
Originally Posted by
auvgeek
It's also *possible* these comments were made in attempt to help her succeed in the future. I don't think they reek of either bias or sexism without more context. And since we weren't there, we just don't know.
Let's put aside the fact that it was Gleich and consider a scenario with an imaginary male participant: Imagine you're an Avy3 instructor and a male ski model turned pro skier with a huge social media following and impressive ski resume takes your class and is pretty incompetent/unprepared and simultaneously vocal and also defensive about his skills? Wouldn't you at least *want* to say something to get the person to look inward and change the way he approaches the mountains so he can stay safe and be more prepared to pass in the future? Wouldn't you want to say something like
And none of those comments would come from a place of sexism or even resentment.
It also seems the guide comment got blown out of proportion -- if someone primarily gets out with people more experienced than him/herself, regardless of whether those people are guides or friends, he/she might have a fair number of accomplishments to his/her name without the knowledge/skills to do them solo. I think that's the point the instructor was trying to make. There's a big difference between skiing something (or climbing or anything outside) where you are the leader versus when someone else is the leader.
Note: I know myself well enough to understand that I'm not a very politically correct person, I don't like to sugar coat things, and I'm also not an experienced instructor/educator, so I would discuss with others (especially my wife) exactly how I gave that sort feedback so it would be well received and not dismissed as some sort of bias. I'd certainly avoid giving feedback that stated or implied the person had hired a guide or gotten out with more experienced people in the past because it's irrelevant, even if I had first-hand knowledge that it was true.
Again, I don't know Gleich's ski resume (and I certainly don't know her personally), so I'm not trying to say she hasn't skied major stuff solo or as the leader. Obviously, it was stupid to put those things in writing, but if she was as incompetent or unprepared as telefreewasatch says, it's possible they were just trying to get her to change her perspective and gain more experience so she is more prepared for her next class.
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All that said, sexism is huge in the backcountry. My wife experiences it routinely where she's the most educated person in the group (has her Avy 1-3, has pro-patrolled, assistant guided, etc), but she's ignored because she's the girl in a group of guys. And when she finally speaks up enough to be heard, she (understandably) comes across as pushy. When you're being ignored, it's near impossible to get people to listen and simultaneously not come across as pushy. It doesn't help that she's been injured lately, and people often mistakenly associate competence in decision making (weather, navigation, snow science, etc) with fitness and skiing ability.
PS. Gosh, it would be nice if english had a gender-neutral pronoun.
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