Poverty is an obvious push factor for the reason as to why so many women have had to resort to prostitution in order to make a living and help with family financial needs. The Philippines has had a long history of foreign rule that has made it difficult for the government to stricken ties with its past imperial rulers. The American as well as the Japanese presence and increasingly the Europeans have made it easy for women to fall into the sex industry, since this is what the foreigners look for. The Philippines also has an unstable job market, high unemployment has experienced natural calamities in the early 1990s such as massive loss of land, property and jobs. The Philippine economy is wrought with debt and inflation, which does not make the country attractive to foreign investors. The unstable government and erratic environmental climate accustomed to having earthquakes and El Niño does not ensure investors.

Olongapo used to be a small fishing village but its conversion into a naval base by the American transformed it into a city of hotels, saunas, massage parlors, and women for sale. The Philippines has served as a popular R&R stop for Americans during the Vietnam War, Korean War and also during the Gulf War, since the sobering atmosphere of the Muslim countries necessitated the G.Is to find sexual satisfaction in the shores of another country. 7,000 to 10,000 sailors would disembark into the throngs of women ready to greet them because of poverty they face in life. The internal rape of the people and minds as well as the pejorative international reputation that the Philippines receives does more harm than good for the country regardless of the foreign income that is brought in (though when actually tabulated is very little). “The US uses the Third World like a man uses a prostitute. Flirts with her a little, pretends she is human, maybe spends a little money on her to make her pretty, then, when he has got what he wanted- the natural resources, control of the economy, a dumping ground for useless commodities, complete subservience- he treats her like a whore” (Thislewaite 54).

Then there was the US colonial rule until World War II when the Japanese occupied the Philippine lands. After the Japanese occupation the country was left in such ruins and poverty. “Desperate for American economic aid, the government of the Philippines agreed to ruinous trade agreements with the United States and a ninety-nine years lease on a number of military and naval bases in the Philippines over which the US government exercised virtually all territorial rights” (Thislewaite 52). The Americans built many stations such as air force and naval bases, communications centers, and naval radio centers. Subic Naval Base and Clark Air Force Base were the largest are considered a valuable strategic standpoint in the Northeast Asian region. The bases serve as a springboard for US intervention in the internal affairs of their host countries as well, which is a major force in neo-imperialism. What grew around the American bases and ports of arrival in the cities of Olongapo and Pampanga was a sexual service sector devoted to the American clientele.

The Philippines has been marred with the history of colonization starting with the Spanish rule. In pre-Spanish Philippines, women enjoyed relative equality with men, it was an egalitarian society that has respect for women and mothers. When the Spanish arrived they imposed Catholic patriarchy as well as the idea of white, Eurocentric supremacy. Women had to be subordinate to fathers, husbands, and priests. Many of the indigenous Filipinos were raped by the Spaniards and then transformed into prostitutes. This is the first incident of the usage of indigenous women’s bodies by the imperialist power, however it has continued with Americans and Japanese entering into the Philippines and using their economic and political prowess to extract raw materials, cheap labor, and female subordination. The Spanish colonial rule ended after the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War.

War and military occupation are detrimental side effects to poor countries and many more deteriorating side effects for women often go unrecognized. The Thai sex industry had its major start during the Vietnam War as their country was commissioned to be a station for American G.Is as a spot for R&R, or rest and relaxation. The Philippines also got its start as an R&R spot for American soldiers during the Vietnam War, however the sex industry grew after several American military bases were contracted such as Subic Naval Base, Clark Air Base, and the US Naval Communications Station.

“I was a “comfort woman” between the ages of 14 and 19. Most of the girls were 16 to 19 years old. They all had been abducted and brought to the camp like me. During those years I received about 12 soldiers by midnight. After midnight one soldier often stayed with me through the night. Weekends were much worse. I was forced to service men from early in the morning to late at night with almost no time to rest, then spend the rest of the night with yet another man. Frequently I did not have time for a meal. On days like this I became feverish. Some girls serviced up to 50 men a day.” (Jin Kyung-paeng, 72 year old former comfort woman)

The military socializes men into very violent worlds and emotional disconnect so that they begin to have little moral accountability and less regard for the sovereignty of women. The crimes that Korean comfort women experienced as sexual slaves during the Japanese occupation were devastating and little reparation has been paid to the women much less an apology by the Japanese government. The women were repeatedly raped and given #606, an arsenic that supposedly treated syphilis and prevented pregnancy.

