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Creating an inclusive mountain culture

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Lynsey Dyer recently posted an excellent episode of her podcast, ShowingUP, in which she examines the hyper masculinity of mountain cultures -- particularly in professions such as avalanche safety, patrolling, and guiding -- and the effect this has on all of us. I'm sharing it here. A lot of good stuff, so check it out:

 

vickie

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Ugh. After 12 minutes, I stopped it. I was really tired of the word "masculinity" being used to describe capability. Maybe it got better after that, but using a gender-specific term to encapsulate logical thinking and strength and other qualities really grated on me.
 

gingerjess

Angel Diva
Maybe it got better after that, but using a gender-specific term to encapsulate logical thinking and strength and other qualities really grated on me.

I think that when they're talking about logical thinking/strength as being "masculine", I don't think they're the ones dictating that—they're describing the relationship the existing mountain culture has to those qualities. Maybe the language they're using isn't the best—rather than masculine qualities, they should be talking about masculine-coded qualities; qualities that the culture perceives as masculine.

And that perception obviously isn't based in reality—one thing Reimer brings up is that when a woman enters a group, she is automatically perceived as less competent, less logical, less strong, even before she opens her mouth. So I don't read Reimer as saying "well, women are just bad at these masculine things" at all—I think she's saying that women frequently don't even get the chance to prove themselves on these skills because of the biases a lot of people carry in their heads.

The final key point (that maybe isn't relevant to your frustrations) is that elevating these particular masculine-coded skills leads to the denigration of other (feminine-coded) skills. And maybe because we build our identities in a society where skills like empathy and logic are gender-coded, it's possible that people who identify with feminine-coded skills don't feel welcome among people who place only those skills that are masculine-coded on a pedestal.
 

Après Skier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I finally had time to listen to the podcast and I admire Reimer’s work of creating a culture where everyone can thrive. Very interesting.
 

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