UC Santa Barbara

Interactive, online sex work is a relatively new and undertheorized industry in the sex trade. Research in sex work has uncovered rich and complicated histories of Black sexualities and their connections to global capitalism and imperialist projects. However, understanding Latinas and Latinidad in the context of sexual labor and global economies has not been adequately captured. Research on online sex work has begun to scratch the service of our understanding of how racialized sexualities transcend borders through virtual space to meet the high demand for “exotic” sexualities. In this interdisciplinary study, I examine the intentional creation of "The Latina Body" in the translational context to understand how trade agreements and public policy help shape a desire for The Latina Body. I use sex work studies as an essential framework here because, like Black sexualities, Latina sexualities are entwined with legacies of imperialism and economical extraction and exploitation. My study adds to this conversation by theorizing The Latina Body as a strategically manufactured imaginary that erases Blackness and Indigeneity from the mythology of Latinidad to create a palatable desire from the United States into the Global South. These desires also create industries based on this logic, such as sexual economies like digital sex work. I am intervening primarily in decolonial theory, political economy, labor studies, Chicanx studies, and sex work studies to create a sub-area that I call the political economy of Latina sexualities. Through this framework, I study The Latina Body in popular culture and online pornography to answer the following research questions: 1) How does U.S. foreign policy aid in creating The Latina Body? 2) How does The Latina Body become a consumable product born from colonialism and imperialist logic? 3) How are racialized online sexual economies created in countries like Colombia and the U.S.? 4) Why do Latina sex workers invoke or refuse narratives of racialized sexualities in their online sex work? For the first chapter, I conducted a content analysis of U.S. trade policies with Latin American countries. These policies are accompanied by media campaigns that position Latina sexualities as metaphors for bountiful land. I also analyze media representations of Latina sexualities to understand the creation of The Latina Body in the public imaginary. The second chapter examines AfroLatina rap artist Cardi B and her social media presence as a former dancer in New York City. I conducted a discourse analysis of her video narratives on the social media platform, Instagram, to theorize her explicit sex worker discourse through her lived experience as a Black Latina. I note how she signals Black Latinidad and desires through her work to disrupt notions of respectable femininity and signal often-incomprehensible defiance of gendered labor. In the third chapter, I look at digital sex workers on the subscription-based website Onlyfans.com to analyze the surveillance mechanisms of online pornography. I interviewed both cis and trans-Latinas who sell content online to understand how they navigate their gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and national identities in their work. The fourth chapter turns to the adult webcam platform Chaturbate.com. I utilize online Virtual Ethnography to travel to Colombia, the world’s second-largest producer of webcam models per capita. Colombia experiences economic instability due to U.S. trade policies. Meanwhile, the webcam industry illuminates a desire from U.S. consumers to travel virtually to Colombia and consume The Latina Body. The webcam industry is a stabilizing industry. "The Latina Body" is the contradiction that allows global capitalism to continue to seem logical. Its creation has facilitated exploitative trade agreements and has contributed to exponential economic growth in the camming industry. Drawing on decolonial theory, Latin American studies, theories of political economy, sociology, sex work studies, Chicana feminisms, and feminist studies, this study introduces new perspectives and areas of research for Latina sexualities and argues for the integration of sex work in our understandings of racialized sexualities. It is one of the few studies that approach Latina sexualities through the lens of sex work to better understand the global processes of capitalism and economic expansion. I posit that sex work as a labor category can teach us about how Latinas interface with global operations and how they learn to flirt with, to fuck, and to taunt the power dynamics they interface with. This study moves beyond the debate of sex work as either exploitative or empowering to advance our understanding of the legacies of colonialism and how these legacies influence our relationships with global markets.