Acclaimed documentary film-maker Monica Garnsey investigates the parts of the world where prostitution has become a mainstream career choice for young women.In Venezuela, where men travel over for the ‘real girlfriend experience’, and in parts of north-east Thailand, where it has replaced rice as the driver of the local economy and women sets their sights on marrying a rich westerner.
Episode 2: the girlfriend experience – Venezuela
Hotelier Paul Baxter gets all sorts at his Venezuelan island resort: doctors, lawyers, policemen, athletes. But they all have one thing in common: they’re sex tourists.
Baxter’s resort is really a brothel with a difference: “Instead of providing a prostitute for just one hour a day, this gives a 24-hour experience,” he explains. When guests arrive, they pick from a line-up of prospective companions, who then move into the men’s rooms as a “girlfriend for hire”.
This fly-on-the-wall doco, which benefits from astonishingly frank and unfettered access, follows the women as they deal with poor pay, diseased penises (“his dick looks like a corn cob,” one of the staff complains) and revolting regulars such as Canadian Bob Fever: a big, buttery ball of blubber who believes the women enjoy his company.