Downtown Banff was a strange sight to see. This is my second time in the area, the first being in fall, just after most of the tourists had left. This time I was there in June/July, right about the time the tourists start to appear.
The downtown became clogged and crowded quite easily, and while it is a developed area surrounded by gender neutral nature, the city itself is wrought with gender and sexuality. Each tourist brought their own gendered performance to their presence in the space, creating a public space that was not so much influenced by the shops and architecture itself, but by their home cultures carrying the influence on their travels, and the tourist mentality (what happens in Banff, stays in Banff) sometimes slightly muted by the influence of the surrounding nature and landscape of the Rockies.
Within town I was invited to meet some of the local ladies (local being people who rent a space rather than travel through), I was subject to feminine gender specific outfits, small shirts and short skirts, the usual attire for a group of hot young single ladies. The men were a little more subtle but in their masculine attire – long baggy shorts or jeans and t-shirts. This was hardly any different than what I saw in all other cities on my travels, the North American uniform being split into the female showing legs, arms and chest, and the male wearing the proper length to get a wonderful farmers tan. The female shaves all of her body hair, while the male uses his to assert his masculinity. There are rare exceptions to this attire, people who are often seen as deviants or modern hippies.
There was an obvious mating ritual going on at any point past dusk, the whole downtown sprouting bars and the daily shops closing for the night. On a night out with a friend and her mother and aunts, we were targeted for conquest by two drunken ‘sailors’ who were obviously drunk tourists themselves. This is a gross ritual I tend to avoid, but I was entranced with how the three women fell into the trap of the not so charming drunken liars. There was an obvious play of gender in this scene. Those men would not have been there if they didn’t perceive us all as women. The three women would not have been charmed and smitten if they had not been men. There was a sexual tension in every exchange. The mating ritual reminded me of a drunker, more embarrassing version of the cops in Times Square hitting on my group of women.
Does the transient tourist nature of the space make the sexuality more volatile? Does the tight surrounding nature influence the sexuality? Does it influence perceptions of gender? Banff seemed to have a different sexual atmosphere than other locations, one that was hidden within nature yet accentuated by the circumstances of the location whereas gender was similar to the other cities.
The downtown became clogged and crowded quite easily, and while it is a developed area surrounded by gender neutral nature, the city itself is wrought with gender and sexuality. Each tourist brought their own gendered performance to their presence in the space, creating a public space that was not so much influenced by the shops and architecture itself, but by their home cultures carrying the influence on their travels, and the tourist mentality (what happens in Banff, stays in Banff) sometimes slightly muted by the influence of the surrounding nature and landscape of the Rockies.
Within town I was invited to meet some of the local ladies (local being people who rent a space rather than travel through), I was subject to feminine gender specific outfits, small shirts and short skirts, the usual attire for a group of hot young single ladies. The men were a little more subtle but in their masculine attire – long baggy shorts or jeans and t-shirts. This was hardly any different than what I saw in all other cities on my travels, the North American uniform being split into the female showing legs, arms and chest, and the male wearing the proper length to get a wonderful farmers tan. The female shaves all of her body hair, while the male uses his to assert his masculinity. There are rare exceptions to this attire, people who are often seen as deviants or modern hippies.
There was an obvious mating ritual going on at any point past dusk, the whole downtown sprouting bars and the daily shops closing for the night. On a night out with a friend and her mother and aunts, we were targeted for conquest by two drunken ‘sailors’ who were obviously drunk tourists themselves. This is a gross ritual I tend to avoid, but I was entranced with how the three women fell into the trap of the not so charming drunken liars. There was an obvious play of gender in this scene. Those men would not have been there if they didn’t perceive us all as women. The three women would not have been charmed and smitten if they had not been men. There was a sexual tension in every exchange. The mating ritual reminded me of a drunker, more embarrassing version of the cops in Times Square hitting on my group of women.
Does the transient tourist nature of the space make the sexuality more volatile? Does the tight surrounding nature influence the sexuality? Does it influence perceptions of gender? Banff seemed to have a different sexual atmosphere than other locations, one that was hidden within nature yet accentuated by the circumstances of the location whereas gender was similar to the other cities.
