Abstract

BRINGAS, Nora Leticia  and  GAXIOLA, Ruth. Códigos encubiertos: Prostitución de varones y turismo sexual en Tijuana, México. Estud. perspect. tur. [online]. 2015, vol.24, n.4, pp.825-847. ISSN 1851-1732.

Covert Codes. Male Prostitution and Sex Tourism in Tijuana, México. This article tackles the phenomenon of male sex tourism in Tijuana from a spatial perspective. The authors examine the way male sex workers use and appropriate space through their interactions with male tourists, and how such interactions give shape to sex tourism spaces according to the variables of accessibility, opportunity and constraint. Instrumental to the identification of the areas of prostitution were non-participant observation and in-depth interviews with male sex workers who offer their services to male tourists. Preliminary findings show that these sex workers are not passive users of the territories in which they work, but rather they appropriate space and transform it into safe places, free from stigma and social pressure, and from police harassment.

Keywords : Male sex workers; Socio-spatial practices; Tijuana; Sex tourism spaces.