It is with a great sigh of resignation that find myself I
yet again entering a discussion about “are climbers sexist?”, stimulated by
this article: https://medium.com/@georgieabel/sasha-digulian-joe-kinder-and-the-reframing-of-normal-b0e70d933642.
The short answer is, well, yes. But every time someone attempts to discuss that
sexism might possibly be embedded in larger systems than individuals, there is
a chorus of “not all men”. Since when did anyone say all and every single man?
I can name incredibly feminist male climbers. I can name quite a lot more
incredibly sexist and quite scary climbers. But we are not talking individuals.
Climbing is not a little bubble. Climbers are drawn from a
broader patriarchal society that is also racist, classist, homophobic and ableist.
These days, most climbers are not even the social renegades we like to think we
were. Gyms and sport climbing has led to the participation of vast numbers of
incredibly mainstream people, and they bring with them their experience and
worldviews from growing up and living in our society. Even radical left social
movements are not immune from forms of prejudice and unacceptable behaviour, as
a little research into sexism in environmental and socialist movements will
find for you as well. Similarly, the older and more radical ends of the
climbing spectrum are not free from sexist behaviour. Ways in which people
talk, relate and make assumptions may all reflect sexism and when you have been
around climbing for as long as I have, listing off examples just gets tedious,
because they are so common.
Now, I agree Georgie generalises a little in her article.
What is obvious to someone who has lived experience of being a woman in
climbing with a background knowledge of gender theory, postmodernism and
intersectional feminism, is that Georgie is also writing from that position.
And without that background, her article may seem a little thin in spots. And
before everyone complains further about the grading system comment, I believe
that idea originated from a man https://mojagear.com/journal/2015/12/23/dude-grades-a-look-at-sexism-in-climbing-grades/
. But again, listing of examples just gets incredibly tedious. What would be
really nice sometimes is if women were just believed.
But what tends to happen is that the few incidents that the “not
all men” brigade acknowledge are written off as individual rather than systemic
problems. And the women’s voices that are listened to are the ones who describe
problems as individual rather than systemic. I am also really bored of saying I
don’t hate men. I think everyone around me is pretty clear that I am actually
rather fond of men. That is not incompatible with stating that these men were
raised and function within a patriarchal system. Most of them don’t want to be
actively sexist or oppressive, but some have more awareness of their position, privilege
and participation in the perpetuation of the system than others.
When women say, this man’s behaviour was not OK, but really,
men in climbing are great, they get pats on the back. Brave women, pointing out
sexism but supporting the “not all men”. But what Georgie is trying to point
out is that these men’s behaviour occurs in a context where they feel their behaviour
is OK. People don’t tend to do stuff they feel will get them socially
ostracised. Which suggests that these individuals felt their behaviour was sufficiently
acceptable to their surrounding community to engage in it. When people support
women for speaking up about these incidents, they are demonstrating that a
certain level of blatant sexism, sexual harassment and assault is not acceptable.
That’s a good start. However, when they proceed to go on to claim that women
talking about a more general, more subtly entrenched culture of sexism is divisive,
well, I’m sorry, but you are demonstrating the problem. It’s divisive for women
to talk about sexism but not divisive to deny their experiences and call them
divisive? It is not the responsibility of women to nicefy the world and make it
palatable to you. Everyone has different experience, beliefs, values and viewpoints.
When you happen to be of the dominant one telling another less privileged one
that they are wrong and just being disruptive, well, it’s a bit of a giveaway of what's going on to me.
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