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Chilling Out In The Country? Interrogating Daylesford As A 'Gay/Lesbian Rural Idyll', Andrew Gorman-Murray, Gordon Waitt, Christopher Gibson
Chilling Out In The Country? Interrogating Daylesford As A 'Gay/Lesbian Rural Idyll', Andrew Gorman-Murray, Gordon Waitt, Christopher Gibson
Chris Gibson
Recent scholarship suggests that the gay/lesbian idyllisation of rural places is an urban construct, constituted through metropolitan sensibilities, communities and imaginaries. We extend this work through examining the construction of Daylesford, Victoria, as a ‘gay/lesbian rural idyll’. Daylesford annually hosts ChillOut, Australia’s largest rural gay/lesbian festival, which underpins its idyllisation. Utilising data drawn from fieldwork conducted at the 2006 festival and commentaries circulated in the gay/lesbian media, we argue that not only is Daylesford idyllised in the Australian gay/lesbian imaginary, but that rurality and urbanity are hybridised in its framing as a ‘gay/lesbian rural idyll’. This is manifested in several …
Chilling Out In 'Cosmopolitan Country': Urban/Rural Hybridity And The Construction Of Daylesford As A 'Lesbian And Gay Rural Idyll', Andrew Gorman-Murray, Gordon Waitt, Chris Gibson
Chilling Out In 'Cosmopolitan Country': Urban/Rural Hybridity And The Construction Of Daylesford As A 'Lesbian And Gay Rural Idyll', Andrew Gorman-Murray, Gordon Waitt, Chris Gibson
Chris Gibson
This paper advances scholarship on 'lesbian and gay rural idylls'. A growing literature examines how 'lesbian and gay rural idylls' are not only produced in opposition to the urban, but are themselves urban constructs. We extend these contentions by exploring the processes of idyllisation suffusing lesbian and gay festival tourism in Daylesford, a town in non-metropolitan Victoria, Australia. We find that Daylesford's idyllisation by the lesbian and gay tourism industry blurs the urban/rural binary, and instead hybridises rurality and urbanity in the tourism images and practices of 'cosmopolitan country' associated with the town. Research findings from Daylesford are analysed to …