{"id":12155,"date":"2017-05-02T05:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=12155"},"modified":"2025-11-20T18:17:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:17:00","slug":"documentary-about-womens-equality-climbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/climb\/documentary-about-womens-equality-climbing","title":{"rendered":"Within Reach: A Documentary About Women\u2019s Equality in Climbing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019d rather hang out with men than women.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience with other women in the outdoors is that they\u2019re hostile and competitive.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGuys are more relaxed and laid back.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard some iteration of these phrases at least a dozen times from women over the last several years. It\u2019s actually something I would have said myself ten years ago. Growing up as a self-proclaimed tomboy, I didn\u2019t feel uncomfortable in a group of just boys. To be completely honest, I was proud to be the only girl. I wasn\u2019t one of \u201cthose girls\u201d that can\u2019t hang with the boys. I was stronger, braver and cooler\u2014not prone to overreacting, complaining and cattiness, as women are often stereotyped.<\/p>\n

\"Shelma<\/p>\n

But I was wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t better than those women I looked down on and I wasn\u2019t as comfortable as I claimed. I unwittingly reinforced these stereotypes by opposing myself to them. By stating \u201cI\u2019m not catty, I\u2019m cooler than that,\u201d I was reinforcing the female stereotype that women are catty.<\/p>\n

\"Shelma<\/p>\n

And well, the quest to be the \u201ccool girl\u201d also has other costs. If you are trying to show that you are different, that means there is a constant pressure to prove your worth and that you belong. In addition, it fosters an unhealthy sense of competition amongst women. After all, if you\u2019re an anomaly among typical oversensitive, weak women, there can\u2019t be too many of you, right?<\/p>\n

My friend Taylor shared a similar sentiment with me at the first Women\u2019s Climbing Festival in 2016: \u201cIt occurred to me yesterday that I gotten so used to being the only girl in a group of climbers, I didn\u2019t know how that had affected me until now. When you\u2019re the only girl, there\u2019s this pressure. Like you have to try hard to prove yourself as the cool girl. And here\u2014it\u2019s all girls. So I don\u2019t have to try to be anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shelma<\/p>\n

Anything\u2026other than just who I am? I have felt the pressure to assimilate to social norms, often defined by men, in many aspects of my life\u2014at the office, at parties and the gym to name a few. This does not exclude climbing but what I have found in the climbing community is my girl crew.<\/p>\n

Climbing with women allowed me to share empowering and positive experiences with other women. And women-only spaces like the Women\u2019s Climbing Festival provided the chance to have honest discussions about barriers that women face in the outdoors from men, society and themselves.<\/p>\n

\"Shelma<\/p>\n

Once I was able to stop looking at other women through the lens of destructive stereotypes or as the competition, my relationships with women changed into something beautiful, supportive and strong. Women climbing with women isn\u2019t the end-all solution to eradicating sexism. But it is creating an opportunity for us to see that negative social norms and pressures do exist, which make women feel in competition with one another to prove themselves strong enough, good enough, tough enough to hang with men in the outdoors (office, gym, etc).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

I hope that this film and the continuing women\u2019s movement in the outdoors show women that we are already strong, bold, beautiful and capable.<\/p>\n

And we have nothing to prove.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: Learn more about how the co-op is declaring the outdoors the world’s largest level playing field in a movement called\u00a0Force of Nature.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019d rather hang out with men than women.\u201d \u201cMy experience with other women in the outdoors is that they\u2019re hostile and competitive.\u201d \u201cGuys are more relaxed and laid back.\u201d I\u2019ve heard some iteration of these phrases at least a dozen times from women over the last several years. It\u2019s actually something I would have said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[352,733,726,725,651],"internal-tag":[1674],"class_list":["post-12155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climb","tag-climb","tag-co-op-cinema","tag-force-of-nature","tag-video","tag-women","post_format-video","internal-tag-pre-redirect-climb"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/climb\/documentary-about-womens-equality-climbing","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Within Reach: A Documentary About Women\u2019s Equality in Climbing","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/climb\/documentary-about-womens-equality-climbing","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/climb\/documentary-about-womens-equality-climbing"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/03\/E6A7608.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/03\/E6A7608.jpg?fit=2048%2C1365"},"articleSection":"Climb","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Angela Crampton"}],"creator":["Angela Crampton"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["climb","co-op cinema","force of nature","video","women"],"dateCreated":"2017-05-02T12:00:50Z","datePublished":"2017-05-02T12:00:50Z","dateModified":"2025-11-21T02:17:00Z"},"rendered":"