Kinky Sex on the Dockside?

Though you might think that all sex workers are sexually adventurous, many dockside sugar girls cling to a host of idiosyncratic sexual taboos. Some refuse oral sex, others kissing, and most balk at anal play. (These taboos can change if they're drunk or high, though.)

One reason for their "conservatism" is because, in Cape Town, they come from Christian and Muslim households where sex is fraught with ambivalence. So the women bring their anxieties about sex with them to their work. However, in contrast to other sectors (like escorting) where men expect to enjoy "no limits" sexual service, sugar girls can hold on to their taboos because their foreign seafaring clients often don't demand anything more than conventional intercourse.

Indeed, most dockside encounters never go into the realm of fantasy, like playing roles, wearing costumes or using artificial devices. Those sorts of situations are usually found in other sex sectors that are dominated by local and international whites.

For instance, one of dockside prostitutes I interviewed used to occasionally service European tourists. But she said that, compared to the seamen’s rather traditional tastes, these white johns were quite kinky.

One time she went with a German guy. After eating a big meal together at a Chinese restaurant, he took her to a hotel where the coffee tables in each room were made of glass. After they stripped for sex, he asked her to straddle the table so that he could lie below her and look up at her naked butt. Then he asked her to dump her bowels on top of the glass so that he could masturbate while he watched.

She couldn’t believe the request. But once he forked over a few thousand rands for the pleasure, she simply straddled the table and shat her sweet ‘n sour pork all over the show.

It was one of the strangest experiences in this lady's sexual career. But the more that she interacted with white tourists, the more she realized that these men were seeking unusual experiences, not just sex. One guy gave her a "golden shower" while she was in the bath-tub: he got a thrill from peeing on her.

And another fellow yelled out his own son's name while she was giving him a blow job.

Of course, human sexuality is incredibly diverse and complex. But that complexity seems to narrow in certain prostitution sectors. For while some men purposefully seek out prostitutes to make their wildest fantasies come true, the seafarers seem to be content with "conventional" sexual encounters.

Part of the reason for this, I suspect, is that the seafarers seek out sugar girls for more than just sex. They also crave companionship and conversation. The women provide this at the nightclubs, by hanging out with their men for hours: drinking, dancing, and chatting together. Thus sex is just one of many services the dockside prostitutes provide. It is part of a larger package of social amusements. The women can maintain their conservative (though promiscuous) sexual boundaries because the men will still be satisfied and will still pay.

What's the deal with your penis?!

Many dockside prostitutes in Cape Town & Durban say that Filipino seamen sew little plastic balls—ballitos—into the shaft of their penises.

Uh, what?!

When I first heard this, I couldn't believe it. But the ladies insist: oh yeah, those boys are NAUGHTY!

I learned this during the course of my research and was immediately curious. When I asked Filipino sailors whether it's true, most nonchalantly acknowledge it as a fairly common practice, especially amongst the older sailors. But they say it's dying out amongst the younger generation. (The "body modification" community calls this "pearling" or "genital beading."

When I ask why they do it, the seamen say that it makes them feel more "manly," more "part of the crew," and that it "makes the women enjoy sex more."

How do they do it? Most sailors insert their own ballitos (bulitas in Tagalog) by making a small incision in the shaft, then inserting the small silicon bead and sewing it shut. Some have a friend help. It's incredibly painful.

And as far as "styles" are concerned, three patterns stand out. The first is the single ballito on the top of the shaft. The second is a row of ballitos across the top of the penis, for maximum—bumpety-bump-bump-bump—clitoral stimulation. And the third, pictured above, is a comprehensive cover of ballitos around the shaft.

What was the inspiration? Filipinos say that they learned the practice from Japanese sailors. Yakuza (Japanese "mafia") members are known to do this and may have introduced it to the Asian seamen. The history remains vague.

So what do the women think? Most find it a strange custom and say it hurts. Some refuse to go with guys over this, taking it as a sign of poor character and health. But one woman I talked to got a twinkle in her eye and said, "yeah, those ballitos add a little something extra."

Indeed.

Sex Drugs Booze: Prostitutes' Chemical Coping

The Cape Times (16 April 2007)—paraphrasing a report on streetwalkers in Cape Town, Durban, and Jo'burg—says that "reducing the high levels of anxiety and fear normally associated with sex work is one of the reasons why sex workers use drugs."

Charles Parry, a director of the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Research Unit and co-author of the report, says that violence and fear are key for understanding chemical abuse. He also states that such alcohol and drug use inhibits safe sexual practices, enhancing the likelihood of HIV-transmission between clients and sex workers.

