Sextravel

Sextravel

Sextravel

 

What made these tongue in cheek was the fact that these two stereotypes were common in France at the time–the result of French anxiety about unchecked labor migration from Eastern Europe, especially in categories of work seen as trades or lower skill in France, i.e., nurse rather than physician.

Is this promoting sex travel, even if it is making fun of French anxieties about labor migration? Even if it is not, it skates very close to the edge of thin ice. As a historian of Eastern Europe (or what we used to call Eastern Europe), I’m especially interested in these kinds of examples of how places like Poland are portrayed in “the West.” This example turns that on its head, because it is Poles using those images for their own purposes, with the specific intent of profiting on those images.

At some point, I’d love to find a follow up survey on whether this campaign produced what was intended–greater French tourist spending in Poland? But I’d also know if Polish police or NGOs working on the issue of sex trafficking noted an increase (or not) in sex travel to Poland?