relationships back home for a series of "Girl Friend Experiences" (GFE) with Brazilian semi-pros and professional sex workers. This new argument casts Brazilian women as servile, sexual superwomen with all the right assets and skill to use them. The rift between black men and women can be laid at the feet of these eager-to-please women, who look like a cross between Halle Berry and J-Lo and are luring black men to Rio de Janeiro in droves to re-enact their most base Snoop Dogg video fantasies.
Aside from the fact that this narrative demonizes these women on the international stage much in the way rap videos do black American women, the danger in the persistence of this myth is that it ignores the real, more important issues surrounding global inequalities, race and gender among our Brazilian brethren.
Sex tourism is nothing new. Men have long traveled to exotic locales to have sexual liaisons with prostitutes. But this privilege was typically reserved for wealthy and/or military men. Now that international travel is more accessible, sex tourism has been democratized (so much so that recent reports show middle-class, middle-aged European women touring Kenya for sex with young African men, and professional African-American women voyage to Italy on Bella Donna tours billed as the "Black Women's Brazil.") The free flow and ease of travel means that sex in foreign locales is now also available to men and women of different classes and races—including, yes, a growing class of African-American men with disposable income.
The reigning hysteria about the Brazilian sex trade focuses on places like Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach or the Dominican Republic's Puerto Plata, which are depicted as giant strip clubs/bachelor parties where there is sex in the champagne rooms. There are "all-inclusive cruises," all-inclusive hotels, discos with hired "hostesses" and even resorts for upscale men that fly in women from Eastern Europe. Some African-American men can be found interacting with the semi-pros at discos, cafés and bars near the beaches of Rio.
One problem I have with the work in these places is: None of the popular authors speak Portuguese or it seems even bother to hire and interpreter. In fact, neither do the men who visit. Sex tourism of this variety is based on the profound income disparity in the world. The minimum wage in Brazil is $248 a month. For young, poor but beautiful women in Brazil, sex work is a way out. There is a substantial allure for them to help support their families but also have access to items and luxuries that are not imaginable in their neighborhoods. Thus, these women make the trek to Copacabana Beach and sell what is now a global commodity for free trade: their bodies. This disparity in income means that for a relatively small amount of money requested for "gifts," "food," "tuition" or to help a sick mother, men can have a girlfriend (or several) in Brazil for a week or so.
Often the African-American men can't speak Portuguese and the women have very limited English. However, money talks and the "tall, tan and lovely Girls of Ipanema" don't just walk by, but have honed their skills of gathering high-paying clients for the weekend. Unlike in every other aspects of life, African-American men are coveted there. They travel in groups and with the exchange rate, can splash large enough amounts of cash to run Nelly's "Tip Drill" on a budget. In contrast, the average white American who travels to Brazil for sex goes alone and tries to get as much as they can for as little as possible. In fact, they complain on Web sites that African-American men are "spoiling" the women.
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Não, não—stop blaming the sisters who speak Portuguese.
Why is coupling such a contentious topic in the black community? Yesterday's explanation was that black men are all gay and secretly on the "down low." This pseudo-sociological approach explained everything from high HIV rates among black men and women to why marriage rates are so low. It fed anxieties and provided for salacious stories of men "trapped in the closet" and living double lives. That explanation created excitement for a while, but ultimately failed the smell test. The majority of unmarried, good-looking African-American men are not gay or bisexual (not that there is a problem if they are).
Stripped of that bogus explanation, another, equally implausible answer has emerged South of the Border.
The recently published book, Don't Blame It on Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex, by Jewel Woods and Karen Hunter, an infamous Essence magazine article by William Jelani Cobb, and Web forums have now focused on the new explanation why African American women are having problems with black men: Brazil or more specifically Brazilian women.
In this new storyline, all the eligible black men are slipping off to Rio where they're having such an amazing time that they permanently trade relationships back home for a series of "Girl Friend Experiences" (GFE) with Brazilian semi-pros and professional sex workers. This new argument casts Brazilian women as servile, sexual superwomen with all the right assets and skill to use them. The rift between black men and women can be laid at the feet of these eager-to-please women, who look like a cross between Halle Berry and J-Lo and are luring black men to Rio de Janeiro in droves to re-enact their most base Snoop Dogg video fantasies.
