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- All Subjects: feminism
- Creators: School of Social Transformation
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
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.
Neoliberal feminism has gained significant popularity in fourth-wave feminist media. In this paper, I analyze the 2017 limited television series "Big Little Lies" to uncover the intricacies of neoliberal feminist theory in practice, particularly how it speaks to gender, race, and class relations.
The Garden is a series of seven looks which represent specific flowers. These representations are seen not only in their color ways, but also in their use of textured fabrics, bold silhouettes, and detailed embellishment techniques such as beading and covered buttons. My goal was to embody flowers, not to simply create garments with flowers on them. Instead, these garments ARE flowers. These forms are meant to call back to classic feminine shapes while giving them a modern twist in their asymmetry, fearless lines, and suggestiveness. They are a celebration of women and their connection with the delicate and powerful aspects of nature and their interactions with the human form.