Gringo Love: Stories of Sex Tourism in Brazil
© 2020
In the city of Natal in northeast Brazil, several local women negotiate the terms of their intimate relationships with foreign tourists, or gringos, in a situation often referred to as "sex tourism." These women each have different experiences, but they all share in the desire to "escape" their lives as young, poor, racialized women in Brazil.
Based on original ethnographic research and presented in graphic form, Gringo Love explores the hopes, dreams, and experiences of these women against a backdrop of entrenched social inequality and increasing state surveillance leading up to the World Cup of 2014. It touches on important contemporary scholarly issues, including sexual economics, transnational mobility, transnational love and relationships, romantic imaginaries, gender representation, race and inequality, visual anthropology, and ethnographic methods.
The graphic story is accompanied by analysis and contextual discussions, which encourage students to engage with the narrative and expand their understanding of the broader social issues therein.
Product Details
- Series: ethnoGRAPHIC
- World Rights
- Page Count: 176 pages
- Illustrations: 110
- Dimensions: 6.0in x 0.0in x 9.0in
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Reviews
"This ambitious ethno-graphic novel generates alternative representations of sex tourism beyond sensational media accounts, putting faces, bodies, and voices to the categories of ‘sex worker’ and ‘sex tourist’ that help dispel some of the most durable stereotypes lingering in the public imagination. The gringo love stories are wonderfully complex. They leave the reader feeling a sense of intimacy with the dreams, desires, and dilemmas of people we may never meet, while opening up the possibility that sex tourism in general is much more complex than imagined."
Susan Frohlick, The University of British Columbia, Okanagan"An extraordinary synthesis of the stories of women striving for better lives in the intimate economy of Ponta Negra, the foreign men they encounter, and the misguided interventions by state and NGO campaigns against sex tourism before and after the 2014 Rio Olympics. This graphic novel skillfully exposes the complexity of doing anthropological research – maintaining relations with people in the field, writing fieldnotes, as well as deep reflections about the inequalities between researcher and the researched. The discussion questions, appendixes, and further reading suggestions will make Gringo Love a must-have for any college course on gender and sexuality, sex work, and globalization!"
Sealing Cheng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong"This text affirms everything we know about the power of ethnography and comic- and arts-based research: It is more than just an ‘illustrated’ ethnography—it’s a work that transforms and transports the reader using the power of the graphic novel and its attendant processes to bring emotional engagement to the surface. Carrier-Moisan’s keen analyses carefully illuminate and amplify participant stories, and the graphic novel presentation turns up the volume on a deeply affecting ethnography, giving the reader a gloveless punch to the gut. Outstanding."
Sally Campbell Galman, University of Massachusetts-Amherst -
Author Information
Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University.
Débora Santos is a freelance illustrator based in Brazil.
William Flynn is an instructor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University. -
Table of contents
Acknowledgements
Note to the ReaderLexicon
Part I: Arrivals
Field notesPart II: Gringo Love?
Field notesPart III: Sair Dessa Vida
Epilogue
Appendix I: Reading Guide & Discussion Questions
Appendix II: The Making of Gringo Love
• The Creation Process
• The Research ProcessAppendix III: The Context for Gringo Love
• Sex Tourism
• Ponta Negra
• Gringo LoveAppendix IV: Further Readings
Bibliography
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Subjects and Courses
