In Search of the Big Bamboo

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Older female tourists are, of course, more circumspect, preferring to entertain their lovers in rented apartments or condominiums. The young men, likewise, wish to avoid being seen in public with these companions, because West Indian society tends to frown upon relationships between younger men and older women. In McMillan's book, when Stella meets Winston's parents, she suffers such a barrage of criticism about her age that she nearly flees their house. A number of my informants insist that they avoid the older tourists. But like the pioneering dowagers of the late 19th century, these women always seem to find willing companions.

The most curious thing about Caribbean sex tourism is how banal the sex can be. In accordance with local tradition, beach boys and rent-a-dreads prefer straight sex. They tolerate few deviations from the missionary position, and they perform no cunnilingus—the West Indian male's aversion to "eating poom poom" is well known. The island hustler approaches sex with a female tourist as if he is doing her a favor. Fellatio is acceptable, but foreplay is generally limited. Kissing is kept to a minimum. The entire sexual service is often permeated with indifference.

So what's all the fuss about? Many Caribbean women may well be wondering the same thing. The West Indian academic Everold Hosein conducted in-depth interviews with 112 women in 12 Caribbean countries, including Barbados and Jamaica. Most interviewees said they often faked orgasms while making love. Women in the study complained that men usually rushed perfunctorily through sex and tended to be ignorant about female sexuality. Hosein concluded that most women in the study did not have a satisfying sex life: He wrote that the average West Indian man's "understanding of good sex is restricted to painful banging."

The reaction to Hosein's highly publicized study was predictably vitriolic. Men complained that it was not scientific, that the women interviewed were not representative, that the sample size was too small. Men across Jamaica volunteered to give the interviewees "de fock of dey lives." There was more macho talk throughout the islands, while some women stood by their lovers. A phone-in organized by the Barbadian Daily Nation had one man complaining that all 13 Barbadian women interviewed were lesbians, while another opined that Barbadian women were sexually repressed. A third man posed this question: If Caribbean men are so bad in bed, why is it that beach-bumming "brings droves of foreigners to our shores every year"?

Why indeed? While Euro-American women flock to the Caribbean in pursuit of the big bamboo, the women of the Caribbean are speaking openly of their partners' insensitivity and ignorance—and, as the Daily Nation reported, they may be becoming more sexually independent, resorting increasingly to masturbation and sex toys. Perhaps Caribbean women are more demanding. Or perhaps their Euro-American counterparts are prepared to accept their nights with the big bamboo as just another holiday activity: pleasurable, if not completely satisfying, like tourist attractions everywhere.

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