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Mireya Mayor is an astonishing, inspirational woman who has done some amazing things in her adventures around the globe. She's a Fulbright scholar, she's a National Science Foundation Fellow, she has a Ph.D. from Stony Brook, she discovered a new species of mouse lemur and she even worked with the government in Madagascar to create a National Park to protect the mouse lemur's habitat. Impressive. In an age of tell-alls and TMZ, Mayor shows remarkable restraint in what she chooses to reveal about her personal life. I loved that, too. I loved the simple and limited way she describes meeting and falling in love with her husband (as well as what she tells, which isn't much, about the circumstances of their meeting and their romance). And so began our lifelong friendship. I soon found myself hanging out less with friends, opting instead to spend hours in her office. One of her most memorable trips was to Madagascar, where she and a colleague were studying lemurs. They set small mammal traps in the jungle to study the other wildlife in the area.
The writing was therefore better than expected, though not great. It's conversational, but so much is left out! As other Goodreads reviewers have noted, she starts a story, gets to the climax, and then ends it. The example someone else has given of hanging off a mountainside and noticing that her rope was fraying, and then suddenly she's at the top of the mountain, is typical. I was surprised to find that the book really isn't about her metaphorical 'journey' from cheerleader to National Geographic explorer. It's much more about her actual journeys into jungles and rain forests and deserts. It touches briefly on being a cheerleader and then applying to go on an expedition. That's about it for the metaphorical journey.
OOPS!
On a related note, did you know that cheerleaders have their own competitions where contestants are judged based on various attributes, such as dancing, stunting, tumbling, etc.? Well, the life of a cheerleader isn’t as easy as you think. The One Where the Male Cheerleader Looks like He Is Focussing at the Wrong Place or the Wrong Bodypart While I was in college, I was an NFL cheerleader for the Miami Dolphins," Mireya Mayor says. "I took this anthropology class really by accident, because I had to take a science requirement. I was on a very different path to becoming a lawyer." During the anthropology course, Mayor says she found a new passion. So she headed straight to the field, signing up for a research trip to Guyana in South America. Perhaps out in the jungle of Madagascar, there would be nobody to judge her except for the lemurs. Unfortunately, this attitude existed even in the field both among researchers and among TV crews: Of course, books like Bonobo Handshake and Pink Boots and a Machete aren't really like The Jungle Book at all, and that's a good thing. Not only do they contain a strong narrative and interesting characters, but science is central in these books (sometimes, science is even a character itself, in some ways).
Mireya is the kind of role model for me and for women & girls across the world. She is not your stereotypical explorer and she's not ashamed that she loves "girlie" things. She's always loved animals and dreamed of exploring in the jungle one day. She becomes an NFL cheerleader (which will always be brought up in regards to her career) and later goes on to get an anthropology degree, explore across the world, become a National Geographic host, and to earn her Ph.D. Here's an excerpt from one: "the show can't decide whether to treat Mayor as an expert, or as the title and location hint, a bit of a sex symbol." He then added, "But throughout the show she wears a wool cap and drab clothes that just beg us to take her seriously." This was in contrast to the observation of another critic, who wrote, "Explorers require rugged gear, the sort Indiana Jones girds himself in. Then there's Mireya Mayor, a sexy blond explorer. She fills out a tank top nicely." I can't win. If I wear tank tops, I'm vying for attention. If I cover up, it's only because I want to be taken seriously. Regardless, the first critic lost all credibility when he called my clothes drab. They were both hip and designer. The writing style bothered me, though. It was too conversational for my taste, the narration was disjointed, and everything seemed too rushed. Not long after an animal was introduced, the narration was rushing on to the next animal or next adventure. I wanted more closures rather than just glances. And the constant reminder that she was a cheerleader got to be a bit annoying.I was thrilled to receive a signed copy of this memoir by the author. The following is my honest review after reading the book. Mayor says it looked similar to known species of mouse lemur, but there was something different about the one she caught. The Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad is one of the oldest as well as one of