Older white women join Kenya's sex tourists

Older white women join Kenya's sex tourists
By Jeremy Clarke

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64.

They are on their first holiday to Kenya, a country they say is "just full of big young boys who like us older girls."

Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex.

Allie and Bethan -- who both declined to give their full names -- said they planned to spend a whole month touring Kenya's palm-fringed beaches. They would do well to avoid the country's tourism officials.

"It's not evil," said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, when asked about the practice of older rich women traveling for sex with young Kenyan men...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071126/od_nm/sextourism_dc

Live and let live, I guess.

Tell me Jeremy Clarke didn't have a smirk on his face when he wrote that.

Who do you have to be to be a "sex tourist"?

That's funny, all by itself.

Or have republicon family value morals.

:P

sw

:hi:

:dunce:

:rofl: A veritable safari into the deepest, darkest bush to snatch their big game - the vicious one-eyed trouser snake.

Next thing you know this fuckwit will discover that this sort of thing goes on in Europe too.

I bet THIS ain't covered in that HMO plan is it?

Earth to the West: the brown people of planet Earth are not the damn Olive Garden, plzkthx.

Thank you

in GD

:D

sw

the boys are over 18.
I'd have as much of a problem with this if the boys were underage as I would if it were men seeking little girls.

I support them 100%.

a milf, by definition wouldn't have to go to the ends of the earth to get her cavity filled.

Somebody was wearing their Bad Idea Jeans (tm)

:puke:

it sounds ridiculous

plant the idea in the head of some money-laden cougars...

In an economically backward nation like Kenya even a few $ mean a lot. And so you have otherwise proud Masai men in the prime of youth selling their 'services' to washed-up 60 year old white women for a few bucks.

What does THAT mean?

because it happens in the caribbean too - i've seen it myself.

Nothing new under the sun

Of course someone will come by and tell me that it's there is no such worry with 2 consenting adults.

Except that one is rich and one extremely poor.

It's all good. :sarcasm: :eyes:

Idiots.

AIDS, anyone?

so when men give women money for sex, its prostitution. When women give "gifts" to men for sex, its just fun-lovin girls enjoying sexual release. Anyone else see a double standard here?

I hear this is common in the Caribbean, too. Rather than give them money directly, the women just ask them what the male prostitutes want, and buy it for them. Or give them a "gift" of money.

Someone should run a poll on whether a double standard exists.

Somehow I think guys shouldn't feel so guilty about getting mere lapdances in stripclubs, if the consensus is that what these women are buying is alright.

Men do not have to be paid to have sex; women do not see it as a value in and of itself. If one or two women do such a crazy thing, that does not justify the wholesale exploitation of women.

THere's a double standard about sex, all right. There has been for millenia and I guess there always will be.

The double standard is, it's OK for a man to get all the nooky he can. He's a real STUD.
It's not OK for a woman to get all the nooky she can. In fact, she's suspect if she has uncommitted sex. She's considered a SLUT.

No doubt it is bad as to how men who have a lot of sex are viewed as opposed to women who have a lot of sex. However, that has nothing to do with how sex tourism is viewed according to gender. In this thread, many people seem to be condoning these women's actions, where if it were men, they'd be crucified. That's the double standard.

No matter who does it, this sense of entitlement that rich Westerners have toward POC in developing countries is disgusting. It's exploitation pure and simple and it needs to stop.

are not toys to be 'used' by rich westerners.

You've summed up exactly what is so sordid about this so succinctly and clearly, entanglement!

:applause:

The inherent racism of this shit is astounding.

Women that age don't do such things.

Young men don't need to be paid to have sex.

Older women never ever would pay for sex?

And of course younger men are a part of the sex trade. There are many a young male prostitute out there. They do it for a variety of reasons, but usually because they need the money for something.

Do you wear a blindfold every time you step oiutta the house?

:wow:

to get out more...it happens.

:rofl:

bothers me. Period. But, at least these women are not going for underage children. They are "dating" men who can make choices to do things for money or easier living.

It's still creepy, though.

I really do know the answer, but just curious if any women will say it.

being 55 I do resent being referred to as washed up in regards to sex.
My hubby is 14 years younger and has never called me a cougar either.
Could be cause I have never paid him. ;-)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fCutvXccFlA

patty lame's wife

Not only has this type of story been covered before, but there is a documentary about it.

http://www.rentarasta.com

Dude please. :eyes:

Just another example of the exploitation of third world countries....are there any demeaning and degrading tasks we won't export for them to perform for a paltry sum?



(I keed, I keed) :D

up to 10 inches of paid vacation

:shrug:

Wanna get laid? Hang out in a hotel lounge. When traveling a person does not have to "worry about what the neighbors think". This is especially true of many female travelers who sadly too often do worry about what their neighbors back home think.

*shudder*

I agree with the commentary on how stupid it is to go trolling for cock on an AIDS-infested continent, by the way.

never thought I'd ever read that line.....again

It will be the #1 superstar topic for the next three days.

:popcorn:

:beer:

I find the idea of going to another country to exploit their citizens repulsive. I'm not going to say it should be illegal or anything...ultimately, what people do with their bodies is their business. But I can damn well find it fucking creepy.

My mom got solicited a lot in Egypt. Says finding a gigolo is as easy as finding a taxi. (No, she wasn't interested.)

Yeah, it's sordid, but I'm shocked that anyone finds it shocking.

"sex" is "exploitation". Why, I have no idea, unless it's because both words have an "ex" in them???

they have an unrealistic "ideal" of how women act.

Mom said a lot of the young men there seem to consider it a terrific job. Nice dinners, luxury hotels...they make more than cabdrivers, that's for sure. (They give the tour guides and cabdrivers a percentage to help them make contacts.)

And as for women not going for it...the hell they don't! There wouldn't be supply if there weren't plenty of demand.

They've got to make a living and I have nothing but sympathy for sex workers. I don't think there's anything wrong with sex work, necessarily.

My problem is more so with the clients, who think of them as little more than a stop on the tour.

n/t

And there's no getting away from the racist/colonialist implications either. So you've got all these conflicting attitudes on this thread - conflicting attitudes towards sex work in general, attitudes about sex tourism and exploitation, plus all the notions about who pays for sex and who doesn't. (Not to mention, I think, a little ageist squick about older women as sexual beings.) A lot of people's ideological apple carts get upset here in all kinds of ways.

Also, I don't know what the situation is like with these young men in Kenya, but the ones my mom talked about in Egypt were DEFINITELY in a better socioeconomic position than most female prostitutes in that country would be. They weren't young boys, they were in their 20s and 30s. They were educated and had social autonomy. They weren't enslaved by pimps. So that's another issue, too.

...five hundred men wrote to her wanting to apply to be man-whores, and that might just be in the first X number of days that that figure is about (I think she's still taking applications). If certain men aren't exactly dying to get out of this kind of work, I wonder how this is more exploitative than paying someone to do something else - driving a taxi, fixing some food, whatever - in a country where people are poor.

I doubt you'll find a more sex-positive feminist on DU than I am. Shit, I actively practice Tantra as a spiritual path.

My problem with this story, and others like it, is the attitude within it among rich white people in the West that brown folk, especially those in poorer countries, are some kind of exotic fuck treat to be sampled like wine tasting or something. "Oh, when you go to Marrakech, buy tiles at the market and an nubile young thing." It's despicable. Sex "tourism" like the type depicted in this story is incredibly racist and demeaning. It turns human beings into nothing but commodities.

As a woman of color it hits a really sore nerve with me, not the least of which because I deal with self-avowed "chocolate chasers" on a regular basis.

:thumbsup: