May

Can female explorers save us from extinction?

The other night I went to the monthly lecture at Travellers Club and again the talk was by a young male explorer. Sad to say I’ve heard his story before, and each time it was the same: The hero conquering the earth. The male hero conquering the earth, to be more precise.

So why is it male explorers need to declare themselves the best, the fittest and the strongest adventurers on earth? And why, oh why do they only talk about themselves?

We definitely need more female explorers, because without them we could become extinct.

Let me explain: Recently, I was sat next to a publisher of a famous US outdoor magazine. He sighed and said:

“Every day, as I receive letters and articles from people making expeditions and wanting to sell their material, I ask myself: “Hasn’t adventure come further than this? Is it still just white men with icicles in their beards dishing out the same old silly story?”

I couldn’t agree more. As no doubt do many people in the extreme sports and exploring fraternity. I am so fed up with this macho nonsense! It’s time for a change. We need more female narrators. We need a female perspective and men have to start thinking more like women. I think this is crucial to whether the public remain interested in adventure and exploration in the future, or switch off forever.

What men often fail to note is that there are still considerable differences in how a story can be told. For example, this morning I was searching the internet for stories about Himalayan expeditions. I found this report by a pair of male climbers:

“It’s been a tough and troublesome today. Our backpacks weigh about 60 pounds. Today we struggled for six hours. Tomorrow we will continue and pitch our final camp at 7,500 meters. We won’t sleep much tonight, but we are feeling all right.”

Other than their closest relatives, I find it hard to believe anyone is really interested in this stuff. Personally, I find it mind-numbingly boring. Endless even.

So, let’s compare this with a separate account. This time from an expedition on the same mountain, at the same time, but written by a woman:

“Why am I never satisfied? I’m thinking I should have exercised more. I also think I should have been more mentally prepared. Actually, I’ve been preparing for five years. And trained five times a week. But I don’t think I’m a good enough climber. But that’s the way I am in everyday life as well. I could be better at cooking, decorating, fashion, my job. I could be a better wife, friend, and so on. Still, I am not giving up my dream of climbing an 8,000-meter peak. But will I make it?”

Mikael:" We need more female explorers"

Wonderfully thrilling! The fact that, in this case, the men reached the top and not the woman is unimportant. What is interesting, however, is her story. This is how tomorrow’s adventurers, when they are documenting expeditions need to be writing. This is how people lecturing should be talking. It’s the drama, the personal commitment we want, not another hero story.

An even better way is to recount the story of someone else; men should take inspiration from the achievement of others and not just try to impress with tales of hardship: We’re bored of it!

I worry that if we don’t change this male-dominated culture, we will see fewer professional adventurers and explorers, because less people will want to read about them. Women, save us from extinction!

Female explorers remember: Anything and everything is possible! We’ve known this for the last 150,000 years, maybe even for the last 3.2 million years, ever since the bipedal Lucy began her well-documented excursion…

Ladies, let us know your thoughts, and guys get tapping too. We are all in this together.

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Mikael Strandberg wrote one article on this blog.

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Mark Pawlak May 12, 2010 at 10:41 am
Yes indeed, Mikael’s onto something here. There never seems to be enough coverage of female explorers.

Or is it there are so few women out there really taking on the extremities and pushing themselves?

We really need to hear more from adventurous women, we know you are out there, probably half way up a mountain right now!

So when you get back to base camp, drop us a comment.
Milbry Polk May 12, 2010 at 11:31 am
Yes there are many women explorers. Many find it difficult to get their voices heard but they are there. Wings WorldQuest is dedicated to women explorers. We now have 60 Fellows who are making important discoveries throughout the world. We have sponsored more than 40 flag expeditions. We have an education program that has reached 40,000 young people to inspire them to get engaged with learning. Exploration is not about the person as much as it is about the quest for knowledge. Check out the website http://www.wingsworldquest.org. Also my book Women of Discovery about 85 women from a dozen cultures who over the last 2000 years made important discoveries through exploration…Milbry Polk
Holly May 12, 2010 at 12:01 pm
We’re all too busy Multi-tasking our challenges & explorations!!!

There are plenty out there giving it a go for women, iv stumbled across one of these in and amongst many climbing websites. And the other a friend of mine told me about.

http://www.chickswithpicks.net/

http://www.lipstickblondes.com/
Mikael Strandberg May 12, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Hi Mark, I am in Kinshasa now after a fantastic journey through Congo. We need to talk!
Luke May 12, 2010 at 1:18 pm
I agree it is not very often you hear about female explorers. However the same can be said about sports, for example you hear about the exploits of Shaun White above those of Torah Bright who won the women’s half pipe gold medal in Vancouver. It is the same in Surfing, Golf, Football, Kitesurfing, Skateboarding etc etc.

The problem is (and this might sound controversial) that if the men and women compete against each other the guys nearly always come first because we are stronger and faster. Take the 100m as an example Usain Bolt’s 100m record is 9.58 seconds but the women’s record by Florence Griffith-Joyner is 10.49 seconds which has been the record since 1988! This is an amazing achievement by Florence but if the men and women raced against each other there would never be any women in the final let alone on the podium.

