Why Women Need Adventure
The feminist potential of the Great Outdoors
When you google “adventure book”, every single book suggested by Google is written by a man.
The outdoors have long been considered the realm of guys, while girls were stuck inside in the proverbial kitchen, men were out in the world, exploring. This social expectation is the first reason that it is subversive for women to be out, having adventures, and why doing so can be a powerful tool for personal and political empowerment.
At the moment, I’m binge-reading adventure books written by women, and it’s been an eye-opening experience. Tales of sheer bravery, incredible feats performed against all odds, be it ice, gravity or a sexist society, scared of the explosive mix that make a woman and adrenaline.
I read about Alexandra David-Néel, who was the first European woman to cross the Trans-Himalayas in the dead of winter to reach the forbidden city of Lhasa in Tibet. That was back in 1924, and she was 55 at the time…
