My becoming an outdoor wilful killjoy: A response to Gray

Abstract

If Gray is willing to speak, it made me think, then why shouldn’t I? And why shouldn’t you? This article is a response to Tonia Gray’s 2016 article “The ‘F’ word: Feminism in outdoor education” by utilizing Sara Ahmed’s newly published 2017 book Living a Feminist Life. In Living a Feminist Life, Ahmed works to bring feminism home by discussing feminist theory in the context of women’s everyday lives. “The ‘F’ word” insists that the lack of a thorough feminist self-examination in the outdoor education industry is the cause of many of the gender disparity problems. Gray discusses “feminist fatigue” and emphasizes the reluctance that many women in outdoor education have bringing up the “F” word, feminism, over and over again with little response or culture change. Ahmed’s concepts of a feminist survival kit can easily translate into the survival kits we carry into the outdoors, providing us with feminist tools to address this feminist fatigue. Ahmed’s concepts of wilful, snappy killjoys could be an answer to some of the pockets of bias presented by Gray in her exploration of women’s responses to a highly gendered workplace. Applying feminist thought to outdoor education can help challenge, encourage, and inspire both men and women in the industry to be more inclusive professionals and leaders.