The subversion of women’s anger in travel guidebooks

ABSTRACT

Guidebooks have a privileged role in tourism as they direct bodily engagement with destinations, and yet few feminist leisure scholars have analysed guidebooks. This paper applies a feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) to explore Lonely Planet’s online travel advice for women. The results of the FCDA reveal that Lonely Planet advice acts to subvert women travellers’ anger, particularly when confronted with gender-based violence such as sexual harassment. The guidance offered to women travellers transmits the message that anger at gender-based violence is not legitimate and suggests that feeling anger when abroad is culturally inappropriate. This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating that women’s anger is routinely subverted, particularly in contexts where freedom is ostensibly promised, such as leisure. The findings of this paper illustrate the value in applying FCDA to instances of otherwise hidden subversion and oppression and should inform future advice offered to women travellers.

KEYWORDS:

• Women travellers
• guidebooks
• on-line travel
• feminist critical discourse analysis
• inequality
• power

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heather Louise Jeffrey

Heather Louise Jeffrey is a senior lecturer in the social sciences at Middlesex University, Dubai. Heather completed her PhD in 2017 on the topic of discourse, gender and tourism within the context of Tunisia and her main research interests are women's rights, genders, and feminism within the context of tourism. Heather is a Marie-Curie alumnus, an associate at the charity Equality in Tourism, and the managing editor at e-Review of Tourism Research.

Siân Stephens

Siân Stephens is a senior lecturer in international business at Middlesex University in London. Her research interests include the relationship between business and society, and the impact of business practices on political institutions. Her work has afforded her the opportunity to travel widely, and these experiences piqued an interest in gendered aspects of travel and tourism.