That Playfulness of White Masculinity - Essay Example

Running header: Tourism and Gender. Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: Introduction My identity essay focuses on the work of Susan Frohlick from the University of Manitoba Canada. Of particular interest is her work titled ‘That playfulness of white masculinity’. Her work in tourism studies as well as her articles has provided new challenges as well as exciting possibilities for those scholars interested in gaining knowledge on gender, sexuality and tourism. Frohlick's work is a major milestone in tourism studies which is centered on gender and sexuality in tourism. Her work provides specific contribution to the study of sexualities, as well as heterosexuality in tourism. While there are numerous researches in other areas of tourism, researchers have failed to research on heterosexuality of tourism which is what she concentrates on. My essay is aimed at addressing the issue of sexuality, gender and tourism. In the essay, I pay close attention to Frohlick's work on masculinization of tourism and how she brings out the sexuality issues in tourism in her research. Of particular interest is how she goes beyond the current norms in tourism studies. My essay also highlights other tourism scholars that have also researched on gender, sexuality and tourism in a bid to highlight the uniqueness of Frohlick's work. I then highlight the areas of interest that emanate from her work. I then conclude that more work needs to be done so as to correct the notion that tourism is about masculinity in a bid to encourage heterosexuality in tourism. Gender and tourism Susan Frohlick who is a lecturer at the University of Manitoba in Canada uses a very unique approach to examine the subject of gender and tourism. One of her articles titled Mediating masculinities and adventure at mountain film festivals is an interesting one. She uses interviews as her mode of research on how the genders participate in tourism and how they view tourism. However, her article and her opinion seem to lean more towards how women participate in tourism, their space and role in tourism. In so doing, this helps us to also find how men participate in tourism as well as their place and space in tourism. Frohlick critically examines how women understand and talk about the spate of images of men's bodies and narratives of masculinities portrayed in the film festivals, the pleasures and identifications with the masculine subjects and narratives which capture the interests of women in the films, the different versions of masculine adventure objects constructed in the festivals since hegemonic masculinity is not a fixed one as well as how women mediate their locations in an adventure imaginary through these various masculinities. Frohlick not only helps us to understand women participation in the film festivals but also their space and place in tourism in general. This gives a picture of the level of participation of women in adventure as well as the kind of adventure women participate in. It also makes us see the role of culture and stereotypes in influencing women participation in tourism. In addition, her answers to the issues also help us to understand the space and place of men in tourism in general. As such, a number of themes emerge and are carefully examined in this paper. A critical examination of Frohlick is done thorough a number of themes as discussed below. Identity through space and place Frohlick helps us understand the space and place occupied by each gender in tourism through her own comments on what she observes in the film festivals as an attendee as well as through the responses she gets from the twenty five women she involves in her research. Right form the onset, there seems to lack women who actively participate in the film festivals either as climbers, paddlers, cyclers or even in other adventure sports. From her comments and even from the comments of other women attending the film festivals, there seems to lack women participation in the festivals as film makers or actors in the film. This portrays women as either lacking interest in adventure or being kept from participating deliberately by culture and stereotypes. As a matter of fact, even where women appear in the films, their roles seem to be much diminished only appearing in the less tough adventure events. For instance, Frohlick says that women are only portrayed as participants in simple sports such as cycling and paddling but when it comes to mountain climbing or other tough adventure sports; women have been portrayed as being absent. When they do participate in the climbing they are only rarely shown when complaining of slippery rocks. This effectively paints a picture of adventure being a masculinity affair. This is because in all the instances in her article, men have been portrayed as the active participants both in the film making and in the actual adventure. Tourism or adventure is thus portrayed as a masculinity affair and as a show of adrenaline and testerone as far as actual participation is concerned. It therefore seems that women can not participate in adventure as they lack the muscles and masculinity. As one of her interviewee puts it when it comes to adventure, she either has to stay home and relax or make herself pretty or become a man by participating. This shows how adventure has been made a masculinity affair. However, when it comes to consuming the tourism products, women are now seen to become active participants. Frohlick says that the audience in the film she attends is usually gender balanced and at times more women participate as audience despite there being no women participants in the films. She says that the female audience in the film she participates in range from 300 to 3000 depending on the film location. This reduces women’s role in adventure to just that of consumers or viewers while men are portrayed as the people behind the scene and who actually benefit from tourism. This leads Frohlick to conclude that women are only soft participants while men are hard participants. Similar claims have been voiced by Mackinnon (2009,30) who claims that although women drive the tourism industry, the real beneficiaries are men. To her, it seems that women have no space or place in tourism apart from working for wages. However, this view is contradicted by Branson (2010,145) who says that women are as good as men as far as adventure is concerned and blames the media for portraying women as non participants in the industry. Gender in relation to power in tourism As earlier stated tourism/adventure has been portrayed as an avenue for show of power and might. It has been greatly portrayed as a masculine affair. Even company's advertising adventure activities such as national geographic traveler magazine and the explorer television seem to concentrate on masculinity in their adverts. They do this as a show of power. Frohlick portrays men as the actual participants in the adventure events and film participation while women only appear as audience for the film festivals. Women are thus only bombarded with images full of masculinity in the films they watch that have little or no women participation. In real