ANTHROP 1AA3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Sex Tourism, Gender Role, Chauvinism
14 Sep 2016
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Sexism in the Tourism Industry
Since the earliest hominids, there has always been specific roles and activities that have been deemed appropriate
for one gender and immoral for the next. There are boundless amounts of societies that share similar concepts of gender
roles and relations. Often times this leads to inequality and chauvinism. The tourism industry is just one aspect of past and
modern lifestyles that evidently depict gender stereotypes through the ideologies of women trying escaping current
lifestyles, gender categorizing job roles, exotic female representations and sex tourism. Tourism is one of the fastest
growing industries and without the typecasting of masculinity and femininity it would not nearly be as dominant as it is
today. Nonetheless, it is a highly controversial issue because it is supremely based unjust relationships of power.
The impression of travel has often been recognized as a masculinized concept. In countless societies being
feminine usually means undertaking the caregiving role of parenthood and sticking within close quarters of the home.
Whilst being a man often is, “passport for travel”. (Enloe 2013:71) Irrationally, women are often blamed for the possible
harms they encounter if they are to leave the protection of their home. Nevertheless, there are many cases where women
have wanted to escape their dismal and limited lives of the household, and reach out to the unknown world beyond their
walls. In past cases, women have often had to dress up as men to escape the gender stereotype and gain passage to travel.
In the 1920’s Vita Sackville-West planned to elope to Paris with her woman lover, in a male disguise she felt liberated.
She wrote “I looked like a rather untidy young man. […] I walked […] through the streets of Paris. I, personally had never
felt so free in my life.” (Enloe 2013:71) This is just one example in the multitude of similar cases, in which a woman had
to portray herself as masculine to gain access to travel and be free of her cultural restrictions. Due to the notion that travel
has been stereotyped as masculine, women have received plentiful pressures when they wanted to escape their current
lifestyle.
Furthermore, stereotyping is also exhibited as many airlines and resorts have jobs that typically females only
have. This usually includes jobs referred to as the ‘low skilled’ professions. “On the ocean and skies: the international
business travelers are men, the service workers are women.” (Enloe 2013:77) Case in point, flight attendants are usually
women because these are jobs seen as more feminine, or unskilled. From past experience, it also holds true that men
usually have the jobs with more control, such as an airplane pilots or ship captains. This demonstrates gender roles
because men have the more masculine or controlling jobs. Not only do airlines demonstrate gender specific roles but
resorts share this similar characteristic. “Women in most societies are presumed to be naturally capable at cleaning,
washing, cooking, and serving. Since tourism companies need precisely these jobs done, they can keep labor costs low
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Document Summary
Since the earliest hominids, there has always been specific roles and activities that have been deemed appropriate for one gender and immoral for the next. There are boundless amounts of societies that share similar concepts of gender roles and relations. Often times this leads to inequality and chauvinism. The tourism industry is just one aspect of past and modern lifestyles that evidently depict gender stereotypes through the ideologies of women trying escaping current lifestyles, gender categorizing job roles, exotic female representations and sex tourism. Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries and without the typecasting of masculinity and femininity it would not nearly be as dominant as it is today. Nonetheless, it is a highly controversial issue because it is supremely based unjust relationships of power. The impression of travel has often been recognized as a masculinized concept. In countless societies being feminine usually means undertaking the caregiving role of parenthood and sticking within close quarters of the home.
