Analysis of sexual tourism has concentrated on the subjugation of women as devalued objects of exchange, trafficked between dominant and subordinate national universes. As Lévi-Strauss points out, however, while often understood to be items of exchange, women are also symbol generators in their own right. It is this symbolic-generating capacity that strengthens the international movement of Brazilian women as sexualized objects of exchange. Basing our analysis on fieldwork among tourists and prostitutes in Copacabana, we seek to demonstrate how women's ability to manipulate symbols potentializes the international movement of Brazilian women and foreign men.
Sexual Tourism; Prostitution; Copacabana; Trafficking of Women; Gringos