Transformative tans? Gendered and raced bodies on beaches

Abstract

In this paper I examine the intentional act of transforming the colour of one's skin – sun‐tanning – by Pākehā at three New Zealand beaches: Papamoa, Mount Maunganui, and Takapuna. Recent debates about the construction of whiteness are outlined before discussing the historical significance of beaches and sun to New Zealand's leisure culture. This paper seeks to de‐naturalize whiteness through the disclosure of gendered leisure practices of tanning. Empirical material reveals that Pākehā, who actively seek brown skin, negotiate a number of racialized and gendered ‘truths’ as their sun‐tan transforms their bodies. I conclude by arguing that geographers need to be more attentive to the ways in which place constructs particular forms of gendered whiteness.

Eating Hawai'i: local foods and place-making in Hawai'i Regional Cuisine

“…Eating Hawai'i is a key part of an embodied tourist experience of Hawai'i (in addition to sunburn), and one that tourists, resort and restaurant chefs cannot do without, although for different reasons (Besio, Johnston, and Longhurst 2008;Perkins 1998, 2005;Johnston 2005;Veijola and Jokinen 1994). As people eat HRC, they consume an 'authentic' taste of Hawai'i, through the filter of locally grown foods, which offers a 'locational philosophy of taste,' evidenced in how menus include place names and farm names to refer to food, emphasizing 'place' rather than cooking 'technique' or 'social setting' (Trubek 2008: 8).…”

Race and ethnicity II

“…'Humans expose [skin], cover it, paint it, tattoo it, scar it, and pierce it, telling a unique story about ourselves to those around us' (Jablonski, 2006: 3). But there is a larger narrative here as well, involving modifications of the body's surface that are tacitly or overtly racially aware, including tattoos (Price, 2000), skin lightening (Winders et al, 2005), skin darkening (Johnston, 2005;Obrador Pons, 2007), and hair straightening (Wade, 2004). Skin bears traces of wounds -scars, bruises, abrasions -that can result from the racial microaggressions identified by Sue et al (2007: 271) as 'brief and common daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities' that are directed at racialized individuals and groups.…”