life, women are seen as to actively participate in provision of tourism services in places such as hotels for wages while men are seen as the actual participants in tourism. Even some women seem to agree that tourism is a matter of masculinity when they complain of a film lacking the masculine feel. From the interview, it seems that women are portrayed as inactive participants due to their lack of masculinity. Frohlick’s claim is echoed by Ottovon (2010,65) who States that it seems that tourism can no longer be regarded as a heterosexual affair but as a masculinity affair due to the diminished role of women in tourism. Gender and sexuality in tourism In Frohlick’s article, ‘That playfulness of white masculinity', the issue of gender and sexuality in tourism has been discussed at length. In fact, the article concerns itself with Women's articulation of gendered identities of feminine and masculine subjectivities amidst overwhelmingly masculinized visual media at the mountain film festivals. The idea behind the film festival being over masculinized is based on a notion that men's bodies are all the same and hence neutral. But can this really be the case? This is challenged by some of the viewers who see this allegation as being vague by claiming that it depends with individual viewers. It is difficult to determine whether participants/subjects in the films act based on their sexuality or not. This is because at times their masculine nature is seen to dominate the films while in other instances they act just as human beings. Although the subject of sexuality is hard to determine and may depend on the viewers, participants seem to agree that film subjects should participate as human beings and not based on their sexuality. The issue of gender and sexuality has also been discussed by Hughes (2009, 70) where he discusses participation of women in sexual tourism especially in the third world. However, both Frohlick and Hughes seem to agree that the issue of gender and sexuality greatly affects tourism. Understanding gender relations in tourism Frohlick (2005) greatly examines the issue of gender relations in tourism. Even in their role as spectators, women have been portrayed to shape the film festival as they provide feed back to the film makers and participants in adventures. This view is similar to the one held by Ferguson (2004, 111) who states that good gender relations are important for the success of the tourism industry. Oliny(2006,27) claims that in real life, despite the fact that women are seen to participate more as service providers in tourism as opposed to men who are mostly the actual tourists, they are the one who keep the industry going by providing high class services and providing feedback to service providers. Although Frohlick has portrayed the film festival as a masculinity affair and hence the tourism industry, it is worth noting that some factors militate against women's active participation in tourism. Maxwell,2008) conducted a study which found the biggest challenge being the stereotype that adventure activities can only be enjoyable when they have a masculine touch. For instance, even some women interviewed seem to have a notion that an event is made more adventurous say when the participants get injured or go without food for days. This makes the stereotype appear real since men are known to be tough. The media also does not help the situation. It seems that the media has adamantly refused to portray women as active participants in the adventure industry. This can be seen even from the film festival. In addition, women are seen as being shy from participating in hard adventure but are contented in participating as spectators. Women are also seen as greatly respecting the laws and cultures of locals in their adventures and hence this keeps them from adventuring places that are restricted (Maxwell, 2008,30). Men on the other hand have been portrayed as being the active participants in tourism willing even to trespass legal bounds in the spirit of adventure. They also participate in adventure activities that are more daring and energy intensive. However, this not withstanding, the role of each gender in tourism can not be overemphasized as each gender has a place and a space in tourism. Issues that arise from Frohlick’s article Two issues arising from Frohlick’s work call for further study and research. These issues include gender and sexuality in tourism as well as women and tourism. Frohlick has greatly explored the issue of gender and sexuality in tourism. She has tried to demonstrate that the film festival and hence adventure has been so masculinized. Her opinion seems to be that adventure is not adventure unless it portrays masculinity. However, there seems to be very little literature to support her position. As such, there is need for more research to either prove or disapprove this position. In addition, there is need for more research to establish whether the trend observed in the film festival extends to the entire tourism industry. This will then form the basis of rectifying the situation. In addition, it has been observed that due to the masculinized nature of adventure, women's participation in adventure has been a limited one. Women's place and space in tourism has thus been reduced to that of consumers or spectators. As she puts it, women are only involved in soft adventure and not hard one. This call for further study to establish whether women participation in tourism is as diminished as has been established in film festival and adventure. Further studies also need to be conducted to establish other reasons that might have contributed to dismal participation by women in tourism and hence come up with ways of rectifying the situation. In so doing, tourism will cease to be a masculinity affair but a heterosexual one. Conclusion As has been observed in Frohlick's work, adventure has been so much masculinized with women's place and role being minimized to just being spectators. The same can also be concluded of other sectors of tourism. As such, it has been portrayed as if tourism is not tourism unless it is masculine. As such, women participation in tourism other than as spectators has been found wanting. This calls for further studies in order to correct this notion and enhance women participation in tourism. References: Mackinnon, T2009, Gender and tourism, International Tours and travel Journal, vol.12, no.2, pp.25- 30. Branson, D2010, Heterosexuality of tourism, SEAN Journal of Tourism and Hospitality research, vol.25, no.18, pp.142-147. Hughes, J2009, Tourism in the modern world, International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality research vol.148, no.6, pp.65-78. Ferguson, N2004, Women and tourism, International Journal of hospitality and Tourism Administration, vol.152, no.2, pp.108-112. Maxwell, H2008, Gender, sexuality and tourism, Journal of interpretation research, vol.10 no.25, pp22-35. Oliny, G2006, European women participation in tourism, Journal of leisure research, vol.11 no.3, pp.25-29. Frohlick, S2005, That playfulness of white masculinity: Mediating masculinity and adventure at mountain film festivals, Tourist studies, vol.5, no.2, pp175-193. Read More