At seamen's nightclubs, all of the prostitutes drink and many also take drugs. The African women in Durban tend to go for dagga (marijuana) while the coloureds and whites of Cape Town may also add rock, tik, ecstacy, or Mandrax to the mix.

But they use chemicals to cope for quite different problems than streetwalkers. Since the women solicit in nightclubs, protected by bouncers, they are relatively free of client violence. When they go to a hotel or their apartment for sex, they are also in spaces that they have more control over than the foreign seafaring clients. Most dockside women report that, if they have ever been raped, molested, or abused, it has almost always been at the hands of relatives or local men. Unlike sailors, locals know what they can get away with.

Dockside women do not experience the same "anxiety" that streetwalkers do because they are not as exposed to negative legal attention (abusive cops), financial predators (pimps), or anonymous men (local johns). This is because police don't bother coming into the clubs, all the women are independent operators (no pimps), and everyone knows which ships the sailors belong to in case they need to complain.

The anxiety they feel is related to more mundane social and psychological stresses: shame, depression, boredom, financial worries, and low self-esteem. Many felt these anxieties before working in the clubs—due to childhood abuse, dysfunctional family lives, and low educational achievement—but the stigma of sex work exacerbates these feelings.

Almost everyone woman I've spoken to says "you can't do this work without drinking. It's not nice to go with a different man every night. It makes us sick to our stomachs. Drinking is the only way to deal with it." Some say that they must drink to "get wet" for intercourse, otherwise they will think too much about their "degrading" circumstances and remain "dry." Alcohol takes the edge off their shame and battered self-worth, they say.

But the women take drugs and alcohol for recreational purposes as well. As we know, plenty of people who are not involved in sex work drink and take drugs because they find it enjoyable. Most dockside women feel the same. Many enthusiastically report that "we LOVE alcohol!" Thus, there is an ambivalence as to whether these chemicals answer a need (which makes them seem helpless and less culpable for their actions) or a want (which highlights their sense of agency).

Either way, alcohol and drugs are a big part of life for dockside prostitutes. Few survive the business without struggling with addiction issues, health problems, or the consequences of drunk/high behavior (STIs or pregnancy due to unsafe sex).

Legal Prostitution at South Africa's World Cup?

South Africa's National Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi, wants to legalize public drinking and prostitution for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

According to the Cape Times (20 March 2007), "he suggested that the government adopt innovative ways of 'controlling' public drinking and prostitution." Selebi's deputy, Andre Prius, also proposed the creation of "red light" districts for fans' enjoyment. They both worry that, if the police must enforce this vice legislation, they will be overworked with petty concerns and the fans will be made to suffer.

While the idea of legalizing sex work is not new, the World Cup gives the proposal a sense of urgency and possibility.

But let's unpack some of the assumptions in the Commissioner's proposal:

FIRST, Selebi does not seek to legalize prostitution for the sake of the sex workers themselves. He bases his proposal on the convenience and happiness of a foreign sex-buying men.

This reveals a troubling gender bias. Since the Commissioner's rationale is not based on the rights or welfare of sex workers, it is not clear how legalization would benefit them in the long-run. Their needs are never mentioned. According to his public statements, a legalized sex industry would cater solely to the convenience of sex-buying men.

Though legalization would presumably free prostitutes from many abuses by police officers—and it might even offer some protection from client predations—the rationale behind the proposal reinforces their subordination to male desire.

SECOND, the timing of the proposal reveals that it is the hallowed status of the World Cup in South African discourse that makes Selebi's ideas seem practical and even desirable. But what about after the event?

Since the idea is motivated to deal with the circumstances of a unique situation, it is difficult to see what benefits will accrue to South Africans themselves. Will legalization be a special exception for a limited time, as some hope? Will it lead to substantive changes in the sex industry? Currently, the proposal panders to assumed foreign sexual inclinations but does not address the real concerns of South Africans for whom prostitution remains a difficult subject.

THIRD, by tying the legalization of prostitution to the legalization of public drinking, Selebi has the convenience a particular type of World Cup visitor in mind. He names them: soccer hooligans. Ostensibly, he wants to relieve the police of having to arrest masses of revelers.

But he need not "legalize" these activities to achieve his goals. A simpler solution would be "decriminalization." What's the difference? Decriminalization would allow prostitutes to ply their trade without legal interruption while legalization would add an element of government control and regulation to that work. Hence Prius' call for "controlled red light districts" (on the German World Cup model) rather than free reign for the sex workers (or public drinkers).

