Rock climbers defying gravity and gender expectations

Abstract

This research seeks to explore a specific way that bodies may be redefined as feminine and strong. Much of the literature on gender analyzes the ways in which individuals are confined by gender expectations. Climbing is a venue that celebrates skills traditionally associated with femininity such as flexibility, but because it is assumed to require a lot of upper-body strength, it is not sport typed as feminine. This creates an ideal environment to combine qualities traditionally associated with both femininity and masculinity, and as individuals excel in climbing they discipline their bodies to cultivate both sets of characteristics. Developing both embodied masculine and feminine traits may blur embodied gender traits, and place less emphasis on binary categorizations. This is why climbing offers important opportunities to redefine our knowing bodies with respect to our gender. This research is based on thirty semi-structured interviews coded to produce grounded theory. I also conducted content analysis on thirty-eight issues of two popular climbing magazines, and utilized two years of participant observation to generate the theoretical analysis. The media analysis revealed less emphasis on normative femininity than other types of media, but women are still not represented equally in numbers of photographs, the number of female authors published, or the difficulty of the climbs. The women I interviewed described feeling both physically and socially stronger in their everyday lives, and also more empowered suggesting that climbing has a spill-over effect whereby women come to see themselves as more capable in their everyday lives. Ultimately, I suggest that activities such as rock climbing which allow women to develop holistic, strong, synchronized bodies helps them resist the dominant cultural messages associated with fragmented and weak femininity.