"A war for a foreign woman" Gender, Power and Economic Tension in Negril

Abstract

This thesis investigates the intimate relationships between white foreign women and black Jamaican men in Negril, a transnational tourist town located on the western tip of Jamaica.Within the contexts of Negril, relationships between white foreign women and black Jamaican men are commonly considered suspect and ambiguous based on the frequency at which relationships shrouded in economic and intimate exchanges take place. Some female sex tourism scholars recognize foreign women as exerting their racial and economic power over local black men in the destination towns they visit, whereas other scholars suggest that local men exert their gender power over foreign women in their relationships. Upon closer examination of the everyday complex negotiations of power that take place within relationships between foreign women and Jamaican men in Negril, it became clear that the power that operates within the relationships is not straightforward. Both foreign women and Jamaican men exercise different forms of power in order to get what it is that they desire from their relationships. This complicates common misconceptions of foreign women as either wealthy and all powerful or as naïve victims of sexually aggressive Jamaican men, and calls for a more nuanced reading of the negotiations of power in the local contexts of Negril.iii Acknowledgments I extend my sincerest appreciation to everyone who assisted in the completion of my thesis. This includes all of the foreign women and men, and Jamaican women and men who shared their stories and experiences with me. If not for their contributions this work would not have been possible.