Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

‘Poor children on Tinder’ and their Barbie Saviours: towards a feminist political economy of volunteer tourism

Wearing, Stephen, Mostafanezhad, Mary, Nguyen, Nha, Nguyen, Truc Ha Thanh, McDonald, Matthew (2018) ‘Poor children on Tinder’ and their Barbie Saviours: towards a feminist political economy of volunteer tourism. Leisure Studies, 37 (5). pp. 500-514. ISSN 0261-4367. E-ISSN 1466-4496. (doi:10.1080/02614367.2018.1504979) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:91908)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2018.1504979

Abstract

Barbie Saviours is a satirical Instagram account and linked Facebook page that depict white western Barbies volunteering in Africa with the bio, ‘Jesus. Adventures. Africa. Two worlds. One love. Babies. Beauty. Not qualified. Called. 20 years old. It’s not about me… but it kind of is’. Drawing on emerging theories of feminist political economy, we address the growing backlash against volunteer tourism in the popular media and argue that critiques against these images reflect an anti-hegemonic project that highlights the role of sentimental colonialism in contemporary forms of international popular humanitarianism. Widely described as a critique against the ‘White Saviour Complex’, Barbie Saviour is used to popularise a negative image of western female volunteer tourists which currently comprise more than 75% of the industry. These critiques question the morality and legitimacy of female volunteer tourists as well as related spaces of western forms of development in the global south. These satires shine a spotlight on the neocolonial aura of the practice. However, we argue that while this critique is a productive reminder of the symbolic violence of racialised inequality, the critique itself also, albeit inadvertently, perpetuates the ahistorical and apolitical racial, ethnic, gender and class-based binary thinking that it seeks to condemn.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/02614367.2018.1504979
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and International Business
Depositing User: Truc Nguyen-Ha-Thanh-Truc
Date Deposited: 02 Dec 2021 10:39 UTC
Last Modified: 03 Dec 2021 11:50 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/91908 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Nguyen, Truc Ha Thanh.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3360-819X
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.