Navigating seas, negotiating sex: exploring risky sexual behaviours and relationships of seafarers

This thesis explores the risky sexual behaviours and relationships of seafarers in the context of commercial sex relations with sex workers in ports. This study is designed to shed light on why seafarers engage in these risky activities while away from home working on board ships. The study was conceived in the context of the increased vulnerability of seafarers to STIs including HIV. The study draws upon data collected from a qualitative study conducted in the city of Santos, Brazil. This location was chosen, as it is the largest port in Latin America and has a popular red light district to seafarers. In-depth interviews were conducted with sixty seafarers and non-seafarers. Ethnographic observations were carried out in the red light district and other places frequented by the seafarers such as the port, the seamen’s mission and parts of the city. This study shows how risk is represented, perceived, negotiated and experienced by seafarers through their behaviours and within their relationships with sex workers. The socio-cultural structures they are embedded in inform and contribute to their risk perception and predicaments. A major contributing element is a gendered maritime industry that perpetuates a hegemonic heterosexual masculine regime. The way seafarers negotiate risk is shown by the way they locate and reposition the body, sex and sexuality within various forms of commercial sex transactions including the practice of condom use