Bananas, Beaches And Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics

The term “banana republic” refers to any country “whose land and soul were in the clutches of a foreign company supported by the repressive politics of their own governments” (225). These countries are riven with corruption. Enloe describes the politics of the global banana trade and notes that from the 1930s to the 1980s, Central American countries “dominated by the United Fruit Company’s monoculture, the U.S. Marines, and their handpicked dictators” fit this description to the detriment of the people’s interest (225).

Through the bar fine system in the Philippines (when large US military bases operated there), male customers paid bar owners “to take a woman outside the club to have sex” (166). Enloe explains that such policies facilitated sex work and were intentional. The US military and local authorities sustained the system.

The double day refers to the burden on women to perform full-time paid work and then do unpaid work at home. While working-class women are accustomed to this burden, middle-class women in wealthier countries have turned to domestic workers to help with the work at home, increasing the demand for such workers.