Survival for Leisure

Stasia Skonberg

Cultural Geography: Dr. Richard Simpson

4/5/21

Response Paper

Survival for Leisure

         In Susan Kollin’s “Survival, Alaska Style,” she explains the hierarchy of outdoor activities among genders and social classes and the explosion of interest of outdoor survival as a leisure activity in our modern society. Through modern times came a large outpouring of reality television depicting people living and surviving in the wilderness for fun. Out of this came a large group of people coming into Alaska for the adventure and putting their lives at risk. Among these people are Timothy Treadwell and Chris Mchandless, two men pushed by the desire for adventure in the “rugged” lands of Alaska.

         Kollin talks about the gendering of nature and how women are less likely to be shown and portrayed in roles of survival among the wilderness because that  is reserved for only the “hypermasculine”. She shows us an example of this in how Treadwell’s female companion was virtually nonexistent in the documentary made about Treadwell, despite being a main contributor to the cause and the bears.