ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on a hunch; a hunch that one might have something to say about islands and gender. It presents discussions that were informed by a series of questions: If we feel love and affection for particular (island) places, how does this shape what we observe or perceive? If we study island life and island communities through love and affection, how might this impact our discoveries regarding the power and politics of island life? Would it be possible to shape the power dynamics and politics of island life through such loving and affectionate approaches? Colonial discourses and narratives about islands have created dominant imaginaries about paradisiacal places such as the commentary about the ‘sun, sea, sex’ trope mentioned above. These imaginaries exploit islands for the benefit of those that profit from global politics but also create a sense of superiority in countries framed as centres of power that are compared with an inferior ‘other’.