An example of someone who bucks the trend is Ellen McArthur who is the fastest PERSON to sail single handedly around the world. She gets the recognition she deserves as best in the world, but who remembers the first woman to climb Everest or 5th person to reach the South Pole?

So the problem is the media’s obsession with first, fastest, longest, highest rather than what it takes to get there and how the person is feeling about it regardless of if they achieve it. However perhaps the media obsession mirrors our own as I know I would rather read about the first 1080 Tomahawk rather than the personal fears of whether someone is good enough to do it…. regardless of whether it is male or female.
Mark Pawlak May 12, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Thanks Milbry,

Great to have a comment with such rich information. Anytime you are putting out an expedition let us know. Clearly then the problem is more to do with PR and representation, than it is engagement: Just what we thought.

Mikael has much to say on the role of the explorer, he strongly believes in uniting peoples, and he is always walking the walk, as well as talking the talk.

Thanks,

Mp
Mark Pawlak May 12, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Thanks Holly,

Straight into the bookmarks, thanks for following.

Mp
Lucy May 12, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Absolutely right, the stereotype needs to change! It’s come a long way since the original days of exploration but still hasn’t caught up yet.

I work for BSES (The British Schools Exploring Society ) who take 16-23 year olds to the Arctic, Amazon, Himalayas and desert on 5-12 week expeditions.

When we first established in 1932 BSES only accepted males. Thankfully, times have changed now and in my experience as an Arctic Expedition Leader, the girls often emerge as some of the most determined and positive young explorers.

A few weeks ago, a team of intrepid young explorers set off from London to spend 3 months in the Arctic, in temperatures as low as -25°C. The team is made up of 12 girls who have been marginally outnumbered by 15 boys. Leader-wise we have a good balance with 5 men and 4 women. So the ratio is certainly evening out but we’ve still got work to do!

You can find out more about BSES expeditions at http://www.bses.org.uk and follow the girl’s (and boys) ‘Extreme Arctic’ blog at http://blog.bses.org.uk/ExtremeArctic2010/
Deborah Watson-Novacek December 13, 2010 at 2:23 am
I’m in such agreement with all of the above. The lives of female explorers has been an interest of mine for many years and I’ve been putting together websites to share the information with the world. The hub site at this point is at Female Explorers, and I’ve been building individual sites for various women, such as Harriet Chalmers Adams and Isabella Bird. I’d love to hear from you, and I’ll be posting a link to this article on he Female Explorers site. Thank you for writing this article!
Annie March 19, 2011 at 11:59 pm
Hi all,
Lovely thoughts out there. I actually bumped into this page while searching on how to become an explorer and the things one should need to know. I happen to be an architect and a landscape architect. I’ve always loved to travel and I share this sense of adventure with my mum. She was always fascinated by different people and places. She didn’t get many opportunities to travel but she’s always been fond of reading about other explorer’s adventure stories.
Anyway, I like to challenge myself. I’m a practicing Muslim woman and I plan to become an explorer. I’ll start this journey by going to a motorbike expedition first and then take it from there. I know there can be a lot of hurdles for women but that is the challenge. I’m pretty optimistic.
Mark Pawlak May 13, 2011 at 1:41 am
Hi Annie,

Good luck on your journey, there is a lot of inspiration to be taken from other explorers. I also pick up National Geographic from time to time; the pictures always remind that it’s all out there waiting to be discovered.
Wonnabeadventurecyclist May 13, 2011 at 7:06 am
Maybe us explorer women just don’t feel we need to publicise our adventures? We are happy to get on with our adventures just for ourselves.
Shawna Henderson May 15, 2012 at 2:53 am
Thank you for recognizing a need for more woman into adventure sports. I have been competing and practicing adventure sports through out the world traveling solo. A few wild and crazy accomplishments have been whitewater kayaking in Colombia and Equador, Rock Climbing in Spain, Surfing in Fuerteventura, SCUBA diving in Thailand, Snowboarding in the Alps but the list goes on. Everywhere I go, I love to encourage other woman to get out there and do adventure sports. I believe that woman are not taught from a young age that they should push themselves instead they are just about playing it save. It all goes back to risk – men have big egos where they are excited to prove themselves in these accomplishments, but to me I think it is quite silly. After years of pushing the limits and recognizing calculated risk, you learn to move past the fear and into the flow.

However, being a woman, I always make sure that I keep my sexy side and as you can see on my website – adventure is sexy!
Mark Pawlak May 15, 2012 at 9:25 am
HI,

Yes, we so no need to separate the sexes at any point when talking about adventure. It’s all about the attitude and the love of the challenge.

And frankly bragging about strength, speed etc will just send us to sleep. The real challenge as a writer is to try to encapsulate what it feels like to be on top of a hill, not how long it took you to climb it!

Thanks for commenting, all out latest post and blogs get featured on our Facebook page, maybe see you there!

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Can female explorers save us from extinction?

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