Jason Derulo’s “Talk Dirty” reeks of sex tourism
The darker side of an infectious new radio hit
I’ll be the first to admit that “Talk Dirty” was stuck in my head the past few days. The track’s catchy Middle Eastern hook is enough to make anyone feel like a blinged-out bedouin who’s all about globetrotting.
But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the lyrics have a sinister edge. I recently decided to dissect the catchy chart-climber to determine whether the “international oral sex” described in the song is consensual. I asked the question, “What would Derulo’s foreign ladies tell him if he understood more than just bedroom talk?”
Boarding Call: Now Seating First-Class Predators
Derulo sings that he doesn’t “speak the language” before professing that he knows what girls want and need (insert suggestive eyebrow raise) in a number of countries and major cities around the globe. He names New York, Haiti, London and Taiwan. In the bridge, he also mentions having a threesome in Rio — presumably Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This erotic itinerary raises some questions about Derulo’s intentions, because two of the five destinations listed — Brazil and Haiti — are known to be breeding grounds for sex tourism. (The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus defines sex tourism as “the act of travelling to another country for the purpose of paying to have sex, especially with children.”)
An FBI article on the bureau’s Violent Crimes Against Children program sheds some harrowing light on Brazilian child sex tourism (CST):
“American countries such as Costa Rica, Mexico, and Brazil are also emerging destinations for CST. An estimated 25 percent of child sex tourists in the above Southeast Asian countries are U.S. citizens, whereas an estimated 80 percent of CST offenders in Latin American countries are U.S. citizens.”
And contrary to what Derulo might think, young women in Haiti don’t need a luxurious night with an American pop star — they need the “luxuries” he takes for granted. ECPAT International, a unified group of organizations that combat the exploitation of minors, lists environmental factors that increase a child’s vulnerability for the sex industry — “poverty and economic inequality, illiteracy, lack of education, gender inequality, political and social instability, natural disasters, organised crime, racial or religious discrimination, and HIV status” — many of which are found in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
An unsettling Miami Herald article published in 2010 highlights the plight of Haitian girls who turned to prostitution in the wake of disaster. The following passage pertains to those who found their way into brothels in the neighboring Dominican Republic months after the devastating Haitian earthquake.
“Another young man who introduced himself as a tour guide boasts that he has ‘Haitian girls of all ages.’ The young man described in aberrant detail the shape of the developing body of a 12-year-old. ‘Her (breasts) are still growing.’
The industry thrives, and has even become competitive to the point where young Dominican prostitutes complain that Haitian girls who arrived after the earthquake are cutting into their business and about to outnumber them.
‘Men who have been here before are confident that the police won’t arrest them if they pick up the younger girls,’ said one Dominican girl, age 18, who declined to give her name, fearing reproach from her friends for talking to reporters.”
Of Musicians and Monsters
Has Jason Derulo ever spent an evening with a child prostitute in Brazil or Haiti? Probably not. But there are many U.S. citizens who have, and it’s safe to say they’ve found their anthem.
As the “Talk Dirty” music video wraps up, a young Asian woman looks at the camera, giggles and naively says, “What? I don’t understand.” I have to wonder how many times those same words have left the lips of girls about to endure unspeakable events at the hands of monsters on vacation.
Click here to support the International Justice Mission, a human rights organization that rescues victims trapped by sexual exploitation.
