Emotional embodiment to face street harassment during the practice of adventure activities in Mexico

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores the emotions experienced by two Mexican women as a consequence of street harassment episodes while practising adventure outdoor activities. Leisure and travel often place women in unfamiliar space and places increasing their perception of vulnerability, thus reducing their participation and enjoyment, and also affecting their physical patterns as well as their emotional responses. In order to analyse affectual embodiment and its impacts in the use of public adventure space through coping strategies I rely on Ahmed’s interpretations of anger, while Jiménez-Esquina’s ‘ambivalent fluxes’ and Hall’s ‘sentient and emotional body’ contribute to explore the emotion as a ‘continuum’ of embodied practices that shed light on Wilson and Little’s ‘geography of women’s travel fear’. The analysis indicates the relevance of emotions in the construction of inclusive adventure space in a context of violence and insecurity, as well as the role of socio-cultural influence on the ‘vulnerable women’ social construct.