Analyzing the sentimental, sexual and economic relationships between young Cambodian women and foreigners, the anthropologist Heidi Hoefinger breaks with the dark images of “ sex tourism ”, without denying the inequalities and misunderstandings at the heart of these exchanges.
Beyond the “ prostitution »
The anthropologist Heidi Hoefinger offers an original monograph on the relationships between young Cambodian women and foreign men, established in the night bars of the capital Phnom Penh. Taken from a doctoral thesis defended in 2010, the work questions the polymorphous and fluid relationships which combine sexuality, feelings, interest and retribution. The author places women at the heart of his project. They demonstrate ingenuity and resilience, make wise decisions and negotiate their relationships with foreign men within structural constraints (gender, culture, family, economy). By deploying their representations and strategies, Heidi Hoefinger strives to demonstrate that these women are in control of their lives. The author challenges the relegation of these unions to the register of exploitation and women to the stereotype of the forced prostitute, stigmatized and victim of structural inequalities. Contrary to the mass of miserabilist works on prostitution in general and sex tourism in particular, the work offers an offbeat and nuanced vision, based on a field investigation. Two concepts make it possible to complicate the more political than descriptive notion of “ prostitution “. That of “ professional girlfriend » evokes women, whose motivations are primarily material, who multiply commercial relationships with foreign men. These relationships overlap, generally without the knowledge of the male partners, and involve a “ performance of intimacy, so that avowed feelings of love and devotion lie somewhere on a continuum between the real and the simulated » (p. 4). Borrowed from South African ethnography, the notion of “ transactional sex » evokes relationships of which “ initial motivations are to get something from intimate interactions, such as gifts, drinks, money or even houses or visas » (p. 3).
The intimate ethnography unfolds in three spaces in the city where there are bars frequented by foreigners: the tourist district “ backpack » on the banks of Boeung Kak Lake ; the Strip, a lively avenue near the central market renowned for its nightlife ; the adjacent streets of the Riverside, a tourist district on the banks of the Tonle Sap river. Carried out over seven years, the investigation is based on interviews and conversations carried out mainly in English. This sample includes 281 participants, including 115 women, 124 men and 42 representatives of local activist organizations, civil servants and academics. Heidi Hoefinger completes her investigation with three “ methodological explorations »: a survey on intimate relationships conducted among 164 Cambodian and foreign people ; participation in the production of a documentary film ; and the implementation of a literacy and email writing training project for the benefit of the women surveyed, witness to the desire to combine research and activism. The author devotes long passages to his own position: ethnographic and personal relationship with the respondents, power relationship, reflexivity, self-presentation, play on plural identities, ethical and moral issues (confidentiality, loyalty, emotional investment, feeling of betrayal and abandonment) are thus addressed. On a theoretical level, the analysis is based on a wide range of work concerning multiple identities, the articulation between sexuality and identity, patron-client relations and sexuality and gender in Cambodia.
Love, strategies and misunderstandings
Heidi Hoefinger examines the hierarchy among women of the night in Phnom Penh based on emic (or indigenous) categories, while Cambodian society immediately relegates them to the discredited fields of prostitution and “ soiled woman » (srei kouc). THE professional girlfriends particularly keen to stand out from taxi girls who monetize their sexual services individually, but also Vietnamese women, objects of fantasy among Cambodian men, but discriminated against and relegated to the underground world of the sexual industry because of their ethnic origin.
THE professional girlfriends form a professional family, characterized by solidarity and support. They produce a “ bar subculture », observable at night in recreational establishments and during the day in hair salons, cinemas and shops. This subculture is crossed by a tension between local gender norms and global norms on consumption. Thus women constantly juggle between tradition, deviance and modernity.
The prestige (celebrity) differentiates the professional girlfriends between them. The display of wealth, the presentation of themselves, the mastery of foreign languages and the association with Westerners distinguish them within the group, and increase their notoriety among the men they meet in bars. In addition, the economy of care family allows them to acquire prestige within the family, despite the risk of stigmatization.
