This paper focuses upon a growing activity within New Zealand's ecotourism market: viewing and swimming with dolphins. Drawing on poststructuralist feminist theory we examine some of the ways in which New Zealand dolphin tour operators and others represent dolphins in relation to sex and gender. Three sets of data inform this research: (1) promotional materials, such as postcards, brochures, Internet websites, and advertising; (2) participant-observation on dolphin swim tours; and (3) interviews with tour operators. We argue that dolphins are constructed paradoxically as sexually polyamorous and promiscuous—sexy beasts—and as loving and maternal—devoted mums. These seemingly contradictory narratives about dolphins and nature perform different functions. The discourse of dolphins as sexy beasts can be read as an attempt by tour operators to use sex to enhance the quality of a product. Tourists are offered an opportunity to experience ‘wild nature’ as sexualized ‘other’. The discourse of dolphins as devoted mums can be read as an attempt by tour operators to anthropomorphize dolphins and offers tourists an opportunity to experience ‘domestic nature’. Fostering a connection between humans and dolphins helps to highlight the need for environmental protection to ensure the continuation of the species and ‘tourist dollars’.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AitchisonC, 2001, “Theorizing other discourses of tourism, gender and culture: Can the subaltern speak (in tourism)?”Tourist Studies1(2) 133–147
2.
AitchisonC, 2003Gender and Leisure: Social and Cultural Perspectives (Routledge, London)
3.
AndersonK, 1995, “Culture and nature in the Adelaide Zoo: At the frontiers of ‘human’ geography”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series20275–294
4.
AteljevicI, 2001, “Searching for nature and imagining New Zealand”, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing10(1) 115–122
5.
BagemihlB, 1999Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (St Martin's Press, New York)
6.
BryldMLykkeN, 2000Cosmodolphins: Feminist Cultural Studies of Technology, Animals and the Sacred (Zed Books, London)
7.
BulbeckC, 2005Facing the Wild: Ecotourism, Conservation and Animal Encounters (Earthscan, London)
8.
CaldwellMCaldwellD, 1966, “Epimeletic caregiving behavior in cetacea”, in Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises Ed. NorrisK (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA) pp 755–789
9.
CameronJCostelloL, 1994, “Bodies, spaces and re/inscriptions: Homeless girls and pregnant teenagers”, paper presented at the Institute of Australian Geographers Conference, Magnetic Island, September; copy available from Robyn Longhurst
10.
ClokePJohnstonR (Eds), 2005Spaces of Geographical Thought: Deconstructing Human Geography's Binaries (Sage, London)
11.
ClokePPerkinsH, 1998, “‘Cracking the canyon with the awesome foursome’: Representations of adventure tourism in New Zealand”, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space16185–218
12.
ClokePPerkinsH, 2005, “Cetacean performance and tourism in Kaikoura, New Zealand”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space23903–924
13.
ConnorRHeithausMBarreL, 1999, “Superalliance of bottlenose dolphins”Nature397571–572
14.
ConstantineRYinS, 2003, “Swimming with dolphins in New Zealand”, in Between Species Eds FrohoffTPetersonB (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, CA) pp 257–263
15.
CrawshawCUrryJ, 1997, “Tourism and the photographic eye”, in Touring Cultures: Transformations of Travel and Theory Eds RojekCUrryJ (Routledge, London) pp 176–195
16.
CrouchD, 2005, “Flirting with space: Tourism geographies as sensuous/expressive practice”, in Seductions of Place Eds CartierCLewA (Routledge, London) pp 23–34
17.
DesmondJ, 1995, “Performing ‘nature’: Shamu at Sea World”, in Cruising the Performative Eds CaseSBrettPFosterS (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN) pp 217–236
18.
DesmondJ, 1999Staging Tourism: Bodies on Display from Waikiki to Sea World (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL)
DuffyR, 2005, “The politics of ecotourism”, in Taking Tourism to the Limits Eds RyanCPageSAitkenM (Elsevier, Boston, MA) pp 99–112
21.
ElveyA, 2003, “The material given: Bodies, pregnant bodies and earth”Australian Feminist Studies18(41) 199–209
22.
FabianJ, 2000, Out of Our Minds: Reason and Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
23.
FitzsimmonsM, 1989, “The matter of nature”Antipode21106–120
24.
FranklinA, 1999Animals and Modern Culture: A Sociology of Human – Animal Relations in Modernity (Sage, London)
25.
FrohlickS, 2006, “Rendering and gendering mobile subjects: Placing ourselves between local ethnography and global worlds”, in Locating the Field: Metaphors of Space, Place and Context in Anthropology Eds ColemanSCollinsP (Berg, Oxford) pp 87–104
26.
GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies2002, Special issue “Queer tourism: Geographies of globalization”8(1/2)
27.
GossJ, 1993, “Placing the market and marketing the place: Tourist advertising of the Hawaiian Islands, 1972–92”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space11663–688
28.
GossJ, 1999, “‘From here to eternity’: Voyages of re(dis)covery in tourist landscapes of Hawaii”, in Hawaii: New Geographies Ed. WoodcockD (Department of Geography, University of Hawaii, Honolulu) pp 153–178
29.
HoytE, 2000Whale Watching 2000: Worldwide Tourism Numbers, Expenditures and Expanding Socioeconomic BenefitsInternational Fund for Animal Welfare, Washington, DC
30.
JohnstonL, 2001, “(Other) bodies and tourism studies”Annals of Tourism Research: A Social Science Journal28180–201
31.
JohnstonL, 2005Queering Tourism: Paradoxical Performances at Gay Pride Parades (Routledge, London)
32.
KatzC, 1998, “Whose nature, whose culture? Private productions of space and ‘preservation’ of nature”, in Remaking Reality: Nature and the Millennium Eds BraunBCastreeN (Routledge, New York) pp 44–63
33.
LonghurstR, 2001, “Trim, taut, terrific, and pregnant”, in Pleasure Zones Eds BellDBinnieJHollidayRLonghurstRPeaceR (Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY) pp 1–28
34.
MacCannellD, 1999The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
MoeranB, 1983, “The language of Japanese tourism”Annals of Tourism Research: A Social Science Journal1091–108
37.
MowforthMMuntI1998Tourism and Sustainability: New Tourism in the Third World (Routledge, London)
38.
New Zealand Marine Mammals Protection Regulations, 1992 (New Zealand Government Printer, Wellington)
39.
OramsM BHillG E, 1998, “Controlling the ecotourist in wild dolphin feeding program: Is education the answer?”Journal of Environmental Education29(3) 33–38
40.
PhiloCWilbertC (Eds), 2000Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human – Animal Relations (Routledge, London)
41.
PhiloCWolchJ (Eds), 1998, “Through the geographical looking glass: Space, place and society–animal relations”Society and Animals6(2) 103–118
42.
PlaceS, 1998, “Ecotourism: Viable route to rural development?”, in Sustainable Tourism Eds HallC MLewA (Longman, Harlow, Essex) pp 107–118
43.
PritchardAMorganN, 2000, “Privileging the male gaze: Gendered tourism landscapes”Annals of Tourism Research: A Social Science Journal27884–905
44.
PuarJ, 2002a, “A transnational feminist critique of queer tourism”Antipode34935–946
45.
PuarJ, 2002b“Circuits of queer mobility: Tourism, travel and globalisation”GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies8(1/2) 101–138
46.
RodawayP, 1994Sensuous Geographies: Body, Sense and Place (Routledge, London)
47.
ShieldsR, 1990Places on the Margin (Routledge, London)
48.
SmithMDuffyR, 2003The Ethics of Tourism Development (Routledge, London)
