Travel is not just for white women – why I’m unfollowing Instagram accounts that ignore diversity

asian_female_travelblogger_craftandtravel

Today marks one year of me starting this blog. The last 12 months have been a learning experience. I’ve not posted nearly as much as I had intended to. I have a list of 40 posts waiting to be written, an Instagram account that’s barely touched and a Twitter account where I keep replying to messages a few days late. Oops.

It’s really hard trying to find my voice in the overcrowded field of travel blogging. Prior to this I had a lifestyle blog for 10 years that I wrote regularly, just for my family to read, but since then the whole environment of blogging has changed. There’s so much theory, best practice, schools of thought, books, online courses, talks, events and conferences that have led to blogging becoming formulaic, dull and most sadly, feeling a bit desperate.

Blogging is not something that can exist alone though; it’s part of the wider world of social media and ‘travel social media’ is an area I’ve been getting very familiar with over the last few months. Firstly I’ve learnt that it’s incredibly popular. We are all so fascinated by the fantasy of foreign lands and the beauty they represent.

There’s no denying that images of perfect unspoiled landscapes and glowing sunsets hovering above ancient ruins aren’t appealing. I’m a ‘liker’ of these images myself. When I first signed up to Instagram these were the accounts I followed. Next I got to know the important travel hashtags, including the right phrases to use, to get spotted and shared by influencial accounts. I admired these accounts daily, wondering whether I’d ever appear on one…and then it finally dawned on me: I will never get featured on these accounts because of the colour of my skin.

Nothing opens a person up to diversity and culture more than travel – so why is it that there’s such a lack of diversity in some of the most influential travel accounts there are, aimed at female travellers?

And yes I am going to name and shame. I used to follow all three of these accounts but with time it dawned on me just how un-inclusive they are; selling us an idealistic vision that travel is something that can only be enjoyed by attractive white females, and I’m not prepared to support this way of thinking because it’s Racist.

So here’s the culprits (figures as of date of posting this blogpost)

Darling Escapes – 145k followers 653 posts
Approx 13 of their posts feature women of colour (half of them fall into the white Asian category of being Chinese/Japanese, so there’s very much a lack of brown skin tones on their grid)
darling escapes

She Is Not Lost – 151k followers – 636 posts
Around 10 posts feature women of colour and three of those posts are of the same person, lucky her!
sheisnotlost

We Are Travel Girls – 256k followers 1,114 posts
I counted 15 posts that feature women of colour
we are travel girls copy

Of these three accounts there are around three South Asian women across them in total (see, I have no hope). But it’s not just the unequal percentage of Caucasian women appearing on these accounts that makes them so unattractive: there is no evidence of any woman whose body shape is anything other than a stick.

So essentially what these carefully curated lifestyle accounts are showing us is that only thin, white women go travelling. Need I say more?

The creators of these accounts need to know that this inaccurate representation of women is unacceptable.

I urge you to unfollow these accounts and those that are similar to them and to start leaving comments about why you are doing so because until we ‘followers’ say NO to this type of blatant racism, there will never be any change. Travel is for everyone and that needs to be represented in every aspect of the industry.

I know how privileged I am that I have travelled and I will travel more. I’m also aware that some people will never in their entire lifetime, leave the region in which they are born, but for those of us who are lucky enough to travel we can’t let these influential social media accounts continue to send out negative messages. Let’s make this stand against racist, non-diverse accounts together.

As for my blog, I love writing every one of these posts. It gives me so much pleasure. I’m far off from being a ‘travel blogger’ or ‘influencer’ but not my intention. I love the diary element of what I do, having a place to store my memories and photographs. It makes me feel so chuffed when someone likes my posts or leaves a comment. As I said, I’m still finding my voice and I will continue to try out different types of posts. I also aim to increase my content and stay true to myself by writing more honest opinion posts like this one.

Thank you to every one who has stumbled on these pages in its first infancy year. I hope you’ll come back soon and get inspired to take a more creative themed approach to your adventures.

Momtaz

Portrait photo: Horaczko Photography

 

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13 Comments
  • Nessy Samuel Photography
    September 1, 2017

    M great to see the blog post on diversity. To be honest I didn’t notice about the diversity on the feed as I was distracted about the landscape and photography. Note to myself need to pay attention. xo Nessy

    • Craft and Travel
      September 2, 2017

      Thank you for checking out the post. For sure the landscapes and compositions are stunning. Maybe I’m being pessimistic but at same time I look at those stats that I counted up myself and it’s really cute shocking, it may be a detail but on a grander scale it’s something that should be addressed.

  • natnzin
    September 4, 2017

    Exactly. What Instagram mostly favours is white-skinned skinny girls. It’s sad that poc get no attention at all.

    • Craft and Travel
      September 6, 2017

      Thanks for checking my post – there are some individual accounts that are doing great jobs but until they get ‘featured’ more there’s little hope. But if we all keep the conversations going and make our views known hopefully accounts like those I mention will be part of the change.

  • textiles4beth
    September 5, 2017

    Well said!

    • Craft and Travel
      September 6, 2017

      Thank you for reading the post I hope people continue this conversation

  • Allyson
    September 7, 2017

    Yes, I’ve been following Istagram a lot lately and I’m getting tired of super model in bikinis. I’m white and I rarely see so-called ‘normal’ bodies on IG. As for women of colour…well, it’s kind of like most fashion magazines today. Really sad. I’m a teacher and I often tell my students the story of the first black model on the cover of Vogue in the 1960s. They always find it very shocking but things haven’t changed as much as we think they have.
    BTW you look fantastic in the pic above!

    • Craft and Travel
      September 8, 2017

      Thank you so much! That sounds like the kind of history my ears would have pricked up in class I used to fall asleep learning about Tudor kings and queens! I hope these issues get tackled a more young people turn to Instagram it needs to be a place that is positive. And thank you! I had a fun little shoot around Camden one Monday morning!

  • shaheen
    April 3, 2018

    I have been following you since your first blog and have marveled at your success and been proud of you my friend for braving and paving the way. I am not a traveller (life took me a different direction), however I am an armchair traveller, and I have always refused to follow certain accounts simply because they do not reflect me or the diversity of the world around me and that includes lifestyle blogs, food blogs and fashion blogs. I see a little bit of me in you and hope that my young nieces will see a bit of them in you too – that is optimism. Thank you for existing.

    • Craft and Travel
      April 3, 2018

      Thanks so much Shaheen that is a truly touching comment. I’m glad you are making the conscious decision about who you follow and what you read – there are more ‘ethnic bloggers’ than ever at the moment though letting giving new voices out which is great. I adore the creativity of your cooking too everything you make is so appealing and I love seeing them appear on my twitter!

  • Maribel Monsalve
    May 23, 2018

    I started unfollowing travel accounts a while back for this reason (lack of diversity) and also for the lack of portraying realistic responsible travel. Also, if I noticed that I was following an account that had too many “white savior” type of posts… those were unfollowed as well.

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    March 12, 2019

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