When are we hiking together Smoky Spoon? Want to hike some of the Grand Enchantment Tr , AZT, or CDT. I'll even carry most of the gear.
When are we hiking together Smoky Spoon? Want to hike some of the Grand Enchantment Tr , AZT, or CDT. I'll even carry most of the gear.
Life is not about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself.
Hello everyone!
Thirtysomething newbie from Germany here. I've been watching Thru Hiker vlogs on YouTube for a while now (starting 2014 or so) while dreaming about one day hiking the AT myself.
I usually make a point of reading all the comments to a video, too (most of the best advice usually hides in the comment section) so I've noticed the very unsettling tendency of comments being different on videos of female hikers. I have yet to find a male hiker's video with comments such as "I don't think you'll make it, you don't look as if you have what it takes", "You shouldn't do X, do Y instead" (with the implication that the hiker didn't do their research), "I wouldn't mind getting to know you a little better on the trail wink wink", "get rid of those ugly glasses / that ugly item of clothing", "did you sleep with one of the people in your group of hikers?", "is that other hiker your partner?" or even comments about how ugly the hiker is. It's pretty unsettling to me seeing the comments and the abuse some of these girls get online. (It's also always a pleasure to see these ladies make their way to Katahdin and prove those pigs wrong. )
I was wondering if there is a tendency to get that abuse in person, too? Online I don't often see male hikers replying to these kinds of comments - maybe because they don't care but hopefully because they don't want to come across as mansplaining and don't want to feed the trolls. I guess I was just wondering if male hikers tend to be allies on the trail if situations like that come up?
Cyberhiking is nothing like actually getting out there! I have been doing 400plus miles on the AT each year since 2011, and found nothing but generally nice guys out there. Some of the younger ones may use "potty mouth" speech but that seems to be common any more. When hiking with my Grandsons I think a few were wishing their Grandma had taken them hiking. I did have a few trying to give me a new trailname "Hardcore Grandma" but all in good fun.
I'm a father who raised two daughters into capable and happy adults, so I've always been attentive to these kind of issues. Youtube in general is a cesspit of sexism. Every single video that involves a woman has some sort of thoughtless, or malicious comment that discusses her appearance or sexuality. I noticed it first in music videos, as I'm a fan of female vocalists. Rather than discussing an amazing voice and sound, it's always the same derp about how pretty she is.
I suspect the reason for this is that we have a segment of a generation of young men, who have learned to socialize online and rarely talk to other people in real life. They haven't faced any kind of real life repercussions for their behavior. There are of course the social justice warrior young men as well, and the young men who pretend to be SJWs in the hope that it will get them laid. Young men are largely hormone driven idiots, it's worse on the internet when they're unsupervised.
I would expect that the general population of hikers is more socialized than the internet versions are. They're out in the world interacting with humans, rather than merely commenting. It's hard to consider anyone at at all your inferior when you share hardships with them and see them succeed. The trail is a great equalizer.
Both men and women have to put up with stereotyping, unfortunately. On the trail- as in life- be capable, be accountable, be smart. Men and women can be productive and positive or a-holes-equally. As a female, I sometimes get tired of the hand wringing over how women are treated in our society.We worked really hard to get where we are-time to own it.
No, never had a baby, but have you ever been kicked in the balls?
I've NEVER heard a person who has been kicked in the balls say he would like to have another some day ..... can't say that about women and childbirth.
Must not be that bad.
BOOM ... case closed.
OkeefenokeeJoe