Exotic sex: diversity, ethnicity, whiteness and local prices

Hong Kong brothel sign

Chinese Girl 250
Hong Kong Girl 250
Malay Girl 200
Philippine Girl 200
Russian Girl 590

Following up on whiteness and diversity in New Zealand’s sex industry, here’s a reminder of the variability of the ‘exotic’ and its consequent pricing. In another post, I reproduced a punter’s report on how much various sorts of karaoke services run. On the Hong Kong brothel sign to the left, the bits in English show that prices differ by nationality or geography. Now thanks to Leon Rocha, here’s a translation of the Chinese showing others advertised traits.

Many researchers and rights advocates would like to ignore the way colour and phenotype influence business practices, preferences and stigma, but I think it’s better to look them squarely in the face. Perceptions of more and less attractive are central to the sex industry.

Yellow panel, from left to right, top to bottom
1st row: Pageants from many countries
2nd: Many beauties like clouds [i.e. countless numbers]
3rd: The best service
4th: Pick/choose anything you like
5th: Welcome
Red panel
1st: Gentle Girls from Up North
2nd: Incredibly Hot Local Girl
3rd: White and Clean Malay
4th: Passionate Filipinos
5th: Blonde Foreign Girl
Orange panel
1st: Innocent virgins
2nd: Office Ladies [OL] with long legs
3rd: Beer Babes
4th: [snippet] probably something to do with Karaoke

So we see how the marketing manager for the brothel not only highlights country-names but also innocence, passion, cleanliness, long legs, a liking for beer and associations with offices. Note that the presumably less exotic local girl makes up for it through hotness, and the white person is Malaysian. Chinese girls from the north are advertised as gentle. And although the blonde Russian commands the highest price in this place at this time, she won’t be perceived as more than twice as desirable everywhere she goes.

– Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

8 thoughts on “Exotic sex: diversity, ethnicity, whiteness and local prices

  1. Cycads

    I’ve seen this photo on another blog which asked why Malay women do not command a higher price considering our relative ‘exoticity’. I happen to be a Malay woman and women like myself do not look anything White at all. Also, why would whiteness make up for our supposed lack of desirability?

    Reply
  2. laura agustin Post author

    Your comment illustrates the fantasy aspect of the marketing, its irrationality. It’s almost as though the person making up the tags was just stringing together random words associated with sex and beauty.

    Reply
  3. Leon

    Number of possible explanations: the pricing may somewhat reflect the Chinese “racial hierarchy” i.e. “white” on top, the “yellow races” in the middle, the “brown races” in the bottom. Prejudice against Malay, Filipino and Indonesian women does exist in Hong Kong as they are thought of as a “lower race”, working for baser jobs (as servants and maids). Perhaps it’s supply and demand; the clientele may prefer others over Malays and Filipinoes. On the other hand, the pricing could reflect something else entirely: Malay and Filipino women who work as prostitutes in Hong Kong could well be illegally staying in the city, and thus whoever controlled and exploited these women could cut down the amount of money they pay these women — though this would also apply to the “gentle girls up north” (i.e. mainland Chinese), also very likely to be working and staying illegally in Hong Kong.

    Reply
  4. JP Roberts

    My questions: do the customers make choices based on the ways the women are advertised too? How does the supply/demand axis get played out in reality? There’s so much to think about, and so many ways we can interpret this ad ; its origin, its consequences and its effect on the setting and on the wider social scale.

    Reply
  5. swoplv

    There was much of this type of racial/ethnic differentiation in Japan when I stripped there. Interestingly, in the “foreign/white” clubs in which I worked, there would often be a couple of Japanese women working as well who spoke perfect English. They would by far make the most $$ on average. But “white” was definitely a novelty there.

    I also stripped for fun at a club in Tel-Aviv (in exchange for entrance fees for myself and my friends on Purim), where I was invited to work. The work was stripping downstairs and prostitution upstairs, and most women working there were from Russia and the Ukraine. I asked how much one earned for going upstairs, and it worked out to be the equivalent of US$50. I (half) jokingly said I would be happy to accept if they could get me $1000 for each trip upstairs, and the man eagerly informed me he could get me US$500 per trip upstairs.

    And in Greece when I stripped there, I worked with mostly Russian women who looked like they just jumped out of a James Bond movie- absolutely stunning women. But I always seemed to get more attention only because I was American. Here, however, it didn’t feel good. It was as if the customers were looking at me like I was a circus flea- to see what tricks I might perform for them. The inevitable look of condescension on their faces… I will never forget it. Fascinating.

    Having come from a country where women from other countries are exoticised, it was interesting to be exoticised myself, and interesting to see the different ways in which I was. Even in Australia and England I was exoticised…

    Reply
  6. Lee Todd

    Among cultures there is also favoritism.

    In India, Japan, and the Philippines there is favortism towards lighter skinned people.

    WHatever….

    Reply
  7. David Lee

    I know Caucasian Fetish sounds bad, and I’ve been trying to rectify that psychological disease all my life. But today when I passed over a brothel in Mong Kok and skimmed over the ‘menu’, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of excitement. Am I a really horrible person? Is prostitution bad? God, I’m just 17, and I feel so confused. Can anyone give me some advise?

    Reply

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