Embodied Causes: Climbing, Charity, and ‘Celanthropy’

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    Abstract

    Women have played significant roles in the emergence of the charity climbing expedition. This study maps key selective historical developments in the evolution of humanitarian, philanthropic, and charitable works involving the climbing community from the 1960s to the present and the formation of the ‘climbing-charity-corporate-complex’. In this process some climbers have evolved into ‘celanthropists’, celebrity philanthropists as the sociologist Chris Rojek has employed the term. Celanthropists are individuals who have come to public prominence on behalf of charitable causes through brand endorsement and philanthropic activisms. Focusing on a range of prominent British women who have climbed Everest, including Rebecca Stephens, Annabelle Bond, and retired Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton, reveals the forms of emotional and embodied labour that have been essential to their ability to climb for a cause and their subsequent heroic reception as celanthropists. Their cases raise important questions concerning the gendering of ‘physical philanthropy’ and the nature of post-feminism in sport in its treatment of female individualism and the historically resilient ambivalences afforded to women’s climbing achievements.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)709-726
    JournalThe International Journal of the History of Sport
    Volume37
    Issue number9
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 16 Jul 2020

    Bibliographical note

    This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in The International Journal of the History of Sport on 16/7/2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09523367.2020.1783250

    Keywords

    • high-altitude mountaineering
    • celebrity
    • charity
    • post-feminism
    • Everest
    • High-altitude mountaineering

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