of toxic masculinity inflicts upon out-
door winter recreation and on federally
protected lands. As a former ski patrol-
ler in South Lake Tahoe, in California, I
have seen firsthand the damage wrought
by people who seek to imitate charac-
ters such as Lesh. This season alone,
thousands have visited our local back-
country ski area, mimicking the dare-
devil behavior that they have seen online.
This often results in dangerous rescue
missions, which put first responders, ski
patrols, other outdoor enthusiasts, and
the ecosystem itself at risk. It also drains
financial resources from our rural com-
munity, which is already at a breaking
point because of COVID-19. I worry that
this article, by focussing primarily on the
story of an irreverent bad boy, only gives
Lesh more of the attention he craves,
without delving into safety issues and
environmental concerns.
Christina Cataldo
New York City
1
BEGIN AGAINI was struck by Margaret Talbot’s piece
about learning new skills as an adult
(Books, January 18th). After signing up,
on a whim, for an art class at the age of
sixty-seven, I was astonished to discover
that I have some artistic aptitude. More
important, as I pursued art classes and
started learning the body-movement
practice of Qigong, I found that my at-
titude toward learning was very differ-
ent from what it had been when I was
young. I am much more patient, fortified
by the knowledge that struggling to
learn new things is just what my senior
brain needs to remain fit. But, to be per-
fectly honest, learning to read music was
too much—I gave that up after my four-
month clarinet rental ended.
Gail Cooper
Oakland, Calif.WORKING WOMEN
It was this historian’s pleasure to follow
Jill Lepore as she showed how the mean-
ing of work has changed over time (A
Critic at Large, January 18th). She notes
that feminists in the nineteen-seventies
called for the recognition of housework
as work. In fact, there was considerable
debate within the women’s movement
about demanding wages for housework.
While we acknowledged the value of
housework, many of us worried that get-
ting paid for it would lock women into
domestic labor, instead of expanding
our access to all forms of paid work.
Although wages for housework did
not become widely adopted, fears about
the siloing of women’s labor have been
borne out. The paid labor force has be-
come more gender-diverse, but women
still perform the bulk of housework,
whether unpaid in their own homes or
as the majority of the “eighty per cent
of U.S. employment... in the service
sector” that Lepore mentions. Many
of these women hold jobs as cleaners,
cooks, and food-service workers, and
increasingly as caregivers. This work
is among the lowest paid in the U.S.,
and, because it often entails proximity
to other people, it puts millions at in-
creased risk of contracting COVID-19.
Let us hope that caregiving and service
work will lose their historically close as-
sociation with women and that contin-
ued awareness and activism will bring
recognition, as well as wage equality, to
workers in this sector.
Sonya Michel
Professor Emerita of History
University of Maryland, College Park
Silver Spring, Md.
1
WILDERNESS PROTECTION
Nick Paumgarten, in his profile of the
sportswear maker and “Rocky Moun-
tain pariah” David Lesh, portrays Lesh
as an outlaw freestyle skier whose antics
have led to personal legal troubles (“Bad
Influencer,” January 18th). The article
doesn’t reckon as fully as I would have
hoped with the harm that Lesh’s brand
•
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