Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
expeditions as proof that the polar continent and surrounding ocean were being explored,
mapped, and potentially administered. Getting the photographs published and publicized
was a priority for publicly and privately funded expeditions alike. Expedition leaders were
expected to write articles, books, and newspaper stories highlighting their achievements to
domestic and international audiences. Until somewhat eclipsed by space exploration, the
Antarctic was as remote as the Moon for most people, barely visited and barely understood.
The final trend worth noting is the Cold War itself. Exploration and discovery became
increasingly politicized in the 1940s and 1950s, especially when the Soviet Union resumed
its interest in the Antarctic. The claimant states, including the United Kingdom and the
largest of the group of seven, Australia, had to come to terms with the fact that previous
episodes of exploration and discovery did not guarantee claims to ownership. The decision
of the Soviet Union to re-activate its Antarctic interests in the run-up to the IGY effectively
ensured the unsettling of the territorial
status quo
. In January 1958, recognizing that the
Soviet Union gendered, racialized, nationalized, and civilized. st
Gendering discovery (c.
18th century onwards)
Thus far, all the acts of discovery carried out in the Antarctic were by men, and in the main,
men from the Euro-American world. In her delightful short story Sur, the American writer
Ursula Le Guin constructs a counter-factual history of Antarctica. She posits the idea that
the South Pole was actually discovered by a group of South American grandmothers who
arrive some months before any male explorers, including Amundsen and Scott. Their voyage
is not premised on conquest, national prestige, and/or a race to some geographical point. In
so doing, she reminds us that the histories of Antarctic discovery and exploration are
gendered, racialized, nationalized, and civilized. The Antarctic performs as a kind of
fantasy space for white European men, in particular, to perform 'firsts' and record their
'achievements' in the name of national and individual power. In The Left Hand of Darkness,
involving a black man and an androgynous extra-terrestrial pulling Scott's sledge across a
planet called 'winter', Le Guin asks us to mull over what difference it might make to the
history of polar exploration if the protagonists were not assumed to be white, male, and,
almost certainly, heterosexual.
Women were not encouraged for a variety of reasons, including a perceived lack of physical
endurance. Expedition leaders and their managers also expressed concern that women
might unsettle the routine of base life and expect separate sleeping and toilet facilities. The
routine and rhythm of the intensely homo-social life of the Antarctic base faced a gendered
assault. The first woman, Caroline Mikkelsen, did not set foot on the Antarctic until
February 1935, and only did so because she was the partner of a Norwegian captain in
command of a whaling vessel. The first women to winter over in the Antarctic were Edith