The denigration and racism held by the military is reinforced by the dehumanizing military propaganda about the enemies, this is the reason that service men are complacent about the gross usage of foreign women as sexual objects. “War and preparation for war has been a major factor in the increasing number of women and children in the sex industry” (Thislewaite 113). The bodies of women become another means of dominance over the enemy, it is another form of military conquest. The Japanese military first used poor Japanese women to travel with them as comfort women, as World War II evolved the Japanese government and military committed more egregious crimes against women, and Korean women in particular, since they were considered the occupied country. “As the Japanese advanced in their attempts to colonize Asia in early twentieth Century, they kidnapped, deceived and forced approximately 200,00 Korean, 800 Taiwanese, 60,00 Indonesians, Chinese and Filipino women into brothels as sex slaves, whom they euphemistically called comfort women” (Thistlewaite 72).

Hypermasculinity within a culture’s structure is the cultivation of masculinity that especially emphasizes dominance, control and strength. Men are socialized to believe that women will and ought to serve their sexual needs and that access to women is their right, this is what the patriarchal view centers on- the idea of male superiority and women being considered as property. Male domination and entitlement comes with being the colonizing force- they feel that they have a right to the land and the tourists who now visit Asia on sex tours feel that they have a right to the people. “The sexual use of women is tied to men’s power to control and dominate those with less power, and their sense of entitlement extends to those perceived as vulnerable to domination” (Thislewaite 16).

The military is a large abuser of the sex industry, in many areas around the world where military bases have become set up there also grows an economy that is based on the sex industry in order to cater to the military’s needs. Many bases are crucial to the economic survival of their surrounding communities. The Philippines for instance, had many American army and air force bases in the country and as a result many bars, clubs, and hotels have been built around the base in order to serve the entertainment purposes of the G.Is. The military often acts as a reminder of colonial superiority and imperial overstretch especially when they are occupying a country. Not only does the military physically occupy a country but they also use the people in the occupied lands. Military men are inculcated with the ideas of racial superiority, patriotism, and hypermasculinization.

Westerners have come to view Thai women- and Asian women in general- as more tender than sex workers in the West, they are seen as more compliant, eager to please, and considerate. Western men like the docility of Asian women, this perception has become ingrained in them through the centuries of dealing with Asia through a colonialist standpoint. This is the reason for the popularity of Asian sex workers with Western men, they are given the sense of power over a “lower class” of human beings, they feel patriarchal as well as racial superiority, and Western men feel a sense of disconnect with their Asian prostitute as opposed to a Western prostitute since they attribute a feeling of “otherness” due to not considering the women as fully human. Western usage of Asian women is another detrimental effect of imperialism and First World prowess. Women and children are forced into dangerous exploitative measures and are used as commodities to satisfy the needs of the rich white man.

“The sex industries are the institutionalized sexual use, by the more powerful members of the male-dominant societies, of the less power. This involves financial transactions focused on the sexual use itself” (Thislewaite 15). Patriarchy and hierarchical dualism, which the social construction based on privileging one class and subordinating the other due to beliefs of superiority versus inferiority is highly ingrained within prostitution. Patriarchy has socialized society into believing in male dominance and their ownership of women and entitlement to women’s bodies as well as sexuality. A patriarchal framework of society coupled with racist overtones is what has made prostitution, specifically prostitution in Asia so prevalent as well as popular with Western men (American, Canadian, European, Japanese). There is a racist hierarchical dualism that is involved that gives rights to rich males to get on an aircraft and travel across the world in order to exercise power and money over others. Asian sex workers are seen as the “other”, the colonized and not fully human. “Traveling abroad for sex implies that you can do things with foreigners that you cannot do at home, which is a racist assumption” (Seabrook 2).

Poverty, unemployment, and the lack of formal jobs puts a major strain on women- as the men have a harder time securing employment women have to supplement the family income by working in the informal sector. Often times women are exploited as low skilled laborers and are paid very little for factory jobs, taking in people’s clothes to wash, and turning towards prostitution and the sex industry. Selling sex has become an important developmental tool in some Asian countries such as Thailand, Bali, Malaysia, and the Philippines. “Estimates claim that in Thailand, the sex industry became one of the largest contributors to the gross national product because it brought massive foreign capital into the economy” (Thislewaite 10). The exploitation of the rich Western neo-colonialists in the forms of military, businessmen, and tourists has fostered the growth of the sex industry in Asia making it the only lucrative source of income for the poor and uneducated women.

The feminization of poverty is a phenomenon that has been experienced the world over. Due to the changing global and economic networks that the international arena has experienced through capitalism, liberalization, privatization, and changes that have occurred after the Washington Consensus Third World countries have felt a new type of imperial outreach and neo-colonialism that has led to economic and social detriment for the people and land. The unchecked growth of globalization feeds on the poor robbing them of lands, exploiting their labor, and driving women as well as children into prostitution.