Aside from the fact that this narrative demonizes these women on the international stage much in the way rap videos do black American women, the danger in the persistence of this myth is that it ignores the real, more important issues surrounding global inequalities, race and gender among our Brazilian brethren.
Sex tourism is nothing new. Men have long traveled to exotic locales to have sexual liaisons with prostitutes. But this privilege was typically reserved for wealthy and/or military men. Now that international travel is more accessible, sex tourism has been democratized (so much so that recent reports show middle-class, middle-aged European women touring Kenya for sex with young African men, and professional African-American women voyage to Italy on Bella Donna tours billed as the "Black Women's Brazil.") The free flow and ease of travel means that sex in foreign locales is now also available to men and women of different classes and races—including, yes, a growing class of African-American men with disposable income.
The reigning hysteria about the Brazilian sex trade focuses on places like Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach or the Dominican Republic's Puerto Plata, which are depicted as giant strip clubs/bachelor parties where there is sex in the champagne rooms. There are "all-inclusive cruises," all-inclusive hotels, discos with hired "hostesses" and even resorts for upscale men that fly in women from Eastern Europe. Some African-American men can be found interacting with the semi-pros at discos, cafés and bars near the beaches of Rio.
One problem I have with the work in these places is: None of the popular authors speak Portuguese or it seems even bother to hire and interpreter. In fact, neither do the men who visit. Sex tourism of this variety is based on the profound income disparity in the world. The minimum wage in Brazil is $248 a month. For young, poor but beautiful women in Brazil, sex work is a way out. There is a substantial allure for them to help support their families but also have access to items and luxuries that are not imaginable in their neighborhoods. Thus, these women make the trek to Copacabana Beach and sell what is now a global commodity for free trade: their bodies. This disparity in income means that for a relatively small amount of money requested for "gifts," "food," "tuition" or to help a sick mother, men can have a girlfriend (or several) in Brazil for a week or so.
Often the African-American men can't speak Portuguese and the women have very limited English. However, money talks and the "tall, tan and lovely Girls of Ipanema" don't just walk by, but have honed their skills of gathering high-paying clients for the weekend. Unlike in every other aspects of life, African-American men are coveted there. They travel in groups and with the exchange rate, can splash large enough amounts of cash to run Nelly's "Tip Drill" on a budget. In contrast, the average white American who travels to Brazil for sex goes alone and tries to get as much as they can for as little as possible. In fact, they complain on Web sites that African-American men are "spoiling" the women.
Click here to read the article
The Brazilian Government Pulled These 'I'm Happy Being A Prostitute' Ads click here to read the article
Brazil drops 'happy being a prostitute' ad campaign click here
Brazil drops 'happy prostitute' Aids campaign click here
Happy prostitute ads dropped in Brazil. click here
Brazil drops 'happy being a prostitute' ad campaign click here
Brazil drops 'happy prostitute' Aids campaign click here
Happy prostitute ads dropped in Brazil. click here
Black Men and Sex Tourism in Brazil
Ed Gordon talks with William Jelani Cobb, professor of history at Atlanta's Spelman College, about a growing number of African-American men who are traveling to Brazil and seeking out prostitutes. Cobb wrote an article in the September issue of Essence magazine titled "Blame it on Rio" on this subject.
Click here to listen to the podcast
Ed Gordon talks with William Jelani Cobb, professor of history at Atlanta's Spelman College, about a growing number of African-American men who are traveling to Brazil and seeking out prostitutes. Cobb wrote an article in the September issue of Essence magazine titled "Blame it on Rio" on this subject.
Click here to listen to the podcast
Brazilian Prostitutes Prepare For World Cup 2014
The official countdown to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil began on Wednesday, June 12. Stadiums are being revamped, public transport is being tweaked, businesses are gearing up and prostitutes are taking free English classes. Yes, you read that correctly.
