Women Hunters, Part 1: An Ethnographic study

by Jan 23, 2012Uncategorized

Women Hunters, Part 1: An Ethnographic study

A few weeks ago (Jan 12), I posted the beginning of a sentence here as well as on my personal Facebook page. The sentence started: “Women Hunters…” The following are the responses that I got on FB. The picture is of me and my best friend Jodie who is also a hunter.

1. rock!

2. should bring me some meat…

3. Turn me on. (earned 1 like)

4. can climb my tree stand anytime !

5. Are awesome!

6. …are probably not vegetarians (earned 1 like)

7. Get bigger animals than boys do. (earned 1 like)

8. SUCK!!!! Lmao. But I love you!!!!

9. are the same as men hunters

‎10. . . .are a better shot 🙂

11. have pet squirrels.

12. aim to please

13. scare the hell out of me..because they can shoot well ;o

4 of the 13 comments are men (#2, #3, #4 and #13)

To my knowledge, only two are hunters (#1 and #4)

Two are my best friends (#1 and #7)

One is my sister (#9)

One is my pseudo brother (#13)

Things that I noticed:

~ None of the comments made by men are encouraging or positive (although #13 is far better than the others)

~ 2 out of the 4 comments made my men have sexual undertones

~ 2 of the 13 comments have the ‘women are better than men’ tone (#7 and #10)

~ 2 out of 13 hate hunting (#6 and #8)

~ My friends like exclamation points!!!!! =)

Questions:

~ WHY are there ANY comments that have a sexual undertone to them?? I would wager a guess that when I post the second half of this test (men hunters…), no one will make a sexual comment. But why not? Why is it ok to sexualize a woman that hunts but not a man?

~ Will as many people respond? (I will post the ‘men hunters’ this Thursday at 9:16am -same day of the week and time)

~ Why do my FB friends (I currently have 98 and usually keep it around 100), who know I am a hunter, still post comments like this?

And I would love to hear what you all think! I will have 2 more parts with this topic; one after I post the second half with the results and the last one to wrap it up.

0 Comments

You May Also Enjoy…

I’d rather have a coyote

How can you not be excited when you are checking trail cameras? The suspense, the unknowing... one of the first pulls of the season gave us quite a shock. A dog.  A big brown, pit bull looking dog at the Sky Condo. It looks healthy enough but the last thing we...

Back to Baiting

Lance and Lorri putting some bait into an empty bucket The good smelling bait... mmm strawberry I was sure that beaver was the grossest smell ever, but I was so wrong. It is easily rotten lobster bodies - the kind that are put into black trash bags and left out in the...

I am done shooting small bucks

It was an emotional rollercoaster of a season.  All I wanted was an eight point buck.  I will save the story for another time, but it didn’t happen. But what did happen changed my whole perspective on deer hunting. After twenty years of hunting, I am done shooting...

Recent Posts

Meet The Author

Erin Merrill, author of And a Strong Cup of Coffee, is president of Women of the Maine Outdoors, a senior writer for Drury Outdoors, a contributor to the Northwoods Sporting Journal and passionate all things Maine, Hunting, and the Outdoors.

LEARN MORE >>