Mobilizing pride/shame: lesbians, tourism and parades

In this paper I focus on Pride Scotland in order to examine the construction and performance of lesbian tourism geographies. Queer theories are used to argue that tourism spaces of Pride Scotland provide important sites for the examination of the co-construction of pride and shame for lesbian parade participants. Within these sites celebrations of pride are underscored by notions of shame. Pride/shame politics may be productive and are lived through gendered and sexualized bodies. I rely on three sets of qualitative data for this research: (1) individual and focus group interviews with lesbian and queer parade participants; (2) participant observations and autobiography; and (3) media reports. The paper describes a particular Edinburgh group—a women's drumming band—that performs for Pride. These participants actively choose to perform their subjectivities in ways they understand challenge heteronormalcy. Discursive constructions of Edinburgh as a gendered and sexualized city are discussed in relation to Pride Scotland. I argue that Pride in Edinburgh is predicated on notions of sexualized shame. I examine how queer women negotiate hostile and/or indifferent reactions to their bodily performances. In this way I aim to explore the relationships between pride/shame, performativity, gender, sexuality and politics of resistance.