A disrupting merge perspective on gender: the case of Ibiza

Résumé En

Merge’ is usually studied as a deviance from the central normativity rule. In the present study case on gender in Ibiza, we are going to show that merge can also be seen as an opportunity to develop alternative ways to face the world from diverse approaches, through cultural and social innovation. Ibiza’s Island is well known, thanks to the development of tourism, but even more because of its peculiar development of leisure, and of what it has been called Ibiza’s party, which is based on a relaxed sense of freedom, including an open minded attitude towards gender. This marginal place has become, since the 1960s, the place of a de-gendered night (a mixed, tolerant attitude towards gender), at the merge of traditional gender codes and rules, avoiding gender spatial divisions. This small and marginal island of the Mediterranean has achieved de-gendered spaces and minds thanks to visitors who were and are discovering and experiencing, from a new approach to gender (critical integration), at the merge of their own homeland prejudices. This study was based on the results of an ethnographical study based on interviews with straight/gay tourists, clubs owners and local islanders. This article focuses firstly, on the reasons for this original merge situation in relation to gender on the Island. Secondly, it studies the evolution of Ibiza’s approaches to gender: from de-gendered, to re-gendered spaces in nowadays postmodernity. Thirdly, it concludes with a discussion on the urgency of the opportunity of merges to bring about a diverse critical perspective in our global world. Merge is the best descriptor for innovation in global worlds.