Striding across the mountain of life: Women, mountain climbing experience and herstory
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Huang, Li-Ying
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
The research starts with the researcher’s experiences and observations on mountain climbing, who wants to disclosure the myths of certain common ideas in the field of mountain climbing, such as “there is no gender differences when going mountain climbing,” “females serve as males, and males serve as animals”, etc. A qualitative analysis is presented on female mountain climbing experiences as well as the relationship between mountain climbing and female lives, based on the interviews with 11 females who enjoy going mountain climbing very much. Both participant observation and text analysis are applied to this work too. Feminist perspectives on women’s leisure and recent academic attention on gendered flows help the researcher to discover the situation women are in when they shuttle among in-and-out-of the mountains, leisure and everyday life.
In the process of climbing mountain and being away from human society, people might also put away their gender identity. Therefore, “being myself” and having genuine relationships with others become plausible. However, gender stereotypes are still found in a physical or social way, and in the gender performance of the division of labor and in human interaction. Women’s observation helps us to reflect on the masculine and dominant perspectives in the mountain-climbing field. Besides, females stride across the concrete or metaphorical boundary of gender, contact different geographical space and life styles and then see various dimensions of others and selves. All the reflective thinking and action are aroused and cause conflicts, which are shown in body, self, human interactions, values, and careers too. When females are out of the mountains, these experiences of flow contribute to women’s empowerment, encouragement of pursuing one’s own life style and even self-realization. Some women reflect again on what the meaning of flow and rootedness is after becoming mothers.
This work presents different female mountain-climbing experiences and various characteristics among female climbers, strategically representing women’s voices and expecting to extend the imaginary space of mountain climbing by having conversations with mainstream values. Therefore, hopefully each climber can find his or her own way to construct self-identification. Furthermore, the traces are also found in this work that female climbers actively construct their self-identification in the flow of time and space; no matter how their lives are going, the mountains are never away from their lives.
Subjects
登山
女性與休閒
性別化流動
男子氣概
女性氣質
性別展演
主體建構
mountain climbing
woman and leisure
gendered flows
masculinity
femininity
gender performance
subject construction
Type
thesis
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