Arriving at Banff I was wondering whether the nature surrounding the area would hold any gender from its connection to the town and the Center. Walking through the paths however, there are only small indications of human interaction, old fire pits, worn paths, the occasional insertion of man made art using foreign objects and pieces of nature. Most of my surroundings in those forests are completely wild, allowing a genderlessness that comes from lack of social context.
Some small gendering happens with stories of the wildlife in the area, a young mother elk was living in the woods while I was a the center, something we were to watch out for because she would defend her young. This strong motherly dominance shows a female strength that is often missing in human gendering – a mother while strong, must be a role model, a calm and understanding figure.
From that point I realized that any gender I put on to the space was just that – my own assertion of a gender, my own influence labelling the space. The trees are tall and erect, but not masculine, despite mimicking the masculine body. The mountains like breasts, crevices like vaginas, but shape does not specify gender. The nature itself was truly gender neutral. The only true hints of gender came in through human made objects or interference with nature. Small permeations of socially constructed gender extend from the Banff Centre, but diminish as you enter the forested areas, away from the town.
It seems strange to me that I can see the construction of gender and sexuality so clearly in this place, but the juxtaposition of the tourist town and the wild nature accentuates the amount of gender and sexuality within society. New York had much more than Banff because of the confined space and the mass of identities, but it didn’t seem as noticeable as here in Banff, next to nature.
