Equality on the sea Interrogating LGBTQ privilege in the tourism discourse of 'Africa's gay capital'

• Published in: Discourses of Global Queer Mobility and the Mediatization of Equality Vol. 1; pp. 59 - 83
• Main Author: Comer, Joseph
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom Routledge 2022; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: LGBTQ Spectrum; Gay Village; LGBT Traveller; LGBTQ Equality; Gay Capital; De Waterkant; Queer Liberation; Cape Town; LGBTQ Medium; LGBTQ Identity; Queer People; Global Gay; Tourism Discourse; Queer Linguistic; LGBTQ People; Air Berlin; Tourism Cape Town; Gayest City; LGBT Tourism; LGBTQ Community; Young Men; LGBTQ Subject; Prospective Tourists; Pink Dollar
• ISBN: 9780367521721; 0367521725; 9781032072838; 1032072830
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003087960-4

This chapter examines LGBTQ tourism discourse about Cape Town, South Africa, which is often declared the 'gay capital of Africa'. It considers the implications of such claims and how, in the case of Cape Town, apparently playful rhetorics obscure deep-seated inequalities under the guise of visibility, equality and cheerful, hedonistic globality. The chapter presents a multimodal critical discourse analysis informed by queer theory which examines recurrent linguistic and visual rhetorics in a range of LGBTQ tourism marketing materials, before focusing on the website of one key agent: Out2Africa. Ultimately, I demonstrate how the superficially progressive and cosmopolitan discourses of LGBTQ tourism are a smokescreen for the way equality is increasingly represented in consumer media as an individual attainment, typified by privileged mobility, rather than any true social condition. Under neoliberal capitalism, mobility is a commodity and metonym for pride, and 'equality' becomes a slogan. The chapter's conclusion expands on my specific analysis of Cape Town tourism discourse, and sets the scene for following chapters, through discussion of the rhetorics used by the so-called 'AirBnB for gay men', MisterBnB.