In Belo Horizonte, one of the 17 host cities for the event which is expected to draw about 600,000 international visitors, citizens working in one of the world’s oldest professions are learning a very specialized kind of English.
Prostitution is legal in Brazil and the sex trade is expecting a healthy boost in business during the 2014 World Cup. Large sporting events are often a magnet for sexual tourism and trafficking, and Brazil’s cities may be particularly vulnerable — in part because prostitution is legal, and the country has long been considered a popular erotic destination for those seeking sexual experiences abroad.
click here to read the article
The official countdown to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil began on Wednesday, June 12. Stadiums are being revamped, public transport is being tweaked, businesses are gearing up and prostitutes are taking free English classes. Yes, you read that correctly.
In Belo Horizonte, one of the 17 host cities for the event which is expected to draw about 600,000 international visitors, citizens working in one of the world’s oldest professions are learning a very specialized kind of English.
Prostitution is legal in Brazil and the sex trade is expecting a healthy boost in business during the 2014 World Cup. Large sporting events are often a magnet for sexual tourism and trafficking, and Brazil’s cities may be particularly vulnerable — in part because prostitution is legal, and the country has long been considered a popular erotic destination for those seeking sexual experiences abroad.
click here to read the article
African-American men and sexual tourism in Brazil
In 2006, various writers began exposing a little secret that African-American men had keeping: sexual tourism in Brazil. Millions of black American men had been “introduced” to Brazilian women through the music videos of rappers like Snoop Dogg and Ja Rule. Rapper TI mentioned Brazilian women in the lyrics of his song, “Let’s Get Away”. In 2003, Hip Hop producer Pharrell Williams released a documentary about his search for the sexiest Brazilian model in Rio de Janeiro. Adult film production companies were recording many of their films in various cities throughout Brazil, particularly in Rio de Janeiro. Professors like William Jelani Cobb of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whitingof Vanderbilt University focused part of their work on the phenomenon of African-American men and sexual tourism in Brazil. And in 2008, social worker Jewel Woods and journalist Karen Hunter, released the most complete analysis of the new trend in their book, Don’t Blame It On Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex.
Online forums and comment sections on websites and blogs were filled with thousands of comments by African-Americans, men and women, who were eager to share their opinions on the subject. African-American women were disgusted. Many African-American men expressed their desire to go to Brazil and experience an apparent sexual paradise for black men. The question of why so many African-American men were going to Brazil for sexual escapades was asked on hundreds on websites and blogs.
According to the work of Cobb, Sharpley-Whiting, Woods and Hunter, there were several reasons for the sudden fascination with Brazil. Some reasons include: the “pornification” of hip hop, the obesity rates of African-American women, the confrontational attitudes of African-American women, and the abundance of mixed race women, with long, curly hair and curvaceous bodies. In Brazil, women appear to be the exact opposite. There are far fewer obese Brazilian women than in America. The Brazilian women that these men meet are beautiful, non- confrontational and offer affection and memorable sexual experiences (for a price) that these men don’t think they receive in America. And with the value of the American dollar normally worth two to three Brazilian reais, these men spend much less in Brazil in comparison to what they would pay for similar “services” in America.
Besides the apparent conflict at the root of many relationships between African-American men and women, another aspect of this of this fascination with Brazilian women, is the self-hatred that has been a part of the African-American experience since the slavery era. As is true of Afro-Brazilians and other blacks in the African Diaspora, African-Americans have been psychologically trained to hate blackness. On the surface, African-Americans claim to be “black and proud”, but in reality, we, as a group, have never been able to heal from the wounds of self-hatred. African-American men have consistently proven that they prefer women of lighter skin, long (less nappy) hair and less prominently African facial features. In regards to Brazil, let me say, there are millions of Afro-Brazilian women that have the same physical appearances as African-American women. If many of these women appeared on the streets of any black community in America, no one would know that they were Afro-Brazilian until they spoke.
