Heroes and Villains: Travel, Risk and Masculinity

Abstract

Although their practices may ultimately be similar, ‘travellers’ often distinguish themselves from ‘tourists’ (Hottola, 2007). In part, this distinction is accomplished through references to risk and, as reflected in the quotes above, adventure. In this chapter, I argue that this ideal of adventure — an important signifier of ‘travel’ — is articulated through risk, and that risk, in turn, refracts and reproduces the norms of hegemonic masculinity. I focus on risk in particular as it is infused with masculine norms. Through encounters with ‘Others’, travellers emphasise their participation in risk. Travellers’ narratives not only draw upon risk as a tenet associated with masculinity, but in so doing reiterate travel as a project that is available without caveat only to men enacting hegemonic forms of masculinity. Idealised travel — as opposed to tourism — is predicated upon the successful negotiation of risk and, as such, gendered privilege because this success contrasts the narrative of women’s vulnerability and need for protection.