Affective sex

Beauty, race and nation in the sex industry

Bibliographic Data

ID4367455
AuthorsMegan Rivers‐moore (University of Toronto, corresponding author), Megan Rivers-Moore (University of Toronto)
Year2013
Volume14
Issue2
Pages153-169
Publication date2013-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1464700113483242
OpenAlexW2032248169
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited46

This article considers the role of beauty in Costa Rican sex work. In the context of sex tourism, beauty operates as affective labour performed by sex workers, labour that is mediated by deeply contradictory understandings of race and nation. Theorising beauty as a form of affective labour means thinking about beauty as value, as something that circulates, can be exchanged and is ultimately relational. While Costa Rica's national mythology has long focused on claims to white origins, sex tourists identify local women's 'exoticism' and non-whiteness as particularly appealing. Commercial sex does not simply depend on an imperial male gaze, but rather requires us to consider how particular national mythologies about race are linked to ideals of attractiveness in complex ways. I also explore how women experience and manage their sexual attractiveness to foreign tourists in their daily lives and work

Aesthetics · Art · Attractiveness · Beauty · Exoticism · Geography · Mythology · Physical attractiveness · Political science · Sex work · Sociology · Tourism · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology

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