Gendered Terrains

Authors

  • Lara A. Jacobs Oregon State University & Prescott College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18666/JOREL-2020-V12-I1-9927

Keywords:

bicycle, outdoor recreation, mobility, women's liberation, gendered space

Abstract

This essay considers the gendered productions of space and the ways that mobility is embodied by different bodies. It begins with a discussion on mobility and space and then examines the history of women’s bicycling in the United States during the 19th century as part of the evolution of women’s mobility into other forms of outdoor recreation. This examination explores the ensuing expansion of U.S. women’s participation in other types of outdoor recreation activities that take place in terrains that are culturally constructed as masculine. The essay underlines a need for outdoor recreation researchers to explore how women and gender others experience and participate in outdoor recreation activities. It also calls for further examination into how the presence of women and gender others in masculine spaces destabilizes gender constructions embedded within these terrains.

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Author Biography

Lara A. Jacobs, Oregon State University & Prescott College

Lara A. Jacobs is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, a Ph.D. student at Oregon State University studying in the Forest Ecosystems and Society department of the College of Forestry, and an Adjunct Instructor at Prescott College. Lara's current research interests focus on the spatial behaviors and associated ecological impacts of outdoor recreationists. Lara's doctoral studies are funded by the Cobell Scholarship Fund, ARCS Foundation, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society's Lighting the Pathway Scholarship, the Helen J. & Harold Gilman Smith Scholarship, Sutherland Forestry Scholarship, and Oregon State University College of Forestry's Provost Distinguished Scholarship. Lara possess an MA in Environmental Studies from Prescott College where she studied the gender and sustainability performances of thru-hikers, and a B.S. in Women Studies from Oregon State University where she merged her interests in environmental studies with topics pertaining to systems of privilege and oppression. Lara's also interested in the gendering of outdoor terrains, Tribal land management/sovereignty, the spatial behaviors and associated ecological impacts of outdoor recreationists, and topics surrounding marine ecology and conservation.

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Published

2019-12-30

Issue

Section

Special Issue: Examination of Girls/Women in Rec