A Brief Look at Gender and Race in Camp Culture
I recently left my job with a nonprofit organization that is still doing impactful work in many facets of youth development. In this article I focus on the summer camp culture as it is from that program the organization made its model. Nonprofit youth development agencies develop children and young adults through the programs they host and their introduction to the workforce. There is little division between “camp culture” experienced by the served youth and the young adults facilitating. Many agencies, including this one, retain staff by drawing from the camper population, the ultimate goal being that you eventually become staff. Both children and adults experience the effects of gender, while adults can observe the hierarchy and division of labor behind the proverbial curtain, the children experience the same reinforced stereotypes and dress codes, as a incredibly impressionable population.The fear of branching outside the gender binary is a result of the long history of gender roles in summer camps, and a reluctance to challenge the status quo. However, it is essential to recognize that this culture of assimilation is oppressive and damaging, and that it is necessary to make changes in order to create a more equitable and inclusive environment for all campers.
Summer camps traditionally employ people with a long relationship with the social group, those who are embedded in the culture. Dr. Penny Harvey is one of very few that have decided to study the phenomenon of American camp culture and her work has shed light on the history and evolution of camp culture in the United States. Dr. Harvey conducted an in-depth qualitative study by interviewing former campers and observing a particular summer camp. She gathered detailed information about the campers’ experiences, which he used to gain a better understanding of the camp’s atmosphere and culture.Camp culture is created in repetition routines that will become the campers reality, “at summer camp culture is created out of cumulative and repeated interactions that create greater and symbolic meanings.” (Harvey,5) Harvey draws upon the work of renowned sociologists such as Mills, Mead, Simmel and Hall to explore the intricate details of camp culture and its importance. According to the research of Simmel (1997), there are two types of symbolic culture, subjective and objective. Objective culture is outside of one’s control and subjective culture is the ability to embrace it, and these cultures need to interact (Harvey, 5). What are the implications of summer camp culture? Not only do campers and staff learn to follow the rules, routines, and rituals of the camp, but they also learn how to interact, dress, speak, and think in a way that is reflective of the camp’s culture. This can have a lasting impact on the campers and staff, as they take the values and lessons learned at camp with them into their future lives. The campers will learn what behaviors are acceptable in this environment and how to navigate their interactions with adults.
Hierarchies are systems of organization in which items are arranged in order of importance or rank. They are commonly used in business, government, and other organizations to structure and manage relationships between people and resources.We know sex differences in income are largely due to the occupational and hierarchical segregation of women into lower-paying positions, while simultaneously relying on their contributions for the progression of the organization. The same is true in this, as well as many other, nonprofit organizations. The hierarchy this organization follows, places one white man on top, below his position, most other senior management positions are held by women, majority white women. The man in the executive position has no college degree or relevant certifications, the same is not true for the women working beneath him. Despite holding senior management roles in the organization, each of these women have taken on the extra responsibilities of managing the executive director; completing tasks such as taking minutes in his meetings, organizing his documentation and even keeping track of the keys to his office.
Traditionally, camps adhere to American society gender roles, everything from housing to programming is split by gender. The traditional summer camp will display a strict adherence to the white cultures’ gender binary The white idea of the gender binary is centered around the male sex and masculine gender, in fact its wasn’t until 1815 that the female sex was even recognized, before female genitalia was considered an inverted penis. (Soble, 3) In nearly all summer camps, housing is split into boys and girls, male and females, very obviously disregarding any other gender identity. This isolates gender queer campers and creates a potentially unsafe environment. Bunks are organized the same way, female campers spend their days with other female campers, participating in activities the programmer assumed the girls would like to do. Camp staff often find themselves making assumptions based on gender when creating programs, what girls like to do and what boys like to do are wildly different. Not only does this limit the exploration for those campers identifying with one of the two binary genders, but it completely disregards those outside. In this, we reinforce gender stereotypes to children and frame it as reality, we see it when staff interact with campers.Young men, and particularly young men of color, are spoken to harshly and are more likely to receive “tough love” as a form of discipline than female presenting campers. It is also important to note that these gendered expectations are compounded when the program maintains a relationship in a school, institutions with a long history of setting these expectations as a means of social control.
Campers will also experience gender differences in their interactions with the staff. Girls and boys are required to follow a dress code for modesty at almost all summer camps, however dress codes are targeted at female bodies. Women and girls, as wells as feminine presenting gender nonconforming people, within the camp culture are disproportionately disciplined for violations of dress code,especially young women of color and girls that developed earlier are sexualized and reprimanded for their wardrobe. It is the staff that is not only encouraged to make those assumptions but trained to do so. Again, this mirrors a similar experience had by children and young adults in school.
This culture of assimilation is rooted in white supremacy, which is often hidden beneath the surface. By perpetuating this culture, summer camps are reinforcing systemic racism, sexism and inequalityThere is a fear often discussed amongst leaders in the field of camping, of branching outside the gender binary because of the long history of gender in summer camps, and a reluctance to change.
References:
Harvey, Penny. “‘It’s Camp’: Summer Camp Culture, the Renegotiation of Social Norms and Regulation of Gender and Sexuality.” ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University, https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_theses/70/.
Jaffee, David. “Gender Inequality in Workplace Autonomy and Authority’’*.” Social Science Quarterly , vol. 70, no. 2.
