What would happen if Mr. McCandless was Miss McCandless? Due to gender socialization, women are discouraged from doing anything adventurous because it could harm us. We are constantly told that we should never walk alone at night. We've all heard the saying that "women can't even go to the bathroom alone." What makes you think it would be acceptable, even plausible, for a woman to do what McCandless did? We carry pepper spray, courtesy of our prudent aunt, on our walk from work to our car at closing time. Now think about the reaction I would have if I told my family that I wanted to take a trip across the country alone. They would give me a resounding no. It's not because they don't trust me, they don't trust the way women traveling alone are perceived; vulnerable, easy prey, helpless, etc. They would worry about me constantly, almost to the point of illness. Indeed, we are all taught, through gender socialization, that women are weak individuals who can be preyed upon at any time. Even if a woman did exactly what Chris did throughout his journey, more people would come up to her asking what she was doing on her own and many more stories of attempted rape. There would be no other adventurer to compare her journey to like Krakauer did with McCandless. Miss McCandless' disappearance would not have made national news. It would probably boil down to a little piece about how a young girl died in Alaska because of a stupid argument with her family. This would not have become the well-known story that is talked about in classrooms across the country. There would be no story to write a classic men's adventure book about. This is what gender socialization does to the feminine gender: it erases us and our achievements, and even our