"Been thinking a lot about the romanticization of wilderness, the outdoors and the usual judgement that comes with saying you'd rather not be there.
This idea that we are princesses with no reslience or ability to tough it out just because we don't like the outdoors is so fucked up.
I grew up in poverty with a single mother in one of the world's most classist & racist dictatorships.
I'd like to see y'all survive that with half the equanimity I have.
The ability to enjoy and be in nature actually requires a fair amount of wealth. Access to equipment, training that teaches you to survive the outdoors and the right kind of clothing (which can be highly expensive) etc just requires a whole lot of capital.
A lot of women, POC, queer people etc already live incredibly hard lives. Our everyday lives involve us having to face & survive a whole host of structures that are specifically designed to harm us.
It is a privilege to choose to make your life more difficult by going into the outdoors because you think it's build character and resilience and shit like that.
I'm resilient enough as it is-from just living my life.
For so many people, their lives are that of privilege & wealth. They don't have character or depth and they will in all probability die if they had to live the lives that POC, women and queer pple live. So for them, a few days of roughing it out is probably the closest they will ever be to having anything tough happen to them.
The rest of us don't have that luxury and we shouldn't be judged when we choose to try to make our lives a little easier instead.
I like cities. I like brunch. I like coffee. I also like nature, but in small amounts. And if you're gonna judge me as somehow less than you because I don't want to strap on some boots and be in the freezing cold as some experiment for my character, you can go fuck off."
(Emphasis mine)