But it is not average African-American woman that these men are pursuing. The African-American man in Brazil is searching for the mulata and mestiça type that they see in popular hip hop music videos. In American terms, they are searching for the Beyonce, Ciara, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys type of women, and in Brazil, this physical type is plentiful. Although there are millions of Brazilian women that are clearly black, there are also millions that are indefinable racially. I’m not speaking of women like Halle Berry, or even Vanessa Williams, women who have light or tanned skin yet still prominent African features, I’m speaking of the Gloria Velez type that is not black enough or white enough to be labeled as one or the other. Brazilian model Viviane Araújo is a good example of this type of woman. What does this say about black pride?
Click here to read the article
In 2006, various writers began exposing a little secret that African-American men had keeping: sexual tourism in Brazil. Millions of black American men had been “introduced” to Brazilian women through the music videos of rappers like Snoop Dogg and Ja Rule. Rapper TI mentioned Brazilian women in the lyrics of his song, “Let’s Get Away”. In 2003, Hip Hop producer Pharrell Williams released a documentary about his search for the sexiest Brazilian model in Rio de Janeiro. Adult film production companies were recording many of their films in various cities throughout Brazil, particularly in Rio de Janeiro. Professors like William Jelani Cobb of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whitingof Vanderbilt University focused part of their work on the phenomenon of African-American men and sexual tourism in Brazil. And in 2008, social worker Jewel Woods and journalist Karen Hunter, released the most complete analysis of the new trend in their book, Don’t Blame It On Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex.
Online forums and comment sections on websites and blogs were filled with thousands of comments by African-Americans, men and women, who were eager to share their opinions on the subject. African-American women were disgusted. Many African-American men expressed their desire to go to Brazil and experience an apparent sexual paradise for black men. The question of why so many African-American men were going to Brazil for sexual escapades was asked on hundreds on websites and blogs.
According to the work of Cobb, Sharpley-Whiting, Woods and Hunter, there were several reasons for the sudden fascination with Brazil. Some reasons include: the “pornification” of hip hop, the obesity rates of African-American women, the confrontational attitudes of African-American women, and the abundance of mixed race women, with long, curly hair and curvaceous bodies. In Brazil, women appear to be the exact opposite. There are far fewer obese Brazilian women than in America. The Brazilian women that these men meet are beautiful, non- confrontational and offer affection and memorable sexual experiences (for a price) that these men don’t think they receive in America. And with the value of the American dollar normally worth two to three Brazilian reais, these men spend much less in Brazil in comparison to what they would pay for similar “services” in America.
Besides the apparent conflict at the root of many relationships between African-American men and women, another aspect of this of this fascination with Brazilian women, is the self-hatred that has been a part of the African-American experience since the slavery era. As is true of Afro-Brazilians and other blacks in the African Diaspora, African-Americans have been psychologically trained to hate blackness. On the surface, African-Americans claim to be “black and proud”, but in reality, we, as a group, have never been able to heal from the wounds of self-hatred. African-American men have consistently proven that they prefer women of lighter skin, long (less nappy) hair and less prominently African facial features. In regards to Brazil, let me say, there are millions of Afro-Brazilian women that have the same physical appearances as African-American women. If many of these women appeared on the streets of any black community in America, no one would know that they were Afro-Brazilian until they spoke.
But it is not average African-American woman that these men are pursuing. The African-American man in Brazil is searching for the mulata and mestiça type that they see in popular hip hop music videos. In American terms, they are searching for the Beyonce, Ciara, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys type of women, and in Brazil, this physical type is plentiful. Although there are millions of Brazilian women that are clearly black, there are also millions that are indefinable racially. I’m not speaking of women like Halle Berry, or even Vanessa Williams, women who have light or tanned skin yet still prominent African features, I’m speaking of the Gloria Velez type that is not black enough or white enough to be labeled as one or the other. Brazilian model Viviane Araújo is a good example of this type of woman. What does this say about black pride?
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Prostitution And Sexual Abuse: Men Who Pay For Sex May Be More Likely To Commit Rape, Aggressive Sexual Acts
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All Men Pay For Sex - True or False
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