For many South Africans, Selebi's approach sounds reasonable. He links these proposals to the unique circumstances of the World Cup, which suggest that these laws might be temporary. And he promotes legalization rather than decriminalization, allowing the government to become "regulators"—rather than bystanders of—the vice industry. Thus, morally concerned citizens can trust that the police will not let things "get out of hand," but will in fact be "controlling" these dangerous trades.

My analysis here concerns the rights and welfare of vulnerable prostitutes. At the moment, Selebi's proposals hint at answering some of the long-standing problems facing sex workers, like the criminalization of their work that leads to police abuse and harassment. But the timing and rationale of his proposal shows that sex workers are not his main concern. He worries more about the happiness of free-wheeling, drunken, foreign johns.

However, just as the World Cup offers an opportunity for Selebi to forward the agenda of johns, so too does it offer sex worker activists the chance to push for the rights of a newly-valued class of laborers: prostitutes. It will be interesting to see how this debate continues, how parties uses the caché of the World Cup to advance their cause, and how soccer, sex and alcohol will continue to co-exist in the national imagination.

Sugar Girls & Seamen: A book

"Finally," you say, "a blog about dockside prostitution!"

Yes friend, the day has arrived. And here's why:

A few years ago, I interviewed an older coloured woman from District Six who used to "entertain" passing seamen in Cape Town. Her parents ran a "suikerhuisie" (Afrikaans sugar house, ie. brothel) and she and her sisters specialized in providing sexual recreation to West Indian and Black American sailors. That was in the 1960s and early 1970s. Then the apartheid government chucked them out of their homes along with all of the other coloureds, Africans, and Indians. She and her family were removed to the Cape Flats townships, far from the downtown docklands. Her parents gave up the business and she and her sisters went to work at clothing factories.

But today, she is a member of a powerful political party, a stalwart of its Women's League. I asked her: How did you go from being an "entertainer" in the old days to becoming an activist in liberation politics?

She said that the seamen opened her mind to the world beyond South Africa. In their sweaty post-coital embrace, the West Indian and Black American seafarers told her about the Civil Rights Movement, about Black Pride, about dignity and equality for all. In the smokey lounge, they spun smuggled James Brown records on the turntables and spoke of the racial struggles in the Americas. And they told her that, as a black woman, she was beautiful.

When I started researching my dissertation on port culture, I never imagined that dockside prostitutes might become politically conscientized by their work. But it makes perfect sense: their lives are characterized by intimate dealings with a ceaseless stream of seamen who share their cultures, ideas, languages, politics, styles, goods, currencies, and diseases. Dockside prostitutes are, in a way, the ultimate cosmopolitans. The world comes to them.

Over the past two years, I have been exploring dockside social relations. Besides sailing for two months on two cargo ships from Los Angeles to Cape Town and hanging out with all sorts of maritime personnel, much of my time has been spent considering the cultural dimensions of dockside prostitution. I've interviewed many ex-sugar girls, but have also spent countless evenings at the Cape Town & Durban nightclubs, chatting with the ladies, sailors, club owners, cabbies, cops, street urchins, and so on. Though all of these efforts were for my dissertation, I was recently asked to slide even deeper into this slippery world. I didn't say no.

A month ago I was approached by Jacana Press, a leading South African publisher (motto: We Publish What We Like), to write a popular book about the social dynamics of dockside solicitation & sex. Last week, I signed the contract. (They're stuck with me now!) Sugar Girls & Seamen is due for publication next year.

Though I am still busy fleshing out my dissertation—a mammoth task in itself—I could not pass up this chance to speak to a popular readership about my journey into this hidden world. The lives of the women, sailors, club owners, and cabbies are fascinating; my own experiences with them have been memorable, to say the least. Mind if I share them?

Despite the obvious appeal of such a topic—touching as it does on sex, culture, race, money, and bodily fluids—there is little literature available about it for the general public. Perhaps scholars assume the dockside world was scuttled after the Age of Sail or at the end of the passenger liner era. I'm looking forward to showing that, even if the romance of sail has passed, the sailors' romance has not. For a fistful of dollars, they can have all the romance they like!

I created this blog so that I can chart the progress of researching and writing the book and to critically reflect upon the process of literary creation. The blog will offer a glimpse not only into the dockside sex scene—and all of the characters in it—but will also reflect on the research and writing processes. Each week, I will add a new post that explores some aspect of the dockside world and my movements within it.

Just as entertainment documentaries show "the making of" different movies, this blog will offer a real-time exploration of my research and writing of Sugar Girls & Seamen: A Journey Into the World of Dockside Prostitution in South Africa. It will not duplicate the content of the book, but will offer brief snapshots of the dockside collage.

Strap yourself in for a wild ride!