Stop Telling Women to Fear Nature

Seriously. Stop It.

I was recently in wine country, California for a bachelorette party. Our Airbnb was pretty secluded -- a little over 5 miles up a hilly, windy, wooded road that ended in a half mile long driveway that 2 Uber drivers refused to go down because it was "too sketchy" for them to drive for some reason (true story... despite the fact that 3 of us made that drive in rental cars without hesitation, they both made us get out of their car and walk the rest of the way home). Our first night out on the town, we called 2 Ubers (separate from the aforementioned weenies). All 11 of us were dressed according to the night's theme ("sluts"), and I was excited to get into the car of the woman with the cowboy hat. I thought it was going to be a fun, girly pop vibe.

Instead, she spent the whole ride into town lecturing us about the dangers of us city girls getting an Airbnb in rural California because of the scary wildlife. "We have mountain lions and black bears here," she warned. "Don't squat to pee because the mountain lions will hop the fence and attack you." (I am not paraphrasing or exaggerating; that is a direct quote.) Now, she's not incorrect that crouching will trigger a predatory response from an aggressive mountain lion; however, the insinuation that mountain lions are lurking just beyond our line of sight, waiting for women to pee so they can attack us, is insane. More than that, it's insulting. The baseline assumption was that we -- scantily-clad, feminine-forward young women -- had never spent any time in outdoor settings that may include black bears or mountain lions. She may have grown up in the area, but I've peed in mountain lion territory a pretty large number of times, and I have yet to be attacked because of it, and I'm positive that she doesn't know anybody that that's happened to, either. And I know I'm just guessing here, but I have my doubts that she's giving the same spiel to men.

Understandably, several of the women were a little nervous about Brenda's warnings. When we got out of the car, I felt compelled to tell everybody that we are not, in fact, imminently in danger of getting attacked by wildlife, even though it's out here. All weekend long, I stewed over what she had said, why she had felt it necessary to talk to us that way, and how many other car-fuls of women she had fearmongered.

And I realized the primary reason it bothered me: it perpetuates this gender-targeted fear of spending time in nature.

I'm not saying that nature isn't dangerous. Obviously there are dangers associated with spending time outside. Pretending that you can smile and grit your way through dangerous situations is a bad idea.

But here's the thing:

• Animals actually don't care what gender you are before attacking.

• Most dangerous situations in the backcountry are a result of unpredictable weather conditions or terrains, not encounters with animals or people.

• Men initiate 80% of Search and Rescue calls, partially due to overconfidence in their ability to navigate dangerous situations.

• In Search and Rescue cases, 12% of men end up dead, as opposed to 9% of women, which means that women are more likely to make successful survival decisions.

To paraphrase: women are not inherently in more danger than men when it comes to outdoor recreation, and it's actually men who find themselves in more dangerous scenarios than women.

So... why aren't people warning men about the dangers of spending time in nature?

I'm exhausted of the narrative that women who spend a lot of time recreating outside are brave for doing it. I agree that it takes bravery to quit your job, backpack across the country without knowing anybody else doing it, and embrace the unknown every day. It's brave because it's hard. It's not brave because I'm a woman doing it. I agree that it takes bravery to overcome one's fear of height exposure to climb rocks. It's brave because it's hard. It's not brave because I'm a woman doing it. I agree that it takes bravery to put yourself in uncomfortable situations in the name of personal, physical, and spiritual growth. It's brave because it's hard. It's not brave because I'm a woman doing it. And yet, when I tell people about my thru-hikes, one of the top comments I get is that I have so much courage, while my male counterparts don't get that same response. It's generally expected and accepted for them to do hard things outside.

In the araneology episode of Ologies, one of my favorite podcasts that delves deeply into a myriad of topics with guest experts, Dr. Marhsal Hedin of San Diego State University said that the reason people have such a common fear of spiders, even though there are only a handful of dangerous spiders in the U.S., is because you socially hear about how scary spiders are, even if they're not actually harmful. Most of them are functionally no more dangerous than a ladybug, and yet people are so widely afraid of them. And nobody bats an eye about it because it's so baked into our societal understanding that people should have at least a disgust of and at most a phobia of spiders.

The reason more women aren't out recreating in nature more isn't because we're inherently less prone to enjoying outdoor activities. It's because we keep hearing that we should be afraid of it.

I beg you to stop instilling these fears into the women you know and the girls you are raising.