Sexualités Transactionnelles et backlash en Martinique

• Main Authors: Mylenn Zobda Zebina, Myriam Thirot, Sylvie Merle
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institut Pluridisciplinaire pour les Etudes sur l'Amérique Latine 2019-07-01
• Series: L'Ordinaire des Amériques
• Subjects: Transactional sexualities; Martinique; LGBT; sexual double standards; gender policing
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/orda/4789

Transactional sexualities (TS) include a variety of sexual practices that lead to material and/or financial advantages that are explicitly or implicitly expected from partners/clients. These range from prostitution in the strict sense (“extraordinary” sexuality) to sexual-economic exchanges with a “resourceful” partner (“ordinary” sexuality). While previous research has focused exclusively on prostitution as practiced by foreign women in Martinique, this study explores TS sexual practices more broadly. The TS of both foreign and local women in Martinique, homosexual men, heterosexuals, and transwomen reveal sexual behaviors that take many forms, including several that incite stigmatization and backlash, while others appear more socially accepted. Which practices face the most resistance? How is that resistance expressed? What strategies do stigmatized or potentially stigmatized people deploy to combat it? These questions contribute to broader reflections on the role of gender in defining sexuality in Martinique. Is this a situation in which the sexual double standard defined by social sexual roles (gender and the social relation it implies) is contested or is this a situation in which it is reinforced through backlash and gender policing?