“This is not only about culture”: on tourism, gender stereotypes and other affective fluxes

In this article, I challenge the idea of a “one-way” relationship in which tourists are supposed to contribute with economic resources and freer gender roles to the development and empowerment of “poor, rural and traditional women”. By reflecting on my own located, gendered and embodied position during my ethnographic fieldwork among women performing bobbin lace in the Coast of Death (Galicia, Spain), I analyze how gender roles and stereotypes interact in both directions, leading to misunderstandings and performances of pride and resentment on behalf of the craftswomen. Some gender stereotypes associated with the craftswomen by the tourist gaze and other affective fluxes such as policies, economy and heritage regimes are not only changing contexts but also being embodied, traditionalizing the craftswomen and curtailing their flexible economic practices by transforming both crafts and bodies into something that is just “culture”.TRAMA3 funded by CYTED [613RT0473]; NEARCH funded by the European Comission in the framework of the Culture Programme [2013-1126/001-001] and also to the project “Heritage and participation: methodological proposal and critical review” funded by the Spanish MINECO [HAR2014-54869-R].Peer reviewe