The collective might and beauty of the women in this world takes my breath away and I don't want to be part of a culture that reduces us to anything less than the holistically beautiful people we are.
We need to lift each other up instead of breaking each other down. There are enough barriers to entry to the outdoors without women standing in the way of other women. We have to fight against this insane scarcity model that has us believing one woman’s success is to the detriment of our own when in fact, we all shine brighter together. We have to overcome our own insecurities and tendencies toward snap judgments. Let's dig a little deeper and grow to understand each other a little bit more. Let's learn to recognize and appreciate the diverse beauty of the women around us as an interesting facet of who they are instead of a limiting factor. Our individual aesthetics do not dictate our abilities or potential our choices, background*, training, and substance as human beings do. Women come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and forms of beauty. Nonetheless, it's a message that women in particular receive in any number of insidious ways: from "compliments" like the one above to blog posts questioning the "authenticity" of female athletes and adventurers based on their looks and attire to advertisements that are carefully curated to present someone else's idea of perfection. That said, none of these things have any real bearing on my ability and fitness to participate in outdoor (or any other) activities and they similarly have none on yours. All of these things are facets of who I am, and that's okay.
Does the lack of sweat-laden photos mean that part of my experience was erased? No. When I take photos, I do so carefully in an attempt to capture a moment that conveys both the physical and emotional beauty of what I'm experiencing. Does this mean capturing every drop of sweat on the trail? No. I have experimented with makeup, hairstyles and outfits and figured out what works for me, whether I'm inside or out. I like to dress up and feel fancy from time to time and have an abiding obsession with red lipstick, even in the backcountry. I'm the first one to admit that I care about aesthetics and am no stranger to vanity. Too often, when the phrase "authentic" gets bandied about, what the author really means is "you don't conform to my idea or experience of the outdoors and therefore your depiction must be false." I have always been puzzled by these posts, finding them to be incredibly dismissive, inappropriate, and cruel. But what does it mean to be authentic? We aren't handbags, after all, crafted from vegan leather. The author, often a woman, levels a critical eye on images of other women in the outdoors, deeming them "inauthentic" for one reason or another, often contrasting those photos with one or more of their own. We have all seen the blog posts on this topic. I simply want to take some time to reflect on an idea that we all seem to have absorbed in a million subtle ways: women are limited by their aesthetics. I’m not here to talk about the dynamics of beauty although that’s a very worthy conversation and one that cuts both ways. Let me be absolutely clear about one thing: I recognize that in her mind she was giving me a compliment and I am by no means offended by her intentions or perception of my physical appearance.
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