Privileging the male gaze: Gendered tourism landscapes

Abstract

Much of the extant work on gender and tourism concerns employment patterns and sex tourism. However, any feminist analysis of tourism must encompass a critique of gender relations in the production and consumption of tourism experiences and images; this is the central theme of this article. It begins by discussing the gendered nature of society and then reviews work on tourism and gender. It further develops the concept of gendered tourism landscapes and discusses the interrelationship between the language of patriarchy and (hetero)sexuality and the language of tourism promotion. The article concludes that the language and imagery of promotion privileges the male, heterosexual gaze. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.