I thought I signed up for Writing, not Women's Studies
I submitted an abridged and proofread version of Every day a little closer for the Travel Writing portion of my correspondence writing class, and I got a 70%. Aside from my prof's comment that she couldn't understand why I would set off to climb Kilimanjaro from Tanzania instead of Kenya (she's not a geography professor, she's a history professor, like that's any excuse), the comment that really struck me was that she wanted to know why I didn't explore how climbing Kili made me feel as a woman. See, I explored how it felt as a person.
Why must my writing reflect the fact that I have ovaries? Why must my experience climbing one of the seven summits be defined by my gender? Why must the two be related? No one has ever asked Mike what it felt like to be a man climbing a mountain. Does climbing mountains come somewhat naturally to men, and not to women? (Anecdotal point: All of the people I saw being hauled down the mountain after succumbing to altitude sickness were men.)
Why is the adjective necessary? How exactly does it serve to empower me to constantly refer to myself as a female student, a woman copy-editor, or a girl wonder?
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