« France's race problems not magically resolved yet + | Home | NY's new unconvincing anti-domestic violence ad campaign »
November 27, 2007
Young Kenyan men enjoy same gifts-for-sex benefits young women have had for centuries
Reuters had an article yesterday on the trend of older white English women going on vacation in Kenya, and while there, taking out hot young men, buying them clothes and expensive dinners, and having sex with them.
He wore new sunglasses he said were a gift from her.
"We both get something we want -- where's the negative?" Allie asked in a bar later.
Apparently the negative is that a lot of hotel managers and members of the Kenya tourism board are lumping these women in with other sex tourists who come to Kenya to pay 12 year-old girls or boys for sex.
Which is nuts. Old, wealthy sugar daddies everywhere have long enjoyed taking much younger women out, showering them with gifts, and having sex with them. Some might go so far as to marry them (Billy Joel, Donald Trump, Fred Thompson, Ben Kingsley, Les Moonves, I could go on all day) but plenty more just enjoy the arm candy for a while then drop them (George Soros).
At last, young men from poor countries with little opportunity for living in economic security get to enjoy the same temporary access to nice clothes and fancy dinners that young American women have been hustling to get their hands on forever! Why should sex-for-goods be exclusively a rich man/poor woman transaction? I'm so glad to see these enterprising young African men are finally able to exploit their youthful hotness with all the savvy of a midwestern high school dropout draping herself over aging producers at Hollywood parties.
22 year-old Joseph, a Kenyan man who says he has slept with over 100 white women, says:
He could be half the girls in their early 20's who hang out at expensive Tribeca bars hoping to snag free drinks from an investment manager.
The movie Heading South came out in 2006 and featured Charlotte Rampling (in the photo above) traveling to Haiti to have sex with young men in the 1970's. A long article about the movie goes into all these complicated arguments about sex, economics, political power, gender roles, exploitation, and on and on.
Seems like the only new or interesting thing happening here is that the older, richer person in the dynamic is female and they have to go to other countries to find young men willing to do what many young women in rich countries have done basically forever. Yawn.
categories:
Economics, Gender, International, Race, Sex
posted by amy at 12:12 PM | #
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://amysrobot.amyinnewyork.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/749
Comments
Good points about safety. The Reuters article also says that the AIDS prevalence in Kenya is 7%, so I hope these tourists aren't letting themselves get too swept away in their Terry McMillan fantasy world.
Posted by: amy at November 27, 2007 5:36 PM
erm,
No thanks. I'll have to pass on that one.
Plus most kenyan males have multi women and or more than one wife. Usually younger than us. (if not mostly). He'd just take your money and give it his actual girlfriend.
That's not love.
And the other catch is..... males will not marry females their senior anywhere on earth.
Africa least of all. I know. I'm kenyan. (actually ethiopian but i was raised in kenya).
I don't know how attractive older white women THINK they are but, come on. At some point reality has to sit in. We are not trading our 27 year old girlfriends for a 55 year old white woman.
The actions of a handful of males is not a reflection on the whole.
And those are prostitutes not "lovers". When did women start pretending male prostitutes were "lovers"?
Posted by: T. Asega at March 20, 2008 12:14 PM
How do they even know the guy's age???
Maasai never know their age.
Posted by: Asega at March 20, 2008 12:16 PM
hey, if i had the kind of money it took to fly off to Kenya and have a wild time with my sexual fantasy?
If the government allows it, let the girls have fun!....(i'd like to hear from the girls just exactly how good it is???)
Posted by: Tarzan at March 21, 2008 10:41 PM
Ilikethat
Posted by: at May 15, 2008 6:10 PM
i think it is sick what they do because it is not right for the locals to see all this going on in the home !
Posted by: becky at June 19, 2008 5:44 PM
Sooner or later one of these women is going to get robbed or hurt. That would be bad publicity for Kenya. But it shows how sexist the authorities in Kenya are if they haven't even bothered to concoct a halfway real reason (safety) and only cite "unwholesomeness".
They should encourage this. What tourist promotion authority would rather have smelly British backpackers than sober middle-aged women Getting Their Groove Back?
Posted by: T-Rock at November 27, 2007 2:47 PM