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Paper short abstract

In Western culture, walking alone in nature, framed as masculine, was historically denied to women. This paper evokes the feminist potential of solitary forest walks and, through the artistic practices of Eva Vēvere and Anna Maskava, explores the concept of feral intimacy.

Paper long abstract

In Western culture, forests are gendered. They are perceived as feminine, yet simultaneously regarded as spaces unsuitable for women, at least for the culturally constructed femininity associated with domesticity, fragility, softness and passivity. Walking alone, especially in the forest, is a gendered activity too: the experience of “raw” nature has traditionally been framed as masculine and reserved for men.

Women’s walking has long been subject to restriction. Leisure activities performed alone were denied to women, who were encouraged to stay indoors or risk being considered outlaws [1]. Can forest walks be perceived as a feminist act that unsettles traditional notions of domesticated femininity?

This paper develops its theoretical reflection through contemporary art, focusing on how solitary forest walks by women are represented in the works of Latvian artists Eva Vēvere and Anna Maskava. These depictions engender unruly feminine subjects who resist cultural definitions of the “clean and proper” identity. Being alone in the forest fosters a distinctive affective relationship with the environment, which I conceptualize as feral intimacy: a tender, sensual, and immersive attunement to the forest’s atmosphere with disruptive, transformative effects. Feral intimacy destabilizes gendered perceptions and resonates with the role of forests in Latvian culture as spaces of refuge and resistance. The forest walk emerges as a threshold, experienced viscerally and aesthetically, enabling feminist agency grounded in autonomy and self-reflection.

[1] Bannett, Nina. “Embedded Narratives: Female Critics, Autotheory, and Solitary Walking in the Twenty-First Century.” Women’s Studies, vol. 53, no. 7, 2024, pp. 770–82. doi:10.1080/00497878.2024.2381804.