Welcome to Terra Incognita Media where we deliver nuanced feminist analysis about issues surrounding race, class, and gender in response to the outdoor industry.
Gentrification is modern colonialism – whiteness benefits from it, and even “the aesthetic and cultural aspects of the process assert a white Anglo appropriation of urban space and urban history,” reveals Rowland Atkinson and Gary Bridge in their book, Gentrification in a Global Context: The New Urban Colonialism. Our American society has short-term memory loss. Often, we forget the greatly destructive implications and lasting consequences of “old world” conquests. Why do we glorify Alex Honnold for living out of his car, and ignore those who do it out of necessity?
When I was twenty-six, I went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to meet my then boyfriend's family. I think after that I knew that we could never work. It's not that his family wasn't welcoming, they were fine. We watched slide shows of his family vacations to Mexico, bike rides through the Grand Canyon, and holidays at their home in Mt. Hood.
1. Give gear and clothes to the houseless
2. Acknowledge feminism, the intricacies of the feminist movement and its history, and that feminism is the driving force of true women and minority empowerment
2. Support and sell books by authors of color who talk about the systemic issues related to getting outside: Jourdan Imani Keith, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Lauret Savoy, Carolyn Finney, James E. Mills, Dianne D. Glave, Camille T. Dungy, Dorceta E. Taylor, Alison Hawthorne
2017 is the year of bigley news: Women are people too. True savvy, successful business people have recently discovered that half of their consumers identity as women.
Collective survival depends on collective action. Companies like One Percent for the Planet are important, but we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that this is all we can do. Too often environmental activism gets shrouded in the belief that donating money is the solution. Voting with our money by donating to good causes is helpful, but these are Band-Aid measures. The work shouldn't stop there.
Do not be afraid to cause a tsunami in the ocean of patriarchy.... “Beta Babes” is not just a trivial phrase that should be dismissed as catchy and cute. It is conning women out of their fullest potential.