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‘Creamy and seductive’: Gender surveillance in flight attendant work

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  • Smith, Whitney E.
  • de Jong, Anna
  • Cohen, Scott
  • Kimbu, Albert N.

Abstract

Despite attempts by airlines and the wider tourism industry to cultivate more diverse working environments, gendered practices and pressures persist. A feminist poststructuralist approach involving interviews with flight attendants from three airlines is used to examine how airlines attempt to construct the ideal aesthetic flight attendant, and how individual workers may resist these gendered practices through their work. The findings demonstrate that airlines consistently shape and discipline flight attendants' gendered grooming performances through rules, peer-surveillance and engendering self-regulation. While flight attendants occasionally employ subtle forms of resistance, they primarily adhere to traditional gender norms. The paper provides a conceptual shift from binary perspectives on surveillance in tourism work to a relational understanding that reveals circulatory force.

Suggested Citation

  • Smith, Whitney E. & de Jong, Anna & Cohen, Scott & Kimbu, Albert N., 2023. "‘Creamy and seductive’: Gender surveillance in flight attendant work," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:98:y:2023:i:c:s016073832200158x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2022.103507
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Kimbu, Albert Nsom & de Jong, Anna & Adam, Issahaku & Ribeiro, Manuel A. & Afenyo-Agbe, Ewoenam & Adeola, Ogechi & Figueroa-Domecq, Cristina, 2021. "Recontextualising gender in entrepreneurial leadership," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Baum, Tom, 2012. "Working the skies: Changing representations of gendered work in the airline industry, 1930–2011," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1185-1194.
    5. Yvonne Benschop & Patricia Lewis & Ruth Simpson & Katherine Duffy & Philip Hancock & Melissa Tyler, 2017. "Still Red Hot? Postfeminism and Gender Subjectivity in the Airline Industry," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 260-273, May.
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