Marketing a nation by the performance of gendered, exotic bodies in sport and beauty contests: the case of Tahiti

Abstract

Gendered and exotic representations of French Polynesians continue to be produced, resisted and reappropriated in this postcolonial territory. This article analyses the colonial origins and the contemporary role of beauty pageants and traditional sport competitions in the (re)production of gendered ethnicities. The methodology includes analysis of brochures, media and entertainment emanating from the tourist industry, conjugated with a theoretical framework pertaining to the (re)production of social identities through social performance. While the role of marketed performances is to gain territorial celebrity and economic benefits, they rely on gendered and ethicized bodies to present the nation and culture as exotic objects of tourist consumption. Specific bodies are exalted as gendered ethnic ideals through a competitive sports model; gendered competitions are set on stage in order to designate an exemplary corporal performance. Through these mechanisms, territorial marketing participates in large-scale production, reappopriation and renewed confirmation of gendered ethnicities.

Notes

¹ Differences in ethnicity, like race, are viewed as social constructs that evolve and determine their boundaries through social interaction and power relations. The process of ‘ethnicizing’ is that of symbolically ascribing ethnicity to social beings and relations. Cf. Barth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries.

² Cf Van Tilburg, ‘The Seduction of the South Sea’.

³ Urry, The Tourist Gaze, 13, referring most notably to the 1987 work of C. Campbell, The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. Oxford: Blackwell.

⁴ Cf Viallon, L'analyze du discours de la télévision.

⁵ Schuft, Couples ‘métropolitain’ – ‘polynésien’ à Tahiti.

⁶ Website of the Ministry of Tourism, ‘CM du lundi 28 décembre / Subvention promotion touristique/Gie Tahiti Tourisme (28-12-2009)’, http://www.tourisme.gov.pf/7555-CM-du-lundi-28-decembre-Subvention-promotion-touristique-Gie-Tahiti-Tourisme.html (accessed 20 October 2010).

⁷ Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.

⁸ Butler, Gender Trouble; Zaidman, ‘La mixité, un mode d'agencement des relations de sexe’.

⁹ Collins, Black Feminist Thought; Crenshaw, ‘Mapping the Margins’; Kergoat, ‘Dynamique et consubstantialité des rapports sociaux’.

¹⁰ Dorlin, ‘“Performe ton genre”’.

¹¹ Ehrenberg, ‘Les significations et les dimensions sociales du sport’, 45, our translation.

¹² Goffman, Stigma.

¹³ Goffman, Gender Advertisements.

¹⁴ Cunin and Rinaudo, ‘Consuming the City in passing’, cf. Le Bart, ‘Les politiques d'image’.

¹⁵ Sengès, Ethnik!; Cunin and Rinaudo, ‘Consuming the City in Passing’.

¹⁶ Vahine means ‘woman’ in Tahitian as in other dialects of French Polynesian languages. However, it is more frequently employed in French to designate ‘Polynesian woman’.

¹⁷ Cf ‘Rapport économique sur la Polynésie française’, Bank of Hawaii, June 1999.

¹⁸ Elliston, ‘En/Gendering Nationalism’, 272.

¹⁹ Poirine, Tahiti.

²⁰ ITSTAT, Résultats du recensement général de la population, 1991 and 1992.

²¹ Elliston, ‘En/Gendering Nationalism’, 254; Langevin, Tahitiennes, 42–3.

²² Interview with Oscar Temaru, 16 Ovtober 2002, cited by A.-C. Trémon, ‘Logiques “autonomiste” et ‘indépendantiste’ en Polynésie française, Cultures & Conflicts. www.conflicts.org (accessed 17 February 2006).

²³ Panoff, ‘Farani Taiaro’, 3.

²⁴ Langevin, Tahitiennes, 413, our translation.

²⁵ Saura, Des Tahitiens, des Français, 47, our translation.

²⁶ Armelle Merceron, spokesperson of the opposing political party, the Tahoeraa. ‘Le ‘poulet’ d'Oscar ne passe pas’, La Dépêches de Tahiti, 10 June 2006, 18, our translation.

²⁷ Cf ‘Miss France 2009 en direct sur TNTV’. http://www.tahitipresse.pf/2008/12/miss-france-2009-en-direct-sur-tntv; and the official Miss Tahiti website, www.misstahiti.com (accessed 20 October 2009).

²⁸ ‘Miss Tahiti, la Génèse’. Interview with Dominique Petras, founder of the Miss Tahiti Committee, http://www.tahiti.tv/miss-tahiti-la-genese-permalink/6383.aspx (accessed 20 October 2009).

²⁹ Guillaumin, Sexe, race et pratique du pouvoir, 10, our translation.

³⁰ ‘Miss Tahiti 2008: les douze candidates rejoueront l'épopée de la Bounty’. http://www.tahitipresse.pf/2008/04/miss-tahiti-2008-les-douze-candidates-rejoueront-lpope-de-la-bounty/ (accessed 28 October 2009), our translation.

³¹ Cf Cerf, ‘La domination des femmes à Tahiti’, 200.

³² Cunin, Métissage et multiculturalisme en Colombie, 167, our translation.

³³ Tahiti tourism website, ‘Manifestations culturelles’. http://www.tahiti-tourisme.fr/articles.php?cat = 252&sec = 24 (accessed 15 October 2010), our translation. Cf. also the websites of Tahiti Mania, ‘Le Heiva des sports traditionnels’, and Tahitiscope Magazine, ‘Sports traditionnels et artisanat’.

³⁴ Tahiti Mania, ‘Le Heiva des sports traditionnels’. http://www.tahitimania.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid = 6 (accessed 8 October 2010).

³⁵ Cerf, ‘La domination des femmes à Tahiti’, 314. Cf. also Saura, Des Tahitiens, des Français, 55.

³⁶ Cerf, ‘La domination des femmes à Tahiti’, 314.

³⁷ Tahiti Tourisme website, column ‘People’, article ‘The Polynesian Smile’. http://www.tahiti-tourisme.fr/articles.php?cat = 13&sec = 24 (accessed 8 October 2010), our translation.

³⁸ Tahiti Tourism website, article ‘Manifestations culturelles’. http://www.tahiti-tourisme.fr/articles.php?cat = 252&sec = 24 (accessed 15 October 2010), our translation.

³⁹ ‘Daniel Aukara, 28 ans, élu ‘Tane Maohi 2005’… l'homme polynésien idéal’. Tahitipresse 30 October 2005. http://www.tahitipresse.pf/2005/10/daniel-aukara-28-ans-lu-tane-maohi-2005-lhomme-polynsien-idal/ (accessed 17 May 2010), our translation.

⁴⁰ Tahitiscope Magazine. http://www.tahitiscope.com/en/nos-reportages/heiva-tahiti/sports-traditionnels-artisanat (accessed 8 October 2010), our translation.