Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics

In this radical analysis of globalization, Cynthia Enloe pulls back the curtain on familiar scenes--governments promoting tourism, companies moving their factories overseas, soldiers serving on foreign soil--to reveal the crucial role of women in international politics today.

With new material and analysis for the 21st century, including a new chapter on women and events over the last decade, Enloe describes how many women's seemingly personal strategies--in their marriages, in their housework, in their coping with ideals of beauty--are, in reality, the stuff of global politics. In exposing policymakers' reliance on false notions of "femininity" and "masculinity," Enloe dismantles an apparently overwhelming world system, revealing it to be much more fragile and open to change than we think.

"This is the work of a well-travelled feminist mulling over the inequalities of the postmodern world. In a lively overview of tourism, the food industry, army bases, nationalism, diplomacy, global factories, and domestic work, Enloe persuasively argues that gender is key to the workings of international relations."—Aihwa Ong, University of California, Berkeley

"If you thought you understood how our world works, think again. Get ready to look at your jeans, your breakfast, and your morning paper in a whole new light. This book made my brain hurt, in the best way."—Sohaila Abdulali, author of Year of the Tiger

In this brand new radical analysis of globalization, Cynthia Enloe examines recent events—Bangladeshi garment factory deaths, domestic workers in the Persian Gulf, Chinese global tourists, and the UN gender politics of guns—to reveal the crucial role of women in international politics today.

With all new and updated chapters, Enloe describes how many women's seemingly personal strategies—in their marriages, in their housework, in their coping with ideals of beauty—are, in reality, the stuff of global politics. Enloe offers a feminist gender analysis of the global politics of both masculinities and femininities, dismantles an apparently overwhelming world system, and reveals that system to be much more fragile and open to change than we think.

Cynthia Enloe is Professor of Government and International Relations at Clark University and is the author of many books, including Does Khaki Become You? The Militarization of Women's Lives and Ethnic Soldiers: State Security in Divided Societies. Cynthia Enloe won the Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement in Peace Studies Award from the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA).

Illustrations

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the First Edition

1. Gender Makes the World Go Round: Where Are the Women?

2. Lady Travelers, Beauty Queens, Stewardesses, and Chamber Maids: The International Gendered Politics of Tourism

3. Nationalism and Masculinity: The Nationalist Story Is Not Over—and It Is Not a Simple Story

4. Base Women

5. Diplomatic and Undiplomatic Wives

6. Going Bananas! Where Are Women in the International Politics of Bananas?

7. Womens Labor Is Never Cheap: Gendering Global Blue Jeans and Bankers

8. Scrubbing the Globalized Tub: Domestic Servants in World Politics

Conclusion: The Personal Is International; the International Is Personal

Notes

Index