Gender and the body in leisure and tourism

Abstract

This chapter provides a review of research and theory related to gender relations in the fields of leisure and tourism. It examines initial feminist theoretical reactions to the predominantly male theorists of the 1970s and to such theorizing. Within the context of leisure and tourism, it explores poststructuralist ideas of multiple, gendered subjectivities and access to alternative gender discourses which allow for the re-writing of masculine and feminine scripts. It explores sites of leisure and tourism as culturally gendered enclaves which can offer opportunity for struggle and resistance to hegemonic masculinity. Structural constraints on women’s leisure are not ignored; they are placed in tension with women’s leisure and tourism opportunities. The chapter reviews key authors and ideas in the development of our understanding of gender, body and space in the context of gender relations in leisure and tourism, and identifies the possibilities for change that arise from theorizing bodies as “becoming” rather than as “static”.