Paper short abstract:

In this paper I discuss how constructions of "otherness" and intimacy work in Fortaleza, a city in the Northeast of Brazil that since the 1990's has been considered a centre of heterosexual, mainly European, sex tourism, but received in 2018 thousands of extremely well paid Korean male workers.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I discuss how diverse constructions of "otherness" and intimacy work in Fortaleza, a coastal city in the Northeast of Brazil that since the 1990's has been considered a centre of heterosexual international sex tourism. Men from diverse European countries flooded the international tourist circuits and were disputed by local women engaged in the city's sexscapes. During the end of the decade of 2000, however, European tourists ceased visiting the city. Concurrently, the construction of a port attracted thousands of Korean male workers who gave new life to Fortaleza's sexual economies. Brazilian women who used to hang out with foreign visitors felt ambiguous regarding these workers. In spite of the high prices Korean clients paid for tricks, sex workers expressed their nostalgia for the European clients. And so did women who engaged in transactional sex, since foreigners from Europe were connected to a possibility of intimacy and migration they felt impossible to associate with the newly arrived Koreans. Considering the outcomes of a long-term ethnography carried in Fortaleza since 2000 I analyze how sexuality, love, mobilities, styles of masculinity, social and economic position, race and aesthetics take part in these perceptions.