Wednesday, June 23, 2004
OUTSIDE magazine: well isnt it like them putting Alex Lowe on the cover and touting him as the world's greatest mountaineer? OUTSIDE panders to a 90%+ Anglo-Saxon American base of readers and is probably enslaved to the idea that readers are only interested in reading about American mountaineers, or for that matter, just Americans. How often is a non-American featured on the cover? Or a non-Caucasian?
Adventures in OUTSIDE feature 99% of the time stories of Anglo-Americans doing their thing in other people's countries. How often do you get perspectives of how the ' natives' think about their own adventures or their own abilities in doing these adventures?
They commoditise adventure and the outdoors through gear advertising, superbly detailed trip reports and Best of the World type features. For those fed on this diet, for example, Nepal probably means nothing more than: Mt Everest, Ama Dablam, The Everest and Annapurna Basecamp/circuit treks and some white water rafting.
People like the idea of superlatives, editors, even more so. By reducing countries' adventure attractions to the 'best of', you get the nearest form of adventure package holiday mentality that you can buy.
If you can digest OUTSIDE with this meta-frame, it isnt too bad. But, IMO, the mag is written with the above-mentioned frame in mind.
Off my soapbox
PS; ANyone seen or read issues of THE ALPINIST? It's a pricy , large format magazine which focuses on the best achievements, photos and writing on modern mountaineering. Great breath of fresh air
Adventures in OUTSIDE feature 99% of the time stories of Anglo-Americans doing their thing in other people's countries. How often do you get perspectives of how the ' natives' think about their own adventures or their own abilities in doing these adventures?
They commoditise adventure and the outdoors through gear advertising, superbly detailed trip reports and Best of the World type features. For those fed on this diet, for example, Nepal probably means nothing more than: Mt Everest, Ama Dablam, The Everest and Annapurna Basecamp/circuit treks and some white water rafting.
People like the idea of superlatives, editors, even more so. By reducing countries' adventure attractions to the 'best of', you get the nearest form of adventure package holiday mentality that you can buy.
If you can digest OUTSIDE with this meta-frame, it isnt too bad. But, IMO, the mag is written with the above-mentioned frame in mind.
Off my soapbox
PS; ANyone seen or read issues of THE ALPINIST? It's a pricy , large format magazine which focuses on the best achievements, photos and writing on modern mountaineering. Great breath of fresh air
