SEXISM IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS

By Anonymous

The Mountaineers is an outdoors club headquartered in Seattle devoted to hiking, climbing, skiing, kayaking, etc. (Go to www.mountaineers.org for more information.) For the most part, it is a great group, with countless people volunteering their time and expertise to help people enjoy the outdoors. I was a member for 27 years.

However, the last few years, the Mountaineers had sponsored Women’s Wellness Weekends for women only. I was aware of other women-only events as well. I did not know of any men-only activities. The group has an official policy against sexual discrimination. I assumed that if I pointed out this sexism to the club’s leadership, that they would stop these Women’s Weekends immediately. This did not happen. Instead, they justified the Women’s Weekends with the strange and convenient argument that the club caters to specific groups if people volunteer to organize activities for these groups. (Would they allow a Caucasian-only activity?) They also encouraged me to organize men-only activities.

OK, fine. I guess the club is not sexist. Men-only activities are also acceptable. It is just that no one had organized one yet.

But, not fine. I did not believe for a second that men-only activities would be allowed. I believed the management was pulling a fast one on me, and were hoping I would accept this explanation and just go away. However, I called their bluff and organized an online men-only Mountaineers March Madness Bracket Contest for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. (This is not an outdoor activity but the Mountaineers sponsors many events that are not outdoor-type activities. For example, activities during Women’s Wellness Weekends have included aerobics, yoga, massage, Zumba, nutritional workshops, wine tastings, and belly dancing.) The Bracket Contest quickly received complaints for being men-only, and the leadership cancelled it. They also denied that they had given me permission to organize this men-only event. It is odd that my complaint about women-only Women’s Weekends resulted in their justification, but a complaint about my men-only Bracket Contest resulted in immediate cancellation. The leadership then justified women-only activities with the misandrist implication that women were not safe if Mountaineer men were present. But the reason given for the cancellation of the Bracket Contest was that only outdoor-type activities could be single-sex. (I guess belly dancing is an outdoor activity.)

Again, what a strange and convenient argument! I wondered if the Mountaineer management had any concept of hypocrisy. I also wondered if they were aware that the coverup is worse than the crime. They were looking mighty silly.

But I decided to play along. I offered to organize a men-only hike. Certainly the leadership would have no objection to this outdoor activity. But certainly, they did. The convenient and strange argument this time was the new policy that the club’s individual branches decided whether or not to sponsor single-sex activities—my branch had never sponsored a women-only event so could easily deny my men-only hike. (I say “new” policy, because it was NOT used just weeks earlier to cancel the men-only Bracket Contest.) This is a strange argument since all activities (except women-only activities, of course) are open to all members, no matter which branch sponsors the activity. The leadership was looking sillier and sillier.

I guess the leadership realized just how silly they looked, so they came up with a more rigorous justification for denying men-only activities. New policies placed many new preconditions on any single-sex activity. It would be very difficult for any men-only activity to meet these new preconditions. But it would be very difficult for any women-only activity as well. I doubt that Women’s Weekends or any other of the women-only activities could satisfy or had satisfied these preconditions. (The organizer of the Women’s Weekends confirmed that she did not have to meet these preconditons.) Yet, none of the women-only activities were halted. These new preconditions only seemed to apply to me and men-only activities. Just how silly could the Mountaineer leadership look?

All through this debacle I asked the leadership to please justify their behavior. I asked questions like: Why do their justifications and policies on this issue keep changing? How is belly dancing an outdoor activity? Why is it that only outdoor-type activities can be single sex? Why would individual branches decide something as important as single-sex activities? Had anyone besides me proposed any men-only activities? How did the women-only activities conform to all the preconditions imposed on me? The leadership refused to answer. Of course, they couldn’t.

I was accused by several Mountaineers of being petty. But who was really being petty here? The “amount” of women-only activities, if it is possible to measure this, must have been 50 or maybe 100 times larger than my men-only Bracket Contest. Yet the women-only activities went on for years without complaints from men, while the puny, little Bracket Contest received complaints from women immediately. Who was really being petty here? And so hypocritical?

While all of this was going on, I went back through my monthly Mountaineer newsletters to refresh my memory on women-only activities. I found 12. These included 2 snowshoe trips, a leadership seminar, an online group, a climber’s social, 3 Women’s Wellness Weekends, and 4 Skills Nights for the Basic Climbing Course. (The Basic Climbing Course offered weekly skills nights for everybody and monthly skills nights just for women.) I also found much pandering to women in the newsletters. This pandering included articles and events about women as women, and charitable events for women. I found 70 instances of this pandering to women. I found 3 comparable instances of pandering to men. 70 to 3. I believe there is a pattern here. I also noted several instances of derogatory comments about men. When I pointed out all of this, the leadership showed absolutely no interest or concern.

As we have all heard before, the coverup is worse than the crime. Certainly, allowing women-only activities while denying men-only activities was bad enough, but the degree to which the leadership tried to block me and continue the sexism was much worse—the obfuscation, the strange justifications, the strange new policies, and the stonewalling were deplorable. I have quit the Mountaineers, and I will not rejoin until the sexism stops and the current leadership has been replaced.

I do not understand how so many people could have participated in this fiasco. First of all, several people in the Mountaineer leadership actively participated in obstructing me and continuing the sexism. Also, other people in the Mountaineer leadership did not speak up and stop this nonsense. On top of this, I did not receive any support from any Mountaineer members, male or female. How can men so consistently act against their own self-interest? How is this possible?

I suppose the main explanation for this is that we are more afraid of women than we are of men. I think we all know that women, as a generality, are quicker to complain than men are. Even in this situation, women-only events occurred without complaint for several years, but a harmless men-only activity received complaints from women immediately. Since men are less likely to complain, I suppose the Mountaineer leadership was afraid of the outcry from women if they allowed men-only events, as well as the outcry from women if they cancelled the women-only events. This sensitivity difference between men and women inevitably has led to the sexist double standard present in this case as well as many others. As long as Mountaineer men cower in the face of women’s anger, sexism against Mountaineer men will continue.

I tried to come up with other possibilities to explain this sexism, and they all seemed to be related to this fear of women’s anger: political correctness, chivalry, and even men’s dread of sleeping on the couch. All of this fear of women’s anger has led to much sexism against men, making men second-class members of the Mountaineers, of the home, and of society. And women have had no problem in taking advantage of this situation. It is time for the so-called “macho” gender to get some guts and confront this sexism. And it would also be nice if women did the right thing and actually followed their own rhetoric and worked toward gender equality.

Sexism works both ways though radical feminists and the brain dead

say sexism only applies to women, kind’s like the above, right?