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.

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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.

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