The question of misunderstanding between women and their clients runs through research on sex tourism, and Heidi Hoefinger does not fail to examine it. THE professional girlfriends construct a stereotypical image of foreign men as opposed to those from the region. The former are perceived as more tolerant, liberal, educated and egalitarian than the latter, they are also less violent, jealous and demanding. For their part, Western men imagine Cambodian women as the antithesis of their own, and place them on a continuum with the seductive Asian woman on one side, and the venal and manipulative liar on the other. Reality stands out from these representations, because lying, deception, lack of trust, possessiveness and betrayal are not uncommon among mixed couples. In these relationships based on crossed representations and moments of tension, sex is both a cause of distrust and a solution to uncertainty. If sexual infidelity arouses suspicion from both sides, unprotected sex expresses trust.
Another originality lies in the analysis of the economic strategies that couples implement in order to stand out from discredited categories. The practice of “ going dutch “, where everyone pays their share, expresses the desire to achieve an ideal of equality with a view to normalizing the relationship. By agreeing to share common expenses, the woman demonstrates the authenticity of her feelings towards her partner, despite the glaring economic inequalities that separate them. This observation leads to a discussion on the materiality of exchanges. Heidi Hoefinger suggests considering the relationships formed within bars from the perspective of “ connected lives » by Viviana Zelizer, who emphasizes the intertwining of economic and emotional considerations in the field of intimate relationships.
Context and sources
If the work constitutes a major contribution to the field of research on monetized sexuality in general and sex tourism in Southeast Asia in particular, it does not escape some criticisms which do not detract from its quality.
Chapter 4 presents the general context of the sexual trade in Cambodia, both historical (colonization, genocide of the Khmer Rouge, militarization during the Vietnam War) and social, because the author devotes numerous pages to the sexual exploitation of women (incest, gang rape, trafficking, etc.) and the moral debt of children towards their parents. While it should be remembered that women experience more difficult situations than those of professional girlfriends, the work does not complete its deconstruction enterprise. Above all, these themes a priori foreign to the world of professional girlfriends support the thesis of victimization. The reference to the economy of care family is particularly fast. It promotes a culturalist vision of sexual commerce, common in research on Southeast Asia, while the care family would benefit from being inserted into a political economy of the family and an analysis of cultural discourses as a tool – among others – of neutralization and justification of sexual deviance.
To better contextualize her analysis, Heidi Hoefinger draws on work from non-governmental organizations (CAREChab Dai, Cambodia Women’s Crises Center, PSI…) and international (IOM, ILOUnited Nations…). What credit can be given to these sources which defend an ideological vision, often transcribed in terms of “ prostitution ” And “ exploitation ”, and whose methodologies are often questionable ? A critique of the sources would have been welcome here. In addition, the author criticizes the discourse on exploitation and victimization, but without providing concrete illustrations concerning Cambodia. However, this discourse results from a constellation of actors whose objectives and ideologies differ greatly. This is particularly the case of non-governmental and international organizations fighting against the trafficking of women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, whose political positions on the subject of sexual commerce oscillate between abolitionism and regulationism while passing by. indeterminacy.
Despite the wealth of theoretical references, the analysis would perhaps have benefited from further mobilization of the abundant research on sex tourism in Thailand. We think in particular of the work of Erik Cohen on type relationships “ open ended » between bar girls and Western tourists (whom the author only cites in the conclusion), to those on romantic correspondence, and to research on “ whitening » moral funds from sexual commerce through an economy of offerings to the Buddhist pagoda aimed at acquiring meritorious acts.
Despite these remarks, this work remains an important contribution in many respects: it deepens the fragmented knowledge on the sex trade in Cambodia, proposes an original conceptual framework which allows us to overcome the impasses of the “ prostitution », and consolidates a field of research polluted by gray literature.