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

I checked out the 2000 updated edition from the library, but other than a really short updated preface, the book is otherwise the same as the first edition, published in 1990. So I recommend just getting the older book if you want to save some money, or if your library doesn't have the new version.

That said, this book doesn't really suffer much from being nearly 20 years old. Although it missed out on a lot of global policy changes in that time: NAFTA, 9/11, etc, I think it gives a great historical perspective, and in many ways things haven't changed very dramatically since the book was published.

The author does a great job looking at global politics from a feminist standpoint. She argues that one cannot get the full picture of show more international politics without asking the important question of "where are the women?"

She covers in great detail tourism, military bases, and global economics (through the lenses of banana plantations, the garment industry, and domestic servants) and the effects these have on women in both Third and First world countries, and how all classes of women in Third/First world countries are effected differently. (It is not enough just to lump all Third world women into one category.)

This book really brought into light the problems that still exist that are left-over from colonialism, and that are exacerbated by current neo-liberal economic policies. From countries that rely on tourism to pay back spiraling debt to the IMF to the prostitution that inevitably results from military bases (and their entrenched gender divisions between stereotypical masculinity and femininity) to nationalist movements that tend to ignore the unique oppression and needs of women, this book really brings into light the injustices that are seen - even today - as a result of old policies. The author also brings up how many of these policies are not just sexist, they are also inherently racist, and how these policies have helped to further the agendas of the countries that are in power.

This is definitely a good read for people who have read, say, a lot of Chomsky or who have read the Shock Doctrine and want to know how these policies affect women. show less

Recommended to me as a really good introduction to the relationship between the tourism and global development.

"Tourism is not just about escaping work and drizzle; it is about power, increasingly internationalized power."

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