Delegitimizing wilderness as the man cave

The role of social media in female wilderness empowerment

Bibliographic Data

ID12697486
AuthorsTheodora G Weatherby (0000-0001-9871-6960, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, corresponding author), Elizabeth S Vidon (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry)
Year2018
Volume18
Issue3
Pages332-352
Publication date2018-05-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTourist Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-7976 • E-ISSN: 1741-3206
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1468797618771691
OpenAlexW2802503203
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited39

Historically, American wilderness has been conceived as a profoundly masculine landscape and a threat to femininity. Early wilderness discourse stressed landscapes of risk and danger, certainly no place for a woman. Prior to the Romantic era and Transcendentalism, but even in recent history, it was not uncommon for women to avoid venturing into wilderness alone for reasons including personal safety and possible corruption of body and spirit. The introduction of tourism in wilderness allowed people to experience the thrill of the wild while enjoying an element of safety through mitigated risk, an experience that appealed to the masculine and created socially significant places. While wilderness has historically been tied to these masculine narratives, these and the wilderness identity are increasingly challenged by contemporary feminine discourse working within various social media platforms. As tourism continues to domesticate wilderness, women are simultaneously pushing against social boundaries that dictate their place within, thus, changing both the identity of place and of women’s roles therein. This process, shifting both definitions of wilderness and woman, occurs through deconstruction of powerful feminine stereotypes through active engagement with these increasingly accessible landscapes. Social media acts as platform through which this changing discourse is garnering support and social power. Thus, this article argues that women’s assertions and performances of power in wilderness directly combat stereotypes of their place in these landscapes. Furthermore, without tourism’s promotion of these spaces as extraordinary and powerful in themselves, women’s performances therein would lack the social significance and challenge to wilderness as gendered

Aesthetics · Art · Environmental ethics · Femininity · Identity (music · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Tourism · Wilderness · Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking · Gender Studies · Law · Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Ecology

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