The Credibility Discount: Foreign Travel Bloggers and Engendering Nationalist Discourses

Over the last few years, Pakistan has witnessed an increase in (mostly women) foreign travel bloggers. Their social media posts are being used as a form of nation branding, by weaving together particular kinds of narratives in order to tell and sell an image both locally and internationally. A common theme in the posts of travel bloggers corresponds to the positive portrayal of women’s access to, and safety within public spaces, which is in stark contrast to the experiences of local women. Ironically, supporters of the ongoing local women’s movement,
Aurat March, are often discredited for being ‘westernised’ women that portray a negative image of the country, while foreign female bloggers are praised for showing the ‘true’ image of Pakistan. This article uses excerpts from online media commentary to discuss discrepancies in the credibility divested from local women, versus the credibility discount awarded to foreign bloggers. Situated within a post-colonial feminist framework, it examines how female foreign travel bloggers represent a shift in feminist critique and engendering nationalist discourses: from one entangled in ‘white women telling brown women that they need saving from brown men’ to one which could be referred to as white women telling brown women that they do not, in fact, need saving from brown men.