By Heather Ballek
Originally published on Adirondack Bowhunters and reposted here with permission from the author.
You see it all the time – photos of half-dressed women posing with a fully drawn compound bow, rifle or shotgun on any given social media platform. Sometimes the season is fitting, but other times there is snow on the ground and all you can think is – How are you not freezing?! They are normally the ones who have 5 separate accounts because all of their friend limits are capped. Now, this could easily go in the direction of bashing these sort of women, but I’m going to give this article a twist. I am not a hateful person, nor do I intend to sound like one. After all, don’t the half-dressed already get enough attention? Lets support the real meat takers of the hunting world.
First and foremost, a real female hunter hunts. They look forward to the hunting seasons, they plan their days accordingly and they actually go out to their hunting spot and hunt. It is really as simple as that. As hunters, we participate in this sport for our own reasons. Some people strictly do it for the meat, others hunt just to get out of the house and experience nature. A little stress relief goes a long way in this world and being in the outdoors is a necessity for some to remain in touch with their sanity. Hunting is a part of us all, it was at the beginning and it is now. A real female hunter looks past all the social pressure of how a woman “should” be like, and does what her heart (and brain) tells her to do – hunt.
Real female hunters don’t look for attention of the wrong kind – they just want respect. A private message that starts off with something like “hello sexy girl” is a major turn-off. Yes, I did just type that verbatim from a message I received within the past two minutes. Also, you can’t forget the persistent guy who after the first attempt of “hello” doesn’t work, continues with “hi”. And when “hi” doesn’t get a response, the onslaught of messages emerge, “how are you” “hello?” “what color panties do you wear?” “hello?” “hey”. A real female hunter wants a conversation that revolves more around a shared passion of hunting rather than a mindless conversation about herself and the color of her undergarments. She wants to hear that the last kill she harvested was a stunning beast of a trophy! She wants to share recipes and swap stories. She does not want to get in bed with you.
A real female hunter hunts because they want to, not because everyone else likes it. This hunter looks forward to the season all-year round, excited like a child when Christmas finally shows. She’s got her backpack filled with everything she needs, she’s prepared to conquer her first kill of the season and she can’t wait to reconnect with the world in a way she wishes she could spend every moment of her life doing. She may be a bit downhearted when she is insulted for participating in a sport that she loves, but she is not turned away from it. It is a passion that can not easily be broken with the insults of ignorant spectators. A real female hunter looks forward to the hunt, not the attention a hunt can bring.
There are vast differences between the fake and the real female hunter, but please don’t get me wrong; Hunters are hunters – female, male, and of every sort of ethnicity. There are already enough misunderstandings in the world concerning our sport that there should never be any hate within it. However, I think most of us can agree that the real female hunter deserves a spotlight in a male-dominated industry where she is otherwise hidden.
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