According to a recent, too-idiotic-to-even-understand article published in The International Review for the Sociology of Sport, ski slopes are sexist “masculinized spaces.”
“This article examines how skiing landscapes are constructed as masculinized spaces,” states the abstract for Memorial University of Newfoundland assistant professor Mark C. J. Stoddart’s piece titled “Constructing masculinized sportscapes: Skiing, gender and nature in British Columbia, Canada.”
Um . . . hills with snow on them are “masculinized spaces”? What in the fresh hell is this guy talking about?
Well, according to Stoddart, ski slopes are places “for performing athletic, risk-seeking masculinity,” and “less risky areas of the skiing landscape may be interpreted as ‘gender-neutral’ or feminized space.”
Honestly, to me, Stoddart’s insinuation that risk-taking is a man’s thing is what really seems sexist here — but he insists that it’s the ski slopes that are the problem, and that “the social construction of sport landscapes shapes gendered power relations.”
“Through skiing, participants construct the meaning of gender and place, privileging masculinized versions of the sport,” the abstract continues.
Now, maybe I’m missing something, but I tend to think that people who are out skiing are probably thinking about, like, you know, skiing. I highly, highly doubt that anyone (anyone!) is out on the slopes thinking “Ugh, the steepness of that slope just keeps making me think about how oppressed I am by the patriarchy; I guess I’ll just go home and knit” or “Wow, that slope is so steep that it makes me think of how much better men are than women” or “That slope looks easy; it must be a girl!”
#related#Sexism is obviously a problem that women have to deal with every day, and there are a lot of things that contribute to it. But ski slopes? Ski slopes?
Oh, and then there’s this: What exactly is the actual point of this garbage? Stoddart, you spent time writing this why? It really does blow my mind — although, I have to admit, ever since I saw that taxpayer-funded study examining the gender politics of glaciers, no level of gender-baiting lunacy really surprises me anymore.
This article was originally covered in a post on Power Line.