In response to Mr. Cox's column on Tuesday, I think I speak on behalf of most people when I ask if he has ever been camping, and how many women, let alone girlfriends, has he known?
As a female leader for the Travel and Recreation Program, I can vouch that more than half of our participants are females. We get a variety of experience and comfort levels, but I have never encountered a girl who packed makeup or a hair dryer. All of these girls practice "leave no trace" on our trips, which means cat holes instead of porcelain toilets, drinking dishwater instead of appletinis and wearing one non-designer outfit for the entire weekend. It also so happens that more than half of the leaders for our organization are women.
For our leaders, building a primitive shelter from available materials, hauling a 40-pound pack up a 6,000-foot peak, and orienteering with a map and compass are second nature. Mr. Cox objectified women and nature. This disappoints me from one anthropology major to another. Mr. Cox's representation of outdoorsy men as cavemen was equally narrow.
Most people who truly appreciate the outdoors do not get away for a weekend to start a drunken brawl or forest fire. Getting back to nature and away from the constraints of our society is an essential experience, but women deserve to make that decision for themselves without being coerced or judged.
I'm going to make an assumption that Mr. Cox's idea of getting back to nature is a weekend sleeping 20 feet from his car at Ginnie Springs with a 24-pack. So I invite Mr. Cox or any guy who thinks women aren't cut out for the wilderness to come on one of our trips.
