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Misogyny on Board
Posted by Meredith on Sep 30, 2005 at 03:56PM in Pop Culture - permalink

It's time for the promised post about my experience on RSVP. First of all, let me say that I think all queers should experience a gay cruise. It's like living at the heart of Pride 24/7 for a week. I had a fantastic time despite some interpersonal concerns. However...lesbians might not be as welcome as the company would like you to believe.

Nobody said that, of course. In the "newlywed game" they had a lesbian couple, and announcers and emcees for various events often referred to the women in the audience. There were only 147 women (and 1700 men), though, so with less than 10% of the passengers being female there was bound to be lots of testosterone flying around. Unfortunately, RSVP only offered one activity for women - a poorly-attended social hour where we stood around sipping drinks and chatting - and they really could have done much more.

The real problem for women on this trip wasn't anything RSVP had control over - it was the misogyny I could feel in the air at many events. I got a few strange looks that I'm certain were due to being female, and I heard plenty of anti-female jokes and jabs throughout the week. Cabaret singer Amy Armstrong played with this the best she could, getting physically close to members of the audience and forcing them to acknowledge that she was female. (This was usually done by clutching their hand to her breast while she sang, but she threatened to make some of them touch her pussy.) By the way, I was pretty much the only femme lesbian on board who was not an entertainer. As a result, I was accused of being straight - you can read that story here.

It's no wonder that women overwhelmingly choose Olivia for their luxury vacations. This is really a self-perpetuating cycle, in that women have heard about the atmosphere on "mixed" cruises and would rather go for an all-female vacation, which means that the "mixed" cruises end up being mostly men, which creates that atmosphere...you get the point. But it really was a wonderful vacation despite this; I made some friends onboard and I do hope to have the chance to do it again.