the most popular in the world. The squad debuted in 1960 and has appeared on several TV shows since then. In this picture, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader in the frame looks both surprised as well as happy — she is certainly enjoying the attention she is getting but she shouldn’t be so happy considering the team she is cheerleading for has just had a mishap. This picture also proves that cheerleading is not always a fun sport, sometimes it can turn dangerous too. Thankfully, this cheerleader here is okay but her reaction is certainly funny. Great Abs but That Cheerleading Face Needs Some Work Time for another cheerleading fact: While Princeton was the first university to enjoy cheers from the stands, the University of Minnesota gets the credit for having the very first cheerleader who directed the crowd. In 1923, the Uniiversity of Minnesota also became the first university to allow women to participate in the sports. The Guy with Too Much Spirit Time for another fun fact: It was only in the 1950s that professional sports team began employing cheerleader squads and Baltimore Colts was the first NFL team to have a cheerleading team. A Cheer Pyramid Gone Wrong
I swear at times while reading this book, I could almost smell a marketing-oriented ghostwriter. Or maybe an editor who went way too far in messing with the voice. Because seriously, did she really, only shortly after surviving a near-death encounter with a frayed rope, look down at her fingers and notice that she needed a manicure? ("I was scared and excited but still noticed how grimy my nails were. No question, I needed a manicure."[187]) This book is peppered with these beauty/fashionista/Cheerleader reminders and more often than not, they seem really out of place.
Mayor has a theory about gorilla social hierarchy that is somewhat unorthodox, based on past scientific observation: "... the prevailing thought has been that female gorillas are, without question, the weaker sex, forced to play by the rules. At least, that is what researchers had been reporting for decades, However, most of those researchers were male." Mayor posits that perhaps it is the females who actually have the power. Why would this not have merit? After all, how many researchers have defaulted to a male perspective without noticing, even the women? (I am referring here to the stereotypical male perspective, as I believe gender to be more of a spectrum.) Many of the scientists and animal species mentioned in the book are familiar to me, although the fossa, a cat-like carnivore related to the mongoose family was a new one...it is such an odd looking creature with similarities to a cat, but with a long lean body. A picture is worth a thousand words and the right picture is worth a million. The man behind the lens must be applauded for pressing the capture button at the right moment — this photo was taken right at the moment the cheerleader realized things aren’t going her way and she probably will fall. We feel bad for her, but the dread on her face makes the picture hilarious. This photograph takes during a competition and if that’s true, I am sure the fall didn’t do the cheerleader any good. The One with Too Much Going on in One Picture I love all the questions this brings to mind for me about cultural and environmental impact of scientific exploration, and the funding of scientific exploration, and the role of the entertainment industry in funding and in raising awareness. The minimum-impact camper in me screams at the idea of traveling with all those porters. But the minimum-impact camper in me has never tried to spend weeks living among gorillas or climb cliffs few people have climbed.
And then there's the fact that the narrative itself is very choppy. Here's the near-death frayed rope experience as an example: Cheerleaders are physically fit and can dance well. More importantly, they must necessarily also have spunk and spirit. However, when it comes to cheerleading, is there is a thing as too much spirit? Well, the man in this picture makes us believe it is quite possible. His high spirit may have led to one embarrassing photo but we certainly think too much spirit is better than having no spirit at all. Oh No, I Am Gonna Fall! Mireya Mayor is a primatologist, an explorer and the first female wildlife correspondent for the Ultimate Explorer series on National Geographic Channel. It was just this beautiful, natural, green abyss of impenetrable forest," she says. "Monkeys jumping everywhere and macaws flying overhead, and we would park this canoe at night on the side of the riverbank, climb out and basically machete our way in."
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If there is one central theme of the book, it it this: that this sort of juxtaposition that many might find strange or odd - the mixture of the stereotypically feminine and the stereotypically masculine - is, well, not that strange or odd at all.
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