REIMAGINING BELONGING: THE RHETORIC OF NATURE AND BODIES IN OUTSIDE MAGAZINE AND UNLIKELY HIKERS

Author

• India Hagen-Gates, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2026

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Communication Studies

First Advisor

Gray, Jonathan

Abstract

In this project, I focus on the visual representations of nature and bodies, unpacking rhetoric from different locations. By evaluating the construction of nature and bodies, I can explore how these constructions are self-sustaining, as the construction of nature is created and reified through visual rhetoric, it in turn strengthens the construction of the “natural” or “outdoor” body. In order to explore the constructions of nature and the body, I turn to two collections: Outside magazine and the group Unlikely Hikers. Outside, founded in 1977, is a leading magazine in outdoor recreation, featuring all sorts of activities outdoors including hiking, camping, climbing, and cycling. Unlikely Hikers, created in 2016, is an online community focused on featuring more diverse bodies in outdoor spaces. In Chapter Two, I turn to two theoretical guides: visual rhetoric and body rhetoric. I argue that these two analytical methods can be strengthened by being used together, in one combined method. I approach visual and body rhetoric as constitutive and complex, creating meaning that shapes norms, relationships, and belonging. Chapter Three turns to Outside magazine to examine how its visual and body rhetoric produces and promotes a narrow, aspirational version of the outdoor body. Through close rhetorical analysis of cover images, I name repeated rhetorical strategies as rhetoric of optimization, extremity, and sublime fantasy. This aspirational outdoor body keeps the audience in a state of perpetual and isolated wanting, giving Outside the power to shape who can be imagined as belonging in nature. Chapter Four shifts to Unlikely Hikers, describing and critiquing how they rhetorically construct bodies and nature. I argue Unlikely Hikers uses rhetorical strategies such as rhetoric of joy, community, and difference to rethink society’s accepted norms in nature. Presenting an alternative outdoor body that I theorize as the grounded outdoor body, Unlikely Hikers offers an imagined body and imagined world that invites everyone. Their work continues to challenge the powerful cultural, historical, and political narrative that continues to argue for a narrowly constructed, idealized outdoor body. Simply by visualizing what they want, by imaging and imagining a more inclusive alternative, UH challenges taken for granted, historically accepted, constructions of an outdoor body in nature. Critically analyzing bodies alongside visual rhetoric is crucial to understanding how belonging in nature continues to be a rhetorically contested issue. Sustained attention and pressure in outdoor recreation spaces is needed to avoid discrimination and marginalization given our present political, cultural, and social landscape.