For years a little Philippine village had been famous for taking
tourists on boat trips to a scenic waterfall.  Western gays soon
discovered that many of the handsome, muscular boatmen were willing
to supplement their meager earnings with prostitution.  Soon, their
younger brothers were drawn into the game, and vacationing boy-lovers
arrived in increasing numbers.  In the mid-seventies, Western media
labeled the situation an example of child abuse and exploitation, and
local politicians built careers promising to crack down.  This book
is one man's recollection of the village when man/boy relationships
were tolerated, and even encouraged.  It's partly a nostalgic paean
to a boy-lover's lost paradise, partly a social document about boys'
sexuality as it can develop in a palliative environment. While Rawson's
memoir shows that the accounts of abuse were products of narrow prejudice,
his portrait of himself as a not-particularly-sensitive Westerner proves
that sex-tourism has complexities that deserve a more nuanced analysis.

 
 You Are Not Alone DVD
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