300 words essay and 100 words peer review

What is the Relationship between Sex/Love and Transactions in This Week’s Readings?

As Brennan noted, two Dominican male resort workers met and got married within two months. The wedding was interpreted as being transactional by both the Dominican authorities and as well the foreign authorities. The males were classified as sex workers and thus were seen as working for material things as opposed to having sexual relationships. The wedding was perceived as a pretense, with everyone doubting the legitimacy of the relationship in this case. The only reason why this was being perceived as being a transaction was because of the differences in power distribution. In this case, since the Dominican males are seen as taking advantage of the English girls and thus their relationship is construed as being a pretense and a transaction in which they expect to benefit from work visas in the United States. 

The author also explores the relationship between sex workers and their European clients. In the quest to understand the notion of love, he explores some types of marriages where sex workers engage men from European countries in a transactional relationship. In this case, the marriage is not out of emotion, but rather strategic to allow them to move to the target countries in search of better opportunities. They may also pay the European men for transactional marriage whereby they acquire the legal residence status, but still, continue indulging in prostitution legally. This creates a new kind of arrangement for married prostitution workers. In most cases, where marriage involves people from different social classes, it is impossible to escape public scrutiny as people attempt to find the motive behind the union. As Brennan noted, the relationship between poor black women and rich white men is seen as a point of transfer of power between the two. The women in such relationships hold lesser power and will be disadvantaged beyond their emotions if the relationship was to end.