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- All Subjects: feminism
- All Subjects: Fraternity
Hiking and Hegemony: Destabilizing the nature/culture and gender binaries through outdoor recreation
Our second framework, titled The Pleasurable Potential of Outdoor Recreation, cites second-wave feminism as a catalyst for women’s participation in wilderness exploration and outdoor recreation. The work of radical feminists and the women’s liberation movement in 1960s and 1970s empowered women at home, in the workplace, and eventually, in the outdoors; women reclaimed their wilderness, yet they continued to employ Framework One’s feminization of nature. Ecofeminsim brought together nature and women, seeking to bring justice to two groups wronged by the same entity: masculinity. In this context, outdoor recreation is empowering for women.
Despite the potential of Framework Two to reinscribe and better the experiences of women in outdoor recreation, we argue that both Frameworks One and Two perpetuate the gender binary and the nature/culture binary, because they are based upon the notion that women are in fact fundamentally different and separate from men, the notion that nature is an entity separate from culture, or human society, as well as the notion that nature is in fact a feminine entity.
Our third framework, Deer Pay No Mind to Your Genitals, engages poststructuralism, asserting that outdoor recreation and activities that occur in nature can serve to destabilize and deconstruct notions of the gender binary. However, we argue that care must be exercised during this process as not to perpetuate the problematic nature/culture binary, a phenomenon that is unproductive in terms of both sustainability and gender liberation. Outdoor recreation has been used by many as a tool to deconstruct numerous societal constraints, including the gender binary; this, however, continues to attribute escapist and isolationist qualities toward nature, and therefore perpetuating the nature/culture divide. Ultimately, we argue outdoor recreation can and should be used as a tool deconstruct the gender binary, however needs to account for the fact that if nature is helping to construct elements of culture, then the two cannot be separate.
The thesis focuses on the opportunity of receiving the Rock Chapter Award as a chapter of Sigma Nu Nationals and analyzes it using Bolman and Deal’s Four Frames. An introduction to Sigma Nu, its programs, the Zeta Upsilon chapter, and guidelines brings into perspective how members and a chapter can earn a Rock Chapter Award. The introduction highlights the structural emphasis on the award and its achievement, however an analysis offers insights on how to further tighten the bolts within the structure and offer support by aligning members needs and skills with Rock Chapter criteria. A multi-frame approach is further supported by discussing the symbolism behind Rock Chapter and how it can be used as cohesion between the rigidity of the structure and the softness of the people. The frame analysis provided some solutions, which include adding a form of officer hours, increasing the effectiveness of the treasurer, and improving the culture of the weekly meetings. The four frames offer various insights into what is missing and how leadership can utilize assets, such as the resources of Sigma Nu and even Zeta Upsilon, to inspire the pursuit of excellence. Further, the four frames opens the door for leadership to better prepare for future Pursuit of Excellence Self-Assessments or operations by not being confined to one frame, which is useful to Zeta Upsilon as the chapter has been conditioned to rely on a structural approach during its short time back on Arizona State’s campus.
The cyborgs in these films, however, refuse to let categorizations like female, or even their status as human, alive, or real, restrict them so easily. As human-robot hybrids, cyborgs bridge identities that are assumed to be separate and often oppositional or mutually exclusive. Cyborgs reveal the structures and expectations reified in gender to suggest that something constructed can as easily be deconstructed. In doing so, they create loose ends that leave space for new understandings of both gender and technology. By viewing these films alongside critical theory, we can understand their cyborgs as subversive, hybrid characters. Accordingly, the cyborg as a figure subverts and fragments the coherency of narratives that present gender, technology, and identity in monolithic terms, not only helping us envision new possibilities but giving us the faculties to imagine them at all.