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

by Cynthia Enloe and Cynthia H. Enloe

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520229126
• ISBN13: 9780520229129
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Terrific Read

An excellent book for anyone interested in feminism, international politics, or simply if you want an informative and interesting non-fiction book. The pressing question of BB & B is: "'Where are the women at?'" Cynthia Enloe takes the reader on a tour of some international hot topics and explores this question. Terrific book and I could not put it down. For a long time I had been searching for a feminist critique of the military, etc and I found exactly what I was looking for here.

The Other Side of International Politics

This book is an original study of international politics through the lens of women who influence husbands who happen to be the major power brokers within the international system. Enloe also studies how third world women are used as expressions of sexual and national power through agribusiness, tourism, and military bases. This work is enlightening because it examines the quiet yet immensely influential roles women play within the geopolitical economic system. Unfortunately where Enloe falls short is her limited scope of how she defines masculinity and femininity. Ultimately she defines them as constructs forged out of power, rather than choice, however when it comes to these types of dichotomized debates, the answers usually fall somewhere in the middle. Enloe's main thesis is that the personal is political, therefore the power plays within international politics correlates strongly with the power struggles within the personal relationships between men and women. First, what isn't clear is Enloe's use of the term `political' in which she also uses to mean `economical'. The problem is if you don't clearly distinguish between the two then it's difficult to identify who is a genuine victim of the vicissitudes of international political fiat, versus someone who is making choices deciding between trade offs in an environment limited by scarcity. Enloe commits this fallacy because she views today's market system as a form of neo-mercantilism. In some cases she may be right but nevertheless it's important to make the distinction. In addition, if the personal is political and the political is economical, why should the political/economical be of concern to anyone if the source of it all is personal and people are happy within the personal? It only makes a difference if you believe the personal to be a construct forged primarily out of power, rather than of choice or even symbiotic in nature. In this case happiness isn't possible because when it comes to power, there is always a winner and a loser. Therefore commanding power over international politics means commanding power within the personal. The problem is power is subjective and arbitrary. If masculinity and femininity are simply power constructs then ones power is as good as the other. Questions of morality, rights, obligations and expressions of individual free will are inapplicable. Secondly, Enloe discusses how both first and third world women are `used by the makers of the international political system', who are primarily men. However, Enloe limits her definition of masculinity within the context of European nationalism. What about third world men who are `used by the makers of the international political system'? To discuss their role, Enloe risks watering down her general theory that the source of international politics lies primarily within the personal power struggles between men and women. Despite these criticisms this is a great book and it's highly recommended for anyone interested

Fascinating

I've been studying international politics and gender issues for some time but they've always been presented as separate subjects. To find a cohesive, academic work integrating the two was fabulous. Her work is jointly informative and interesting providing enough theory to be of academic interest and enough examples to exceed the category of a mere textbook. Highly recommend this!

Women and Global Politics

What do nationalism, Chiquita bananas and Mexican garment factories have in common? In Cynthia Enloe's trailblazing book, they illuminate the interplay between global politics and women. Few scholars have investigated why and how international politics and global trade shape definitions of masculinity and femininity; this book does that and more, providing new perspectives on the gendering of power. For Enloe, power imbues the cultural, social and economic interactions that gird global politics; "relationships we once imagined were private or merely social are in fact infused with power, usually unequal power backed up by public authority (p.195)." Here, Enloe extends the analytical approach Friedan used in The Feminine Mystique (1963), which considered the connection between feminine stereotypes and evolving US global power and security interests. Enloe pushes Friedan's analysis into a global context and brings into sharper focus the way public politics are masculinized via the control of women's activities. Each of the chapters in Enloe's book explores a different theme -- from tourism to US military bases -- in order to demonstrate how the personal is political and the political is personal. Enloe most successfully draws out the linkages between domestic life and public authority in her chapters on nationalism, banana republics and garment factories. Looking at the experiences of women in places as diverse as Sri Lanka and Palestine, Enloe finds women asserting a sense of national identity that conflicts with their feminine roles of tending home and children. Even more problematic, if increased militarization creates an emphasis on communal unity, issues of sexual inequality are often discounted; thus, the nation is redefined, but in a masculinized form. Enloe's most global chapter nicely couples women in the United States with women in Honduras, both of whom the United Fruit Company controls to a certain degree by promoting and relying on women's feminized roles. In the United States, housewives respond to advertising and turn bananas into a booming business, while in Honduras, mothers and daughters accept low paid work on banana plantations or in nearby brothels. In a later chapter, Enloe turns to the international garment industry, noting again how industry keeps women's work cheap by drawing on patriarchal ideas about labor. At the same time, concepts like risk and adventure underlie international financial decisions and masculinize global banking, the money driving the garment industry. In arguing that international processes depend on particular configurations of masculinity and femininity, Enloe has produced an important work. However, this book is so wide ranging that it often forgoes providing a complex analysis of its topics; Enloe makes sweeping and often simplistic generalizations, such as "international tourism needs patriarchy to survive (p.41)." Yet Enloe depicts a tourism industry that responds to changing cultural and soci

An Entertaining Read

My brother brought this home from school. He said he hated it. I read it and loved it. Some of her theories are a little far-out, but most of what she says makes sense. Her major point is "The personal is political, the personal is international." Enloe makes some amazing and original connections between institutions and policies that are considered inherent and gender roles. Don't limit